The polity of Sanmalan is a precolonial Philippine state centered on what is now Zamboanga.Reading Song-Ming Records on the Pre-colonial History of the Philippines By Kansai University The capital may have been located in modern-day Zamboanga City, which is part of the ancestral land of the indigenous Subanon people, who were the majority in the Zamboanga peninsula at the time.
It was mentioned in Chinese annals as "Sanmalan" (三麻蘭) and was supposedly ruled over by a Rajah Chulan, who sent the emissary Ali Bakti to the Chinese imperial court in 1011 CE.Filipinos in China Before 1500 By William Henry Scott (Page 4) The tribute presented by Rajah Chulan to the Chinese Emperor included aromatics, dates, glassware, ivory, peaches, refined sugar, and rose- water, which suggests that Sanmalan had trade links into Western Asia.
The later Chinese historical chronicle Zhufan Zhi 諸蕃志 published at 1225; wrote once again about Sanmalan but it was now known as Shahuagong. In contrast to its previous mention as a trade emporium, it became a pirate-state driven by slave raiding.A Chinese Gazetteer of Foreign Lands A new translation of Part 1 of the Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 (1225) By Shao-yun Yang (Department of History, Denison University) October 2, 2022
When the Spanish arrived, they gave protectorate status to the ancient semi-independent Sanmalan which was before them, was previously a protectorate of the Sultanate of Sulu.Origination and Formation of Sulu Sultanate during the 14th Century Southeast Asia By Michael Vincent P. Caceres Under Spanish rule, the location of Sanmalan received Mexican and Peruvian military immigrants."Second Book of the Second Part of the Conquests of the Filipinas Islands, and Chronicle of the Religious of Our Father, St. Augustine" (Zamboanga City History) "He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom." After a rebellion against Spanish rule, the state that replaced Spain and had subsisted on what was once Sanmalan's location, was the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga.
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