Abstract: This paper explores the importance of founding the sultanate which served as a significant instrument for the propagation of Islam, trade and cultural development in the Philippines. It explores the sultanates’ relationship with traders, missionaries and dwellers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, as well as the Hindu, Arabs and Chinese which shows the vitality of this far and away kingdom—the Sultanate of Sulu. The paper argues that while it remains as a debate whether or not Sulu and its sultanate was in a direct line of communication with the other kingdoms of the Old World, what is certain is that it was not totally isolated on matters pertaining to trade, missionary activities and politics particularly in the fourteenth century.