Malacca Sultanate

The Malacca Sultanate (Malay: Kesultanan Melaka; Jawi script: کسلطانن ملاک) was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks c. 1400 as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah, although earlier dates for its founding have been proposed. At the height of the sultanate's power in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important transshipment ports of its time, with territory covering much of the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands and part of the central eastern coast of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.

As a bustling international trading port, Malacca emerged as a centre for Islamic learning and dissemination, and encouraged the development of the Malay language, literature and arts. It heralded the golden age of Malay sultanates in the archipelago, in which Classical Malay became the lingua franca of Maritime Southeast Asia and Jawi script became the primary medium for cultural, religious and intellectual exchange. It is through these intellectual, spiritual and cultural developments, that the Malaccan era witnessed the establishment of a Malay identity, the Malayisation of the region and the subsequent formation of the Malay world.

In 1511, the capital of Malacca fell to the Portuguese Empire, forcing the last Sultan, Mahmud Shah (r. 1488–1511), to retreat south, where his progenies established new ruling dynasties, Johor and Perak. The political and cultural legacy of the sultanate has endured for centuries, where Malacca has been held up as an example of Malay-Muslim civilisation to this day. It established systems of trade, diplomacy, and governance that persisted well into the 19th century, and introduced concepts such as daulat—a distinctly Malay notion of sovereignty—that continues to shape contemporary understanding of Malay kingship.

History

Early foundation

The founding of Malacca is generally taken to be c. 1400.