Visayas. Flag of the Sulu sultanate. In 1380, Karim ul' Makdum and Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab trader born in Johore, arrived in Sulu from Malacca and they established the Sultanate of Sulu . Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor introduced Islam in the island of Mindanao and had spread