most of the alawi sayyids who moved to southeast asia were descendants of ali ibn husayn zayn al-abidin, especially of ba 'alawi sada, majority descendants of migrants from hadhramaut. even though they are alleged descendants of imam husain, it is uncommon for the female sayyids to be called "sayyidah", they are more commonly called "sharifah". most of them live in brunei, indonesia, malaysia, singapore, moro province in philippines,pattani and cambodia. many of the royal families of this region such as the previous royal families of philippines (sultanate of sulu, sultanate of maguindanao, confederation of sultanates of ranao), singapore (sultanate of singapore), malaysia (sultanates of johor and perlis) and indonesia (sultanates of siak, pontianak, gowa, some javanese sultanates) and the existing royal family of brunei (house of bolkiah) are also are sayyids, especially of ba'alawi.