Sharif ul-Hāshim of Sulu

Sharif ul-Hashim (began reign 17 November 1405) was the regal name of Sharif Abubakar Abirin Al-Hashmi. He was an Arab -Muslim explorer and the founder of the Sultanate of Sulu. He assumed the political and spiritual leadership of the realm, and was given the title Sultan, and was also the first Sultan of Sulu.

During his reigning era, he promulgated the first Sulu code of laws called Diwan that were based on Quran. He introduced Islamic political institutions and the consolidation of Islam as the state religion.

Origins and personal life
Very little is known about the Sunni Sufi scholar Sharif ul-Hashim's early life. Born in Johore (in present-day Malaysia), his proper name was known to be Sayyid Abu Bakr bin Abirin AlHashmi, while his regal name was known as Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul- Hashim, or "The Master (Paduka) His Majesty (Mahasari), Protector (Maulana) and (al) Sultan (Sultan), Sharif (Sharif) of (ul-) Hashim (Hashim)". [The Sharif of Hashim part is a reference to his nobility as a descendant of Hashim clan, a clan the Islamic prophet Muhammad was a part of.] His regnal name is often shortened to Sharif ul-Hashim. He was a scholar of the Shafi'i Madh'hab and the Ash'ari Aqeeda.

Abubakar bin Abirin bore the titles Sayyid (alternatively spelled Saiyid, Sayyed, Seyyed, Sayed, Seyed, Syed, Seyd) and Shareef an honorific that denotes he was an accepted descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through both the Imams Hassan and Hussain. His name is also alternatively spelled Sayyid walShareef Abu Bakr ibn Abirin AlHashmi. He was a Najeeb AlTarfayn Sayyid.

The genealogy of Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim describes him as a descendant of Muhammad, through his maternal bloodline, Sayyed Zainul Abidin of Hadhramaut, Yemen, who belongs to the fourteenth generation of Hussain, the grandson of Muhammad. He was from the Ba 'Alawiyya of Yemen along with the other known missionaries locally known as 'Lumpang Basih'.

Descendants
Sultan Sharif Ul-Hashim's offspring include his eldest son Sharif Kamal ud-Din who was also his successor as sultan, reigning in 1480–1505. Sultan Sharif Ala ud-Din, not proclaimed as sultan of Sulu. Sultan Sharif Mu-izz ul-Mutawadi-in, reigning 1527–1548, was a grandson of Sultan Sharif, who succeeded to the throne upon the death of Kamal ud-Din.

Present Day Claimants
Although the Sultanate of Sulu officially ended its limited influence in the region following the "Carpenter Agreement" of 1915, purported heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu continue to grab international headlines even today. The most notable among these self-proclaimed heirs have been engaged in a legal battle with Malaysia regarding payments related to the 1878 agreement between then Sultan of Sulu and British commercial syndicate of Alfred Dent and Gustav Baron de Overbeck, which transpired into the British North Borneo Company. Per the agreement, the Sultan gave right of lands in North Borneo to the British against an annual fee. The claimants maintain that the land was only leased, while counter arguments claim that the land was in fact ceded.

As territories in the former North Borneo currently fall in the Malaysian region of Sabah, Malaysia continued to make the payments till the 2013 Lahad Datu Satndoff. The claimants later filed an arbitration appeal in the Madrid High Court in Spain, which appointed Dr Gonzalo Stampa the sole commercial arbitrator on the matter.

Malaysia filed a suit with the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, which annulled the appointment of Stampa. However, Stampa moved the case to High Court of Paris. On February 28 2022, Stampa ruled in favor of the alleged descendants of sultan and ordered Malaysia to pay US$14.92 billion in settlement to the litigants. The award was eventually struck down by the International Court of Justice in June 2023.