The sultanate's founding story begins with the arrival of Islam in the Sulu Archipelago. Arab, Persian, Indian Muslim, and Chinese Muslim merchants had traded with the islands since at least the 14th century, and the name "Sulu" appears in Chinese records as early as 1349 during the Yuan dynasty. By the early 15th century, the Sufi scholar Sharif ul-Hashim, whose family traced their lineage to the Ba Alawi dynasty of Yemen, settled in Buansa on the island of Jolo. He married a local princess named Paramisuli and established the sultanate. His full regnal name was Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim. The sultanate maintained diplomatic relations with Ming dynasty China, participating in its tribute system. The Sulu leader Paduka Pahala traveled to China with his sons, where he died; Chinese Muslims raised his sons in Dezhou, where their descendants reportedly still live under the surnames An and Wen.

The sultanate's maritime power rested on a dual economy of trade and slave raiding. Tausug pirates used boats known collectively by Europeans as praos, or praus, to strike Spanish settlements across the Visayas and raid coastal villages in northern Borneo. Captives were sold at slave markets on Jolo and Tawi-Tawi. The raids provoked centuries of Spanish military expeditions, none of which succeeded in permanently subduing the sultanate. Chinese merchants living in Sulu ran guns across Spanish blockades to supply the Moro datus with weapons, eventually taking near-total control of the sultanate's retail economy. The pearl fisheries of the Sulu Sea were another source of wealth. When the Spanish first negotiated with the Sulu sultan in 1578, the tribute was paid in pearls.

The sultanate's military record against colonial powers is remarkable. Spanish expeditions attacked Jolo repeatedly across three centuries: in 1578, 1587, 1596, 1598, 1600, 1628, 1630, 1638, 1722, 1731, 1755, 1775, 1844, 1848, 1851, and 1876. Each time, the Sulu forces either repelled the attack or reoccupied the territory after the Spanish withdrew. In 1638, Governor Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera brought 80 ships and 2,000 troops; Sultan Wasit's forces, weakened by disease, retreated to Tawi-Tawi but continued raiding until the garrison collapsed by 1645. The British East India Company established trading alliances with the sultanate in the 18th century, further complicating Spanish ambitions. It was not until 1876, when Admiral Jose Malcampo assembled 9,000 soldiers, 11 gunboats, and 11 steamboats, that Spain finally occupied Jolo permanently.

The sultanate left behind more than battle scars. The Tausug and Maranao peoples developed a rich tradition of decorative arts known as ukkil, the Tausug word for wood carving or engraving. Ukkil motifs adorned boats, houses, and grave markers in flowing geometric patterns that expressed both Islamic artistic principles and indigenous aesthetics. Beyond woodwork, ukkil designs were woven into textiles, etched into metalwork, and painted onto ceremonial objects. This artistic tradition persisted through centuries of colonial pressure, an assertion of cultural identity as deliberate as any military campaign. The sultanate's visual legacy survives in museums, private collections, and the living practice of Tausug artisans who still carve and weave in patterns their ancestors established.

Spain's 1876 occupation of Jolo began the sultanate's slow decline. The Americans inherited Spanish claims through the 1898 Treaty of Paris, and in 1899 General John C. Bates negotiated an agreement with Sultan Jamalul Kiram II that continued the erosion of sultanate authority. By March 1915, the sultan had abdicated his temporal power. The sultanate was formally dissolved, though claimants to the throne have persisted into the 21st century. The North Borneo territories became the Malaysian state of Sabah, a claim the Philippines has never officially abandoned. Today, the sultanate exists as a cultural and genealogical memory, its legacy visible in the architecture, language, and faith of the Tausug people who still inhabit the islands their ancestors once ruled.