An unnamed Tagalog trader who resided in Brunei before to 1590 made the first recorded attempt to document the country's history; John S. Carroll subsequently published his work.

Although traditional belief credited this migration to Sultan Yuso, who supposedly came in Brunei after orchestrating a major exodus from the Malay-speaking city of Cauin, he suggested that the Bruneians moved from the Mekong Delta in the late 17th century.

Prior to Donald Brown's publication of his work in 1970, his 1880 submission to the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was the first significant modern attempt to record Brunei's history.

Given the lengthy reigns of multiple sultans at that time, he surmised that the adoption of Islam and the founding of the dynasty most likely took place about 1403, but they may have happened earlier.

[8] Due to differing opinions on the number of sultans mentioned in the Silsilah, it has been difficult to determine the exact date of Muhammad Shah.

This disparity calls into doubt not only the notable lack of documents from 1690 to 1790, but also co-reigning sultans, competing monarchs, and lesser-known individuals, like the newborn Olivier van Noort cited.

A significant contribution was made in 1970 by Brown, who collected several historical views in his study Brunei: The Structure and History of a Bornean Malay Sultanate.

But Brown also cited P. Manuel Teixeira's analysis of Rui de Brito Patalim [pt]'s correspondence, which suggested that there were two different Bruneis: a pagan and a Muslim.