Malacca Sultanate Founded

1400

Parameswara, a Hindu prince chased from Palembang by Javanese armies, settled beneath a malacca tree on the strait that would take his refuge's name. Within a generation his obscure village became the spice-road hinge of the Indian Ocean, where Arab, Chinese, and Gujarati merchants bargained in twelve tongues. His successors' conversion to Islam transformed Malacca into the engine of Islamic expansion across Southeast Asia.