A 1400 port made Classical Malay the sea's lingua franca
Convention dates Malacca's founding to about 1400 under Parameswara, also called Iskandar Shah, a Singapura king in exile. The sultanate turned a strait harbour into an Islamic learning hub and golden age of Malay letters before Portuguese guns took the capital in 1511.
Srivijaya's earlier Sumatran network had weakened under Chola blows; Singhasari and Majapahit later dominated. Malay Annals braid Alexander descent myths into Temasek's story, while Ming tributary diplomacy haunted Palembang rivals. Malacca's court standardised Classical Malay across Maritime Southeast Asia's trade routes.
Sultan Mahmud Shah fled south after 1511; heirs seeded Johor and Perak dynasties.
The founding legend runs through Singapura. The Malay Annals say a Palembang prince, Seri Teri Buana, who claimed descent from Alexander the Great, landed on Temasek in 1299, backed by the loyal Orang Laut. By the later 14th century Singapura was rich enough to alarm both Ayutthaya and Majapahit, and its fortified capital suffered at least two major invasions. Malay and Portuguese writers disagree about its last king: Portuguese texts call him Parameswara, a Palembang usurper, while the Annals name him Iskandar Shah, and most scholars treat the two as one man. Tradition says he picked the new site after watching a mouse deer drive his hunting dog into the water beneath a Malacca tree. He then built a trading port and hired the Orang Laut to patrol nearby waters, chase off pirates and steer merchants in. The early reign list stays uncertain, since Malay, Chinese and Portuguese accounts differ over names, numbers and dates. Under the third ruler, Raja Tengah, who reigned from 1424 to 1444, two further royal missions went to China between 1424 and 1433.
Source: Malacca Sultanate
