Datu Uto

Datu Uto, born Anwarud-din Uto and also styled Sultan Utto Anwaruddin, was the 18th Sultan of Buayan, one of the major sultanates of Mindanao, reigning from 1875 to 1902. As a military leader he distinguished himself in many battles against the Spanish: he built a coalition of the Pulangi River basin datus that kept Buayan unconquered through successive Spanish offensives, signed imposed peace treaties without submitting, and at the peak of his power held a domain from Lake Buluan to Sarangani Bay. No source gives his birth date; he died at Sapakan in March 1902. ^{1 2}

He was born at Sapakan, Buayan, to Sultan Bangon Marajanun Sa Didagen and Tuan Bai Sa Buayan; the English article's infobox gives his birth date as unknown, and no trusted source read for this record attests one. During his father's reign he led a force of 500 men sent to assist the Spaniards against Talayan rebels in 1864 — and instead, against his father's orders, sided with the Talayan datu, defeated the Spanish force and chased it as far as Taviran. He lost an eye in that fighting, earning the name "the one-eyed man", and became a recognised leader in Buayan. His uncle Sultan Bayao succeeded on Bangon's death in 1872; Uto himself succeeded as sultan three years later, in 1875. ^{1 3}

He ruled from the inland town of Sapakan and married Rajah Putri Bai-labi, a daughter of Maguindanao's Sultan Qudratullah Untong. In 1874 he joined forces with Sultan Jamal ul-Azam of Sulu against the Spanish. The Spanish took and occupied Bakat, Buayan's major stronghold, but Uto regained it and forced them to sign a peace accord in May 1875. The leaders of the Pulangi River basin gravitated towards his leadership; the Spanish recognised his "ingenuity in manipulating friendships and debt relationships to suit his ends", and he solidified his alliances by friendship and marriage — the article says he had sixty wives in all. ¹

Peace did not last. The Spanish captured Jolo in 1876 and persuaded the sultans of Cotabato and Tumbao to ally against Buayan, though the 1875 accord kept them from venturing into Buayan itself. Tausug and Chinese traders supplied Uto with Enfield and Spencer rifles in exchange for slaves; at the peak of his power he had as many as 5,000 slaves. Campaigns under Governor-General Terrero from 1885 razed Bakat again for a fort and railway project that his forces' harassment abandoned. In 1886 two Spanish corps destroyed strongholds but could not open his territory; his followers began to fall away, and on 10 March 1887 he signed a peace treaty imposed by the Spaniards. By 1888 his allies had defected and his prestige was lost — the year the Arabic article's lead takes, wrongly against the English article and Wikidata, as the end of his reign — yet when the Spanish campaigns ended, Uto remained unconquered. ^{1 3}

He remained strong in local politics and sought the title of sultan of Maguindanao as well, backing his brother-in-law Datu Mamaku for the Maguindanao throne, vacant from 1888 to 1896, before Sultan Mangigin succeeded there. Despite the American occupation he remained a powerful figure until 1899; he had disappeared from the political scene by 1900 and died two years later — in March 1902, as the English article's infobox gives it and Wikidata's year agrees; the Arabic article's "c. 1900" is an older variant. His unofficial successors, among them his cousin Datu Ali, continued the resistance, now against the Americans. ^{1 2}

His faith is recorded as unknown, and the case is flagged. A school reading exists in one infobox family: the English article's infobox gives his religion as Sunni Islam, and the Arabic article's infobox — the Arabic rendering of the same article, and so one source family with it — gives Ahl al-Sunna wa'l-Jama'a, the Sunni community. Wikidata gives Islam in general. No text names a school for him, and sultan headship does not attest one. One infobox family short of the two-source bar, the Sunni reading stands in the record's note, unresolved. ^{1 3 2}

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