Sultanate of Malacca

A port founded by a fugitive prince that became the most important trading city in Southeast Asia within a lifetime. Parameswara fled Palembang around 1400 and settled on the strait that now carries the city's name, choosing a site with a sheltered harbour at the narrowest point of the route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. He secured Chinese recognition from the Ming, whose treasure fleets under Zheng He used Malacca as a base, and that protection kept Siam off. The rulers converted to Islam, and Malacca became the hinge through which Islam spread across maritime Southeast Asia - a religious transformation carried by merchants rather than armies. The port charged low duties, guaranteed security, and was administered by four shahbandars each handling traders from a different region, with a maritime legal code that was copied around the region. Tome Pires wrote that whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice. Portugal took the city in 1511 and the trade dispersed rather than transferring. Malay court literature and the language's status both date from here. The sultanate ran from about 1400 to 1511. The Strait of Malacca still carries around a quarter of the world's traded goods. Malay became the trade language of the archipelago and is the basis of both Malaysian and Indonesian today. The Malacca legal digest covered maritime and commercial disputes. The city's ruins and colonial layers are a World Heritage site, listed together with George Town in Penang.

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