The Sulu Moros have done the same. They acted independently, but on the same general lines.
The languages of Mindanao and Sulu are members of the general Malayan family of languages, but they differ so much as to render intercourse impracticable without an interpreter. The Moros are several tribes, and each tribe differs as much from the others as the Visayan and the Ilocano and the Igorot tribes differ one from another.
The laws of these tribes are different. They came from similar sources, but they were worked out and compiled separately and independently. The present chapter includes the best official codes of Magindanao and Sulu. The manuscripts themselves are undoubtedly authentic and complete. Every care has been taken to render the translations as accurate and complete and useful as possible.
The Luwaran; or, The Laws of Magindanao
Introduction
The term Luwaran, which the Mindanao Moros apply to their code of law, means “selection” or “selected.” The laws that are embodied in the Luwaran are selections from old Arabic law and were translated and compiled for the guidance and information of the Mindanao datus, judges, and pandita who do not understand Arabic. The Mindanao copies of the Luwaran give no dates at all, and nobody seems to know when this code was made. They say it was prepared by the Mindanao judges some time ago, but none of those judges is known by name. Datu Mastura’s copy of this code was written about 1886, and it is undoubtedly copied from some older manuscript. The original manuscript[1] accompanying this code is older still, but it bears no date at all.
The Arabic books quoted in the Luwaran are Minhāju-l-Ārifeen, Taqreebu-l-Intifā, Fathu-l-Qareeb, and Mirātu-t-Tullāb. The first of these, generally known as the Minhāj, is the chief authority quoted. Datu Ūtū had an old copy of the Minhāj that looked more than two hundred years old. The author of the Minhāj must have lived in the ninth or tenth century. The compilation of the Luwaran must have been made before the middle of the eighteenth century.
Each Mindanao datu is assisted in the administration of justice by a judge and a vizier. The judge is called Datu Kali. The word kali is derived from the Arabic word meaning “judge.” The Datu Kali is the chief pandita of the district and is supposed to be the best-informed man of the community. The pandita is the scholar who can read and write and perform the functions of a priest. The vizier is called “wazir;” he is a pandita, too, and acts in a semijudicial and clerical capacity. Mohammedan law being based on the teachings of the Quran, the chief pandita of the district is naturally regarded as the most competent expounder of the law and the best-fitted person in the community to act as a judge. As the wazir is a pandita, he should be a well-informed and wise man. Some datus are pandita themselves, and some take all matters into their own hands and delegate none of their offices or duties to a judge or a vizier; but this is the exception, not the rule.
In making the Luwaran the Mindanao judges selected such laws as in their judgment suited the conditions and the requirements of order in Mindanao. They used the Arabic text as a basis, but constructed their articles in a concrete form, embodying genuine examples and incidents of common occurrence in Mindanao. In some places they modified the sense of the Arabic so much as to make it agree with the prevailing customs of their country. In a few instances they made new articles which do not exist in Arabic but which conform to the national customs and common practices. The authority of the Luwaran is universally accepted in Mindanao and is held sacred next to that of the Quran. The Mindanao judge is at liberty to use either of them as his authority for the sentence to be rendered, but as a rule a quotation from the Quran bearing on the subject is desirable.