Malacca Sultanate

The Malacca Sultanate was a Malay sultanate based in what is now the state of Malacca in Malaysia, conventionally founded around 1400 by Parameswara, a prince of the earlier Kingdom of Singapura who also took the Muslim name Iskandar Shah after his court's conversion to Islam. At the height of its power in the fifteenth century the sultanate's capital grew into one of the most important transshipment ports in the world, drawing merchants trading in spices, textiles, ceramics and other goods between China, India, the Middle East and the wider Malay Archipelago, and its territory extended across much of the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands, and part of the eastern coast of Sumatra. Malacca's adoption of Islam and its role as a major regional trading and religious center helped spread Islam widely across maritime Southeast Asia during this period. The sultanate's independence ended in 1511 when Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque conquered the city, and the deposed royal line went on to found the successor sultanates of Johor and Perak.