ROYAL AND HASHEMITE ORDER OF THE PEARL

The Royal and Hashemite Order of the Pearl is the dynastic order of the Royal House of Sulu, which serves as the premier institution and the highest personal honour of and in the Royal Sultanate of Sulu.

The order is an honourable and nobiliary corporation instituted as a dynastic Order of Datuship analogous to traditional dynastic orders of chivalry, and is in direct continuation from the ancient customs and distinctions of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu and the Court of the Sultan.

His Royal Majesty Paduka Mahasari Al-Maulana Ampun Sultan Hadji Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram ibni Almarhum Sultan Mohammad Mahakuttah Abdulla Kiram, The 35th Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo, as Head of the Royal House of Sulu, is the hereditary sovereign, fons honorum and Grand Sayyid of the order.

The Order is interdenominational and its focus is charitable and non-political except in so far as the sovereign rights and prerogatives of His Royal Majesty are concerned.

The Augustan Society, an international genealogical, heraldic, chivalric and historical society founded in 1957 asserts and recognizes the Order as a non-ruling dynastic order of chivalry. The Associazione Insigniti Onorificenze Cavalleresche (Association of Chivalric Honors), a partner of the International Commission for Orders of Chivalry, also acknowledges His Royal Majesty.