Sulu Sultan Mohammed Esmail Kiram I (1950–1974) was the eldest son of Raja Muda Muwallil Wasit II and the legally recognized successor of the Sultan of Sulu. Sultan Mohammed Esmail Kiram granted authority to the Philippine government under the administrations of President Diosdado Macapagal on 12 September, 1962 and of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, under which documents the Philippine government again officially "recognized" the continued existence of the Sulu Sultanate and the office of Sultan of Sulu. His eldest son, Mohammed Mahakuttah Abdullah Kiram, was his Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of Sulu. In 1974, Mohd. Esmail died and was duly succeeded by his son and heir Mohammad Mahakuttah Kiram. The accession of the new Sultan was recognized by the Filipino President, under whose act Manila acknowledged not only the personal status of the Sultan-King but also the formation of the government of Sulu. Presidential representatives attended the coronation of Sultan Mahakutta on 24 May 1974. On this occasion, Mahakutta’s son and heir - H.R.H. Datu Muedzul Lail - was installed (and recognized by the Filipino state) as the Raja Muda.
Sultan Mahakutta died in 1986 when the political situation in the Philippines was profoundly different; the power passed from Ferdinand Marcos to a new leader, Corazón Aquino, the perspectives were uncertain, and the political instability in the Moroland was growing dramatically. Manila declined to support the new Head of the Royal House. Young Raja Muda Muedzul Lail was advised neither to arrange a coronation without recognition from Manila nor to throw the Crown into the struggle between the secessionists and the adherents of the Republic. Therefore, Muedzul Lail preferred to remain, temporarily, a Raja Muda and H.R.H. instead of assuming the title and style of the Sultan-King, although it was understood that this decision, according to the Sulu customs, deprived him neither from the Headship of the Sultanate nor from the ruler’s prerogatives.