Maranao

Maranao, largest of the Muslim cultural-linguistic groups of the Philippines. Numbering more than 840,000 in the late 20th century, they live around Lake Lanao on the southern island of Mindanao. Rice farming is their main livelihood, along with metalworking and woodworking handicrafts.

Like the other Filipino Muslims, the Maranao differ markedly from the Christians, who make up the overwhelming majority of the country’s population. Land is owned by the clan and controlled by local leaders known as datus. The customs of marriage and the family are Islāmic. The languages of all the Muslim groups are closely related to the languages of the central Philippines, which belong to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family of languages.