13th Century

• Year 1240

  Tuan Masha'ika, an Arab, traveled and introduced Islam to Sulu.
• Historians ascribe the introduction of Islam to the Philippines to Tuan Masha'ika, supposedly an Arab religious leader or missionary, who arrived at Jolo Island in Maimbung and married a daughter of the ruling family. He came at a time when people still worshipped stones and other inanimate objects. The historical account indicates that the descendants of Tuan Masha'ika began to move northward on the Island of Jolo.
• Today, Jolo is a 1st class municipality and capital of Sulu, an autonomous island province of the Philippines located in the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Jolo occupies the middle group of islands of the Sulu Archipelago, between Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.