Iiliij Nitumon

IILIIJ NITUMON I I Co ntents RESEARCH pPEgS Gerard Rixhon Tausug Literttire:.. An Overview: Charles 0. Irake How to Entel i Yak;rn House 87 4lexa,I(l(rSofhr: cl)1T)1S1i rn iins in S iilit 105 '1 AUSUG ORAL TRADITIONS Irene Hassan, Selected Tusug Poems• 115 Ric(srdD 4djauiic, andGerai (I Rixhon Irene A:-D id-gci i c Ballad on Marriage (lfl(i Ricardo Adjawie agby Indah A!1nu4. 131 iVIoha?n mad Daud Abdul Sultan Stlayman and umayang and Gerard Rixhon Galura': A Story Told by lmarnlbbalahiIn' 152 Kalbi Asain The Creation of 'PaIay: and itfo/larnrna(l ])and Abdul A Story Tod by Mullung 166 Tuwan IkThli Jamal The Origin di Edible Fruits afl(l 1'Ilo/I(nnma(l l)aud Abdul and Animals Story Narrated by Saluan Piia. 182 Efren Alawi Muriabi: A StOFy Narrated (lfl(l Gerard Rixhon by Mtillung Ir RES EARCH !!.SJ) - -1------- -. -T__________ - - rI.. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This introduction to Tausug Literature, a revised and enlarged version of an earlier paper (Rixhon 1972b), owes much to the assistance given by the following C.I.S.C. researchers to whom I am indebted: Irene Hassan, Rose Marie Adjawie, Mohammad Daud Abdul, Tuwan Ikiali Jamal, and Rowena Bahjin. My gratitude also goes to Yusup Tan for his encouragement, and to Noralyn Mustafa. Young for reading the manuscript and suggesting some corrections. Grateful, acknowledgment is given here to Mouton and Co., The Hague, for permission to reprint materials from the late Arthui J effery's A Reader on Islam, as noted in the present text and to Mrs. Nora M. Mercado for allowing us to- reprint two songs from her thesis. Abdulmari A. Imao, nted Tausug artist and a 1968 T.O.Y.M. awardee, who prepared the cover design and the illustrations, de- serves my thanks. I am also thankful to the Ford Foundation for the Southeast Asia Research Fellowship grant that allowed me to develop this study through researches both here and abroad and to contact an- thropologists who shared their expertise with me. 'Among them, I would like to thank particularly Alexander and Anne Spoehr of the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, William Geoghegan, Robert and Nancy Randall, Mellie L. Lopez, and Alan Dundes, all of the Department of Anthropology, University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley. The Ateneo de Manila University Press staff, particularly Esther M. Pacheco and Alfonso de Guzman II, gave me editorial assistance, and for this I am grateful. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to Bishop Philip Smith, O.M.L, and the Oblàte Fathers of Jolo for their patience during my long absences and their support, to the Fathers and Brothers of the Oblate Seminary in Quezon City, whose hospitality I enjoyed while preparing this work for publication, and to the Institute of Philippine Culture for their assistance in countless ways. Wassalam. 2. INTRODUCTION in the early dawn, as a small boat quietly approaches Jolo Island after sailing all night from Zamboanga on the quiet waters of Sulu Sea, the land breeze brings sounds and scents of a coastal town just awakening. Ailahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Alla- hu Akbar!—the town mosques proclaim in forceful. Arabic—God is the greatest! Church bells soon join the traditional azan as the dark sky gives way to a sun bursting colors from the east. On this new day, the newly arrived traveler begins to discover Sulu; for truly the cries and the bells rousing the faithful to prayer are only the begin- ning. Soon, he becomes a cultural traveler, to meet the Muslim Tausug of Sulu, to learn of their rich and colorful tradition of communication. Expressed orally and understood only within the context of culture, Tausug communication is a broad spectrum of verbal ex- pressions ranging from recited or chanted sacred texts to workaday maxims. It embraces religious literature, folk narratives—legends, myths, and folktales - songs and spells and charms, and such forms of symbolic speech as used in courtship, proverbs, and riddles. This paper is one cultural traveler's overview of that rich oral source. Basically a survey i't considers the Islamic ritual literature—its Ara- 4 1TAUSUG LITERATURE bic texts and Tau.sug adaptations—and presents the more indige- nous forms of Tausug oral tradition. - Although this- work separates Islamic literature from the Tausug oral folk traditions, the reader should- bear in mind that - this division is necessitated by its expository format. It is understood that in real life both Islamic and folk traditions either mesh together or alternate with each other. Each day of a Tausug's life begins at dawn with the call to prayer and runs its normal course punctuated with four other such calls. Yet, in between these calls, there are the thousand and one normal activities and minute details to attend to following either tradition or blending them with smooth ingenuity. Then linking the days throughout the year rites of passage such as birth, circumcision, marriage or burial, come and go always regulated by the more formal Islamic rituals regularly followed by the popular -celebration of the event with songs, storytelling and, inevitably, the partaking of food. At other times the perceptive listener will also quickly note in some of- the folk narratives the admixture of purely Islamic elements with na- tive lore. Seen in this light Tausug literature is really blended in the people's life. The division offered here between the two are then made for analytical purposes only. With this in mind, let us now proceed with our journey into the literary garden of the Tausug. PART ONE ISLAMIC RITUAL LITERATURE Like that of their Muslim brethren everywhere in the world, the life of the people of Sulu is marked by the heavy imprint of Islam. The Tausug, the dominant ethnic group, share with the less numerous ' Samal coast-dwellers a religious way of life seven centuries old. From Arabia through India, Sumatra, and Malaya, Islam came to Sulu peacefully, professing fiith in the oneness of God, the prophetic mission of Muhammad, "the last of the pro- phets," and other truths written in the Holy Qur'an which is God's parman, God's revelation. The Tausug received the Qur'an and learned to pray it. They also accepted its tradition—the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, theological and moral commentaries and codes, devotional prayers and panegyrics. The great Islamic tradition, come from foreign shores, became through the centuries not only part of the people but its soul. Soon the Tausug elaborated their own adaptations of the tradition. Because of their primary importance, the inspired Arabic texts are presented in the first chapter. The second chapter introduces the reader to the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, with their Tau- sug variants, while the third chapter presents briefly the festival literature. 5 1. The Inspired Arabic Texts At the core of Muslim life, Tausug or other, lies the Kitab,. "The Book," believed to have been handed down by God some 1,350 years ago to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Written in Arabic, the "illustrious Qur'an" is revelation, basis of belief, and guide through "the right path." But more than that, it is also a text to be recited as public and private prayer. The Tausug revere the holy book although in practice the simple villager may mix its orthodox prayers with apocryphal, folk or traditional elements. And to prayer the Muslim faithful are called—back to the holy book-five times daily. Bang: The call to prayer The day of the Tausug begins with the first call to prayer at dawn (Subu, from Arabic: Subh) sounded from the mosque by the magbabang, or muezzin. The call is repeated four more times later n the day—after the noon hour (Luhul, from 'Zuhr); at around three o'clock midafternoon (Asal, from Asr); right after sunset (Magrib, from Maghrib); and at the first hour after dark, in Sulu, usually around seven 'o'clock (Aysa, from Isha). Broadcast by loud- speaker in the more populous communities of Sulu, the call is a clock to many a villager, a reminder of his faith in God, and a summary of tenet of that faith: 6 INSPIRED ARABIC TEXTS 7 Allahu Akbar (Recited four times) Allah is the greatest Ashadu an1 ailaha illalla (Twice) I bear witness that there is no other god but Allah Ashadu anna Muhammadan I bear witness Rasullulla (Twice) that Muhammad is the apostle of Allah Hayyas alas salah (Twice) Come to prayer Yayya alal falah (Twice) Come to success (Ebing 1959:3). To the dawn invocation is added the following: Assalatu khairum Prayer is better minan naum (Recited twice) than sleep Allahu Akbar (Twice) Allah is the greatest La ilaha illalla (Once) . I bear witness that there is no other god but Allah (Ebing 1959:3). In some rural areas of jolo and on the smaller islands of the Sulu Archipelago, where mosques are likely to be at a fair distance from houses scattered over farmland, the call to prayer at times take the form of the beating of gongs or drums. On Friday noon and on certain Muslim feastdays, the prayers might be heard over the radio. The prayers The mosque is the place recommended for prayers, but the per- formance of the five daily prayers does not require the presence of the faithful there. While most people pray at home, only the very devout who have time and leisure may be found at the mosque at prayer time. According to Islamic tradition, any place except one 8 TAUSUG LITERATURE which has been defiled is an appropriate place in which to pray.

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