Illanun

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The Illanun are a Southeast Asian ethnic group from the Philippines and Malaysia . They live mainly on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and in the Malaysian state of Sabah , which is on the island of Borneo . Originally they probably come from the area around Lake Lanao on Mindanao. Their current number is between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 people.

In the past, the Illanun operated piracy and were therefore feared in the entire Southeast Asian region. The Malay word for pirate, Lanun , is likely derived from the word Illanun.

Most of the Illanun are Sunni Muslims . They speak the language named after them Illanun , which belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family .