 How early the Arab doctrines were taught in Barunai is impossible to state with any precision.Local tradition ascribes their introduction to the renowned Awang Alak Betatar, afterwards known as Sultan Mohammad Shah.Like most of his subjects this warrior was a Bisaya, and in early life he was not a Muslim, not indeed a civilised potentate at all, to judge by conventional standards; for the chief mark of his royal dignity was an immense chawat, or loin-cloth, escorted by eighty men, forty in front and forty behind.