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132-681: The Malacca River ( Malay : Sungai Melaka ) is a river in Malaysia which flows through the middle of the state of Malacca . It was a vital trade route during the heyday of Malacca Sultanate in the 15th century. The river starts from the southern end of the Titiwangsa Mountains in the neighbouring state of Negeri Sembilan , at Kampung Orek, Tampin District as the Tampin River which flows south, almost parallel to

264-525: A Muslim kingdom. The Chinese government, without knowing about the event, sent a censor Ch'en Chun to Champa in 1474 to install the Champa King, but he discovered Vietnamese soldiers had taken over Champa and were blocking his entry. He proceeded to Malacca instead and its ruler sent back tribute to China. In 1469, Malaccan envoys on their return from China was attacked by the Vietnamese who castrated

396-497: A battle broke out in which the Pahangites were decisively defeated and its entire royal court were captured. The Malaccan fleet returned home with Dewa Sura and his daughter, Wanang Seri who were handed over to Sultan Mansur Shah. The Sultan appointed Tun Hamzah to rule Pahang. A policy of rapprochement with Ligor was later initiated by Mansur Shah to ensure steady supplies of rice. On his royal visit to Majapahit , Mansur Shah

528-536: A centre of international trade. Malacca had an edge over these ports because its rulers created an environment that was safe and conducive for business. Chinese records of the mid-15th century stated that Malacca flourished as a centre for trade on account of its effective security measures. It also had a well-equipped and well-managed port. Among the facilities provided for merchants were warehouses , where they could safely house their goods as they awaited favourable trade winds, as well as elephants for transporting goods to

660-641: A centre of trade and commerce began to spread across the eastern part of the world. In 1405, the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty ( r.  1402–1424 ) sent his envoy headed by Yin Qing to Malacca. Yin Qing's visit paved the way for the establishment of friendly relations between Malacca and China. Two years later, Admiral Zheng He made his first of six visits to Malacca. Zheng He called at Malacca and brought Parameswara with him on his return to China,

792-498: A defensive line was made near Batu Pahat . The forces were commanded by Tun Perak and assisted by Tun Hamzah, a warrior known as Datuk Bongkok. The two sides clashed in a fierce naval battle in which the more advanced Malaccan navy succeeded in driving off the Siamese, pursuing them to Singapura and forcing them to return home. Malacca's victory in this battle gave it new confidence to devise strategies to extend its influence throughout

924-672: A descendant of the Proto-Austronesian language , began to break up by at least 2000 BCE, possibly as a result of the southward expansion of Austronesian peoples into Maritime Southeast Asia from the island of Taiwan . The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Classical Malay, Late Modern Malay and Modern Malay. Old Malay is believed to be

1056-462: A fishing village at the mouth of Bertam River (modern-day Malacca River ). The village belonged to the Orang Laut who were left alone by Majapahit's forces that not only sacked Singapura but also Langkasuka and Pasai. As a result, the village became a safe haven and in the 1370s it began to receive a growing number of refugees fleeing Majapahit's attacks. By the time Parameswara reached Malacca in

1188-771: A letter from the King. His mission was to establish trade with Malacca. The Tamil Muslims who were now powerful in the Malaccan court and friendly with Tun Mutahir , the Bendahara, were hostile towards the Christian Portuguese. The Gujarati merchants who were also Muslims and had known the Portuguese in India, preached a holy war against "the infidels". Because of the dissension between Mahmud Shah and Tun Mutahir,

1320-527: A lingua franca derived from Classical Malay as well as Makassar Malay , which appears to be a mixed language . Malay historical linguists agree on the likelihood of the Malayic homeland being in western Borneo . A form known as Proto-Malayic was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE, it has been argued to be the ancestral language of all subsequent Malayic languages . Its ancestor, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian ,

1452-401: A major expansion of the sultanate. Among the earliest territory ceded to the sultanate was Pahang , with its capital, Inderapura —a massive unexplored land with a large river and abundant source of gold which was ruled by Maharaja Dewa Sura , a relative of the King of Ligor . The Sultan dispatched a fleet of two hundred ships, led by Tun Perak and 19 Malaccan hulubalangs . On reaching Pahang,

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1584-555: A mid vowel [e, o] . Orthographic note : both /e/ and /ə/ are written with ⟨e⟩ . Orthographic /e, o/ are relatively rare, so the letter ⟨e⟩ usually represents /ə/ . There are some homographs; for example, perang is used for both /pəraŋ/ "war" and /peraŋ ~ piraŋ/ "blond". (In Indonesia, "blond" may be written perang or pirang .) Some analyses regard /ai, au, oi/ as diphthongs. However, [ai] and [au] can only occur in open syllables, such as cukai ("tax") and pulau ("island"). Words with

1716-620: A new kingdom called Singapura . In the 14th century, Singapura developed concurrently with the Pax Mongolica era and rose from a small trading outpost into a centre of international trade with strong ties to the Yuan dynasty . In an effort to revive the fortune of Malayu in Sumatra, in the 1370s, a Malay ruler of Palembang sent an envoy to the court of the first emperor of the newly established Ming dynasty . He invited China to resume

1848-617: A number of scholars who served at the Malacca royal court as teachers and counselors to the various sultans. Maulana Abu Bakar served in the court of Sultan Mansur Shah and introduced the Kitab Darul Manzum , a theological text translated from the work of an Arab scholar in Mecca . A scholar by the name of Maulana Kadi Sardar Johan served as a religious teacher to both Sultan Mahmud Shah and his son. In addition to Kitab Darul Manzum ,

1980-434: A phonetic diphthong in a closed syllable, such as baik ("good") and laut ("sea"), are actually two syllables. An alternative analysis therefore treats the phonetic diphthongs [ai] , [au] and [oi] as a sequence of a monophthong plus an approximant: /aj/ , /aw/ and /oj/ respectively. There is a rule of vowel harmony : the non-open vowels /i, e, u, o/ in bisyllabic words must agree in height, so hidung ("nose")

2112-571: A plot was hatched to kill de Sequeira, imprison his men and capture the Portuguese fleet anchored off the Malacca River. The plot leaked out and de Sequeira managed to escape from Malacca in his ship, leaving behind several of his men who were taken captive. In April 1511 Afonso de Albuquerque , who was the Portuguese expedition leader together with his armada , arrived in Malacca to sever its Islamic and Venetian trade. His intention

2244-464: A recognition of his position as ruler of Malacca. In exchange for regular tribute, the Chinese emperor offered Malacca protection from the constant threat of Siamese attack. Due to Chinese involvement, Malacca had grown as a key alternative to other important and established ports. Chinese merchants began calling at the port and pioneering foreign trading bases in Malacca. Other foreign traders, notably

2376-737: A river in Malaysia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Malay language Malay ( / m ə ˈ l eɪ / mə- LAY ; Malay: Bahasa Melayu , Jawi : بهاس ملايو ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia , and Singapore . It is also spoken in East Timor and parts of Thailand . Altogether, it is spoken by 290 million people (around 260 million in Indonesia alone in its own literary standard named " Indonesian ") across Maritime Southeast Asia . The language

2508-431: A root word ( affixation ), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words ( reduplication ). Nouns and verbs may be basic roots, but frequently they are derived from other words by means of prefixes , suffixes and circumfixes . Malay does not make use of grammatical gender , and there are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word is used for 'he' and 'she' which

2640-533: A ruler of Rokan and a ruler named Tuan Telanai from Terengganu . Alauddin Riayat Shah placed a great importance in maintaining peace and order during his reign. He extended the conquests of his father to include the Riau-Lingga islands . He was succeeded by his son, Sultan Mahmud Shah ( r. 1488–1511 ) who was a teenage boy upon his accession. Hence Malacca was administered by Bendahara Tun Perak with

2772-631: A small settlement to a cosmopolitan Entrepôt within the span of a century. This rapid progression was attributable to several factors, key among which were its strategic location along one of the world's most important shipping lanes, the Strait of Malacca and the increasing demand for commodities from both the East and the West. Ships from the East bearing goods from China, the Ryukyu Islands , Java and

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2904-471: A well-defined government with a set of laws. At the top of the sultanate's hierarchy sat the Sultan who was an absolute monarch. The earlier Srivijayan concept of kingship in which the king's right to rule was based on legitimate lineage still prevailed, and with the coming of Islam, it was reintroduced with the name daulat (sovereignty). Malacca's legal codes identified four main state officials appointed by

3036-402: Is dia or for 'his' and 'her' which is dia punya . There is no grammatical plural in Malay either; thus orang may mean either 'person' or 'people'. Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as 'yesterday') or by other tense indicators, such as sudah 'already' and belum 'not yet'. On the other hand, there

3168-574: Is pluricentric and a macrolanguage , i.e., several varieties of it are standardized as the national language ( bahasa kebangsaan or bahasa nasional ) of several nation states with various official names: in Malaysia, it is designated as either Bahasa Malaysia (" Malaysian ") or also Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Singapore and Brunei, it is called Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language"); in Indonesia, an autonomous normative variety called Bahasa Indonesia (" Indonesian language ")

3300-456: Is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and to denote voice or intentional and accidental moods . Malay does not have a grammatical subject in the sense that English does. In intransitive clauses, the noun comes before the verb. When there is both an agent and an object , these are separated by the verb (OVA or AVO), with the difference encoded in the voice of the verb. OVA, commonly but inaccurately called "passive",

3432-430: Is allowed but * hedung is not. Pronunciation Pronunciation Pronunciation Study by Uri Tadmor which was published in 2003 shows that mutation of ⟨a⟩ in final open syllable is an areal feature. Specifically, it is an areal feature of Western Austronesia. Uri Tadmor classify those types into four groups as below. Malay is an agglutinative language , and new words are formed by three methods: attaching affixes onto

3564-406: Is designated the bahasa persatuan/pemersatu ("unifying language" or lingua franca ) whereas the term "Malay" ( bahasa Melayu ) is domestically restricted to vernacular varieties of Malay indigenous to areas of Central to Southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan . Classical Malay , also called Court Malay, was the literary standard of the pre-colonial Malacca and Johor Sultanates and so

3696-482: Is divided into Bornean and Sumatran Malay; some of the most widely spoken Sumatran Malay dialects are Riau Malay , Langkat , Palembang Malay and Jambi Malay . Minangkabau , Kerinci and Bengkulu are believed to be Sumatran Malay descendants. Meanwhile, the Jakarta dialect (known as Betawi ) also belongs to the western Malay group. The eastern varieties, classified either as dialects or creoles , are spoken in

3828-623: Is not a tonal language . The consonants of Malaysian and also Indonesian are shown below. Non-native consonants that only occur in borrowed words, principally from Arabic, Dutch and English, are shown in brackets. Orthographic note : The sounds are represented orthographically by their symbols as above, except: Loans from Arabic : Malay originally had four vowels, but in many dialects today, including Standard Malay, it has six, with /i/ split into /i, e/ and /u/ split into /u, o/ . Many words are commonly pronounced variably, with either [i, u] or [e, o] , and relatively few words require

3960-569: Is not readily intelligible with the standard language , and the same is true with some lects on the Malay Peninsula such as Kedah Malay . However, both Brunei and Kedah are quite close. Malay is now written using the Latin script , known as Rumi in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore or Latin in Indonesia, although an Arabic script called Arab Melayu or Jawi also exists. Latin script

4092-595: Is official in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Malay uses Hindu-Arabic numerals . Rumi (Latin) and Jawi are co-official in Brunei only. Names of institutions and organisations have to use Jawi and Rumi (Latin) scripts. Jawi is used fully in schools, especially the religious school, sekolah agama , which is compulsory during the afternoon for Muslim students aged from around 6–7 up to 12–14. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi in Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examinations in Malaysia have

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4224-521: Is similar to Kelantanese Malay, but the language has no official status or recognition. Owing to earlier contact with the Philippines , Malay words—such as dalam hati (sympathy), luwalhati (glory), tengah hari (midday), sedap (delicious)—have evolved and been integrated into Tagalog and other Philippine languages . By contrast, Indonesian has successfully become the lingua franca for its disparate islands and ethnic groups, in part because

4356-624: Is the basic and most common word order. The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (in particular religious terms), Sanskrit , Tamil , certain Sinitic languages , Persian (due to historical status of Malay Archipelago as a trading hub), and more recently, Portuguese , Dutch and English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). There is a group of closely related languages spoken by Malays and related peoples across Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia , Singapore , Southern Thailand , Kampung Alor in East Timor , and

4488-525: Is the lack of possessive pronouns (and suffixes) in eastern dialects. Manado uses the verb pe and Ambon pu (from Malay punya 'to have') to mark possession. So 'my name' and 'our house" are translated in western Malay as namaku and rumah kita but kita pe nama and torang pe rumah in Manado and beta pu nama , katong pu rumah in Ambon dialect. The pronunciation may vary in western dialects, especially

4620-532: Is uncertainty in the chronology of the early rulers of Malacca due to discrepancies contained in Malay, Chinese and Portuguese sources, such as the names, number of rulers and reign details: Due to the differences, there are disagreements about the early rulers of Malacca. It is, however, generally accepted that the Parameswara of Portuguese and Chinese sources and Iskandar Shah of the Malay Annals were

4752-633: The Laylat al-Qadr . It began with a daytime procession, led by the Temenggung on elephant-back, conveying the Sultan's prayer mat to the mosque for Tarawih performed after the mandatory night prayers. On the following day the Sultan's turban would be carried in procession to the mosque. Similar ceremonies accompanied the grand celebrations of both Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Hari Raya Aidiladha . Apparently Malaccan Malay society had become so infused with

4884-531: The Malay Annals noted that it was during the reign of the third ruler Muhammad Shah ( r.  1424–1444 ), that the ruling class and their subjects began accepting Islam. While there are differing views on when the Islamization of Malacca actually took place, it is generally agreed that Islam was firmly established during the reign of Muzaffar Shah ( r.  1445–1459 ). Islamisation in

5016-529: 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

5148-624: The Cham alphabet are used by the Chams of Vietnam and Cambodia . Old Malay was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of the Malacca Sultanate, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region. Starting from the 17th century, under Dutch and British influence, Jawi

5280-472: The Malay Annals also mentions the Kitab al-luma' fi tasawwuf ('Book of Flashes'), a tenth-century treatise on Sufism by Abu Nasr al-Sarraj. Certain elaborate ceremonies that blend Islamic traditions with local culture were also created in the Malacca Sultanate. One example was recorded during the reign of Muhammad Shah . A special ceremony was held that marked the celebration of the 27th night of Ramadan ,

5412-549: The Malay Peninsula , the Riau Islands and a significant portion of the northern 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

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5544-576: The Maluku Islands would sail in by the northeast monsoon from December to January, while ships leaving for ports along Indian coastline, the Red Sea and East Africa would sail with the southwest monsoon . There were other ports along the Strait of Malacca such as Kedah in the peninsula and Jambi and Palembang in Sumatra, yet none of them came close to challenging Malacca's success as

5676-500: 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 exemplar of Malay-Muslim civilisation to this day. It established systems of trade, diplomacy, and governance that persisted well into

5808-517: The Zhengde Emperor of China when he received the envoys from the exiled Sultan Mahmud. The furious Chinese emperor responded with force, culminating in a period of persecution of Portuguese in China which lasted three decades. Among the earliest victims were the Portuguese envoys led by Tomé Pires in 1516 that were greeted with great hostility and suspicion. The Chinese confiscated all of

5940-626: The 13th century, the Javanese Singhasari followed by the Majapahit had become dominant. According to the Malay Annals , a prince from Palembang named Seri Teri Buana who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great and Rajendra Chola I , stayed on Bintan Island for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299. The Orang Laut , known for their loyal services to Srivijaya, eventually made him king of

6072-525: The 19th century, and introduced concepts such as daulat —a distinctly Malay notion of sovereignty—that continues to shape contemporary understanding of Malay kingship. The founding of Malacca is generally taken to be c.  1400 . The region was dominated by the Srivijaya empire centered on Palembang in Sumatra until it was weakened by the Chola Empire in the 11th century. By the end of

6204-566: The Arabs, Indians, and Persians came to establish their trading bases and settle in Malacca, raising its population to 2,000. In 1411, Parameswara headed a royal party of 540 people and left for China with Admiral Zheng He to visit the Ming court. In 1414, the Ming Shilu mentions that the son of the first ruler of Malacca visited the Ming court to inform Yongle that his father had died. There

6336-469: The Asian trade network. The previously centralised port of exchange that policed the Strait of Malacca to maintain its safety for commercial traffic, was replaced with scattered trading network with multiple ports rivalling each other in the strait. The efforts to propagate Christianity which was also one of the principal aims of Portuguese imperialism did not, meet with much success, primarily because Islam

6468-536: The Emperor of China with the fame and grandeur of Sultan Mansur Shah that the Emperor decreed that his daughter, Hang Li Po , should marry the Sultan. The Malay Annals further asserts that a senior minister of state and five hundred ladies in waiting accompanied the "princess" to Malacca. The Sultan built a palace for his new consort on a hill known ever afterwards as Bukit Cina ("Chinese Hill"). As trade flourished and Malacca became more prosperous, Mansur Shah ordered

6600-827: The Imperial Chinese Right Deputy Commander Zhu Wan killed all the pirates and razed the Shuangyu Portuguese base, using force to prohibit trading with foreigners by sea. Moreover, Chinese traders boycotted Malacca after it fell under Portuguese control, with some Chinese in Java even assisting in Muslim attempts to invade the city. Relations gradualy improved and aid was given against the Japanese Wokou pirates along China's shores. By 1557 Ming China agreed to allow

6732-655: The Islamic worldview that on the eve of the fall of Malacca, warriors at the court requested copies of two Islamic heroic epics, the Hikayat Amir Hamzah and the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah , to inspire them in battle the next day. The rise of Malacca as a centre of Islam had a number of implications. Firstly, Islam transformed the notion of kingship so that the Sultan was no longer viewed as divine, but as God's Khalifah . Secondly, Islam

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6864-731: The Karak-Tampin trunk road (Federal Route [REDACTED] FT 9 ) until Tampin and Pulau Sebang , the latter is beyond the Negeri Sembilan-Malacca border. At Gadek in Alor Gajah District , the Batang Melaka River merges with the Tampin to form the Malacca River and it feeds into the Strait of Malacca . A USD$ 100 million (RM350 million) infrastructure project to revive and rejuvenate

6996-417: The Malaccan princes, in 1420, 1421 and 1423. Between 1424 and 1433, two more royal visits to China were made during the reign of the third ruler, Raja Tengah ( r. 1424–1444 ), named Sri Maharaja in some sources. During Raja Tengah's rule, it was said that an ulama called Saiyid Abdul Aziz came to Malacca to spread the teaching of Islam. The king together with his royal family, senior officials and

7128-404: The Malay world of Southeast Asia, and was one of the oldest testimonies to the advent of Islam as a state religion in the region. It contains the proclamation issued by a ruler of Terengganu known as Seri Paduka Tuan, urging his subjects to extend and uphold Islam and providing 10 basic Sharia laws for their guidance. The classical Malay language came into widespread use as the lingua franca of

7260-1057: The Malayic languages spoken by the Orang Asli ( Proto-Malay ) in Malaya . They are Jakun , Orang Kanaq , Orang Seletar , and Temuan . The other Malayic languages, included in neither of these groups, are associated with the expansion of the Malays across the archipelago. They include Riau-Johor Malay ( Malaysian and Indonesian ), Kedah Malay , Kedayan/Brunei Malay , Berau Malay , Bangka Malay , Jambi Malay , Kutai Malay , Natuna Malay, Riau Malay , Loncong , Pattani Malay , and Banjarese . Menterap may belong here. There are also several Malay-based creole languages , such as Betawi , Cocos Malay , Makassar Malay , Ambonese Malay , Dili Malay , Kupang Malay , Manado Malay , Papuan Malay , Pattani Malay , Satun Malay , Songkhla Malay , Bangkok Malay , and Sabah Malay , which may be more or less distinct from standard (Malaccan) Malay. Due to

7392-433: The Ming dynasty of China; the Chinese were also displeased about the kidnapping of many Chinese children by the Portuguese in Tuen Mun . In retaliation for Portugal's activity in Malacca, several Portuguese were later killed by the Chinese in the battles of Tunmen and Xicaowan in China. Following the 1511 conquest, the city of Malacca remained under Portuguese control for the next 130 years despite incessant attempts by

7524-536: The Portuguese property and goods in the Pires' embassy's possession. Many of the envoys were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Pires himself was said among those who died in the Chinese dungeons. Two successive Portuguese fleets bound for China in 1521 and 1522 were attacked and defeated in the first and second Battle of Tamao . In response to Portuguese piracy and the illegal installation of bases in Fujian at Wuyu island, Yue harbour at Zhangzhou , Shuangyu island in Zhejiang , and Nan'ao island in Guangdong ,

7656-401: The Portuguese to settle at Macau in a new Portuguese trade colony. The Malay Sultanate of Johor also improved relations with the Portuguese. The exiled Sultan Mahmud Shah made several attempts to retake the capital but his efforts were fruitless. The Portuguese retaliated and forced the Sultan to flee to Pahang . Later, the Sultan sailed to Bintan and established his capital there. From

7788-423: The Sultan's aid in reclaiming their throne. One such examples was Sultan Zainal Abidin of Pasai who was toppled by his relatives. He fled to Malacca and pleaded with Sultan Mansur Shah to reinstall him as a ruler. Malacca armed forces were immediately sent to Pasai and defeated the usurpers. Although Pasai never came under the control of Malacca afterwards, the event greatly demonstrated the importance of Malacca and

7920-551: The Sultan. Below the Sultan was a Bendahara , a position similar to that of a vizier , who acted as an advisor to the Sultan. It was the highest-ranking office that could be held by any common people in Malacca. The Bendahara was also responsible for ensuring cordial relations with foreign states. Malacca's fifth Bendahara, Tun Perak , excelled in both war and diplomacy. Twice during the reign of Sultan Muzaffar Shah, Tun Perak successfully led Malaccan armed forces in repelling Siamese attacks on Malacca. When Sultan Mansur Shah ascended

8052-400: The actual ancestor of Classical Malay. Old Malay was influenced by Sanskrit, the classical language of India . Sanskrit loan words can be found in Old Malay vocabulary. The earliest known stone inscription in the Old Malay language was found in Sumatra , Indonesia, written in the Pallava variety of the Grantha alphabet and is dated 1 May 683. Known as the Kedukan Bukit inscription , it

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8184-414: The administration was hampered by organizational confusion and command overlap, corruption and inefficiency. Competition from other regional ports such as Johor which was founded by the exiled Sultan of Malacca, saw Asian traders bypass Malacca and the city began to decline as a trading port. Rather than achieving their ambition of dominating it, the Portuguese had fundamentally disrupted the organisation of

8316-465: The affairs of the Gujarati traders; another was responsible for traders from Southern India, Bengal, Burma and Pasai; a third for traders from Maritime Southeast Asia; and fourth for traders from Annam, China and the Ryukyu Islands. Lesser titled state officials were also appointed. They were known as the Orang Besar . In addition, a governor called the Mandulika oversaw the administration of appanages and territories annexed by conquest. The sultanate

8448-415: The assassination of Raja Rokan and to install Raja Kasim on the throne. Both the Sultan and Raja Rokan were eventually killed in the attack in 1446. Raja Kasim was then appointed as the fifth ruler of Malacca and reign as Sultan Muzaffar Shah ( r.  1446–1459 ). The looming threat from the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya became a reality when it launched a land invasion of Malacca in 1446. Tun Perak ,

8580-465: The chief of Klang brought his men to help Malacca in the battle against the Siamese, in which Malacca emerged victorious. His strong leadership qualities gained the attention of the Sultan, whose desire to see Malacca prosper made him appoint Tun Perak as the Bendahara . In 1456, during the reign of King Trailokanat , Ayutthaya launched another attack, this time by sea. When news about the attack reached Malacca, naval forces were immediately rallied and

8712-496: The colonial language, Dutch, is no longer commonly spoken. (In East Timor , which was governed as a province of Indonesia from 1976 to 1999, Indonesian is widely spoken and recognized under its Constitution as a 'working language'.) Besides Indonesian , which developed from the Riau Malay dialect, there are many Malay varieties spoken in Indonesia; they are divided into western and eastern groups. Western Malay dialects are predominantly spoken in Sumatra and Borneo , which itself

8844-555: The constitution as one of two working languages (the other being English ), alongside the official languages of Tetum and Portuguese . The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Malay is the national language in Malaysia by Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia , and became the sole official language in Peninsular Malaysia in 1968 and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in

8976-420: The construction of a large and beautiful palace at the foot of Malacca Hill. The royal palace reflected the wealth, prosperity and power of Malacca and embodied the excellence and distinct characteristics of Malay architecture . The brief conflict between Malacca and Đại Việt during the reign of Lê Thánh Tông ( r. 1460–1497 ), began shortly after the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa , then already

9108-400: The court moved to establish the Johor Sultanate, it continued using the classical language; it has become so associated with Dutch Riau and British Johor that it is often assumed that the Malay of Riau is close to the classical language. However, there is no closer connection between Malaccan Malay as used on Riau and the Riau vernacular. Among the oldest surviving letters written in Malay are

9240-409: The declining Majapahit . Its city of Malacca was the chief centre of trade in Indian cloth, Chinese porcelain and silk and Malay spices, and the headquarters of Muslim activity in the Malay Archipelago. Malacca was still looking to expand its territory as late as 1506, when it conquered Kelantan . While the legendary Princess of Gunung Ledang was said to have lived during the reign of Mahmud Shah and

9372-460: The diaspora of the Palembang princes and nobles. By the second half of the 14th century, the Kingdom of Singapura grew wealthy. However, its success alarmed two regional powers at that time, Ayutthaya to the north and Majapahit to the south. As a result, the kingdom's fortified capital was attacked by at least two major foreign invasions before it was finally sacked by either Ayutthaya or Majapahit in 1398. The last king of Singapura then fled to

9504-475: The discovery of two tin mining areas in the northern part of the city, sago palms in the orchards and nipah palms lining in the estuaries and beaches. To improve the defence mechanism of the city from potential aggressors, Megat Iskandar Shah ordered the construction of a wall surrounding the city with four guarded entrances. A fenced fortress was also built in the town centre where the state's treasury and supply were stored. The growth of Malacca coincided with

9636-441: The early 1400s, the place was already cosmopolitan feel with Buddhists from the north, Hindus from Palembang and Muslims from Pasai. Legend has it that Parameswara saw a mouse deer outwit his hunting dog into the water when he was resting under the Malacca tree. He thought this bode well, stating, "this place is excellent, even the mouse deer is formidable; it is best that we establish a kingdom here". Tradition holds that he named

9768-405: The early non-indigenous Hindu/Buddhist tradition, Islam and the indigenous "adat". Whether the first ruler of Malacca, Parameswara, converted to Islam is unknown as there is no evidence to suggest that he had. The 16th-century Portuguese writer Tomé Pires explicitly mentioned that Parameswara was succeeded by his son, Megat Iskandar Shah who only converted to Islam at age 72. On the other hand,

9900-546: The early settlement of a Cape Malay community in Cape Town , who are now known as Coloureds , numerous Classical Malay words were brought into Afrikaans . The extent to which Malay and related Malayan languages are used in the countries where it is spoken varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Malay is the national language in Malaysia by Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia , and became

10032-474: The eastern part of the Malay or Nusantara archipelago and include Makassar Malay , Manado Malay , Ambonese Malay , North Moluccan Malay , Kupang Malay , Dili Malay , and Papuan Malay . The differences among both groups are quite observable. For example, the word kita means 'we, us' in western, but means 'I, me' in Manado, whereas 'we, us" in Manado is torang and Ambon katong (originally abbreviated from Malay kita orang 'we people'). Another difference

10164-590: The far southern parts of the Philippines . They have traditionally been classified as Malay, Para-Malay, and Aboriginal Malay, but this reflects geography and ethnicity rather than a proper linguistic classification. The Malayic languages are mutually intelligible to varying extents, though the distinction between language and dialect is unclear in many cases. Para-Malay includes the Malayic languages of Sumatra . They are: Minangkabau , Central Malay (Bengkulu), Pekal , Talang Mamak , Musi (Palembang), Negeri Sembilan (Malaysia), and Duano’ . Aboriginal Malay are

10296-400: The former rulers of Malacca and other regional powers to dislodge them (see Malay–Portuguese conflicts ). Around the foothill on which the Sultan's Istana (palace) once stood, the Portuguese built the stone fort known as A Famosa , completed in 1512. Malay graves , the mosque and other buildings were dismantled to obtain the stone that was used to build the fort. Despite numerous attacks,

10428-488: The fort was only breached once, when the Dutch and Johor defeated the Portuguese in 1641 . It soon became clear that Portuguese control of Malacca did not mean they controlled the Asian trade centred on it. Their rule in Malacca was marred with difficulties. They could not become self-sufficient and remained highly dependent on Asian suppliers, as had their Malay predecessors. They were short of both funds and manpower and

10560-435: The help of other senior officials. The town of Malacca continued to prosper with an influx of foreign traders after the appointment of Tun Mutahir as Bendahara. This was due to his efficient and wise administration and his ability to attract more foreign traders to Malacca. By about 1500, Malacca was at the height of its power and glory, this can be exemplified by Mahmud Shah's rejection of the overlordship of both Ayutthaya and

10692-521: The highlands of Sumatra , Indonesia . Terengganu Inscription Stone (Malay: Batu Bersurat Terengganu ; Jawi: باتو برسورت ترڠݢانو) is a granite stele carrying inscription in Jawi script that was found in Terengganu, Malaysia is the earliest evidence of classical Malay inscription. The inscription, dated possibly to 702 AH (corresponds to 1303 CE), constituted the earliest evidence of Jawi writing in

10824-560: The language is sometimes called Malacca, Johor or Riau Malay (or various combinations of those names) to distinguish it from the various other Malayic languages . According to Ethnologue 16, several of the Malayic varieties they currently list as separate languages, including the Orang Asli varieties of Peninsular Malay , are so closely related to standard Malay that they may prove to be dialects. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages (e.g. Ambonese Malay ) based on

10956-763: The languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities. Within Austronesian, Malay is part of a cluster of numerous closely related forms of speech known as the Malayic languages , which were spread across Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago by Malay traders from Sumatra. There is disagreement as to which varieties of speech popularly called "Malay" should be considered dialects of this language, and which should be classified as distinct Malay languages. The vernacular of Brunei— Brunei Malay —for example,

11088-460: The letters from Sultan Abu Hayat of Ternate , Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia , dated around 1521–1522. The text is addressed to the king of Portugal , following contact with Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrão . The letters show sign of non-native usage; the Ternateans used (and still use) the unrelated Ternate language , a West Papuan language , as their first language . Malay

11220-572: The lucrative spice trade directly from its source. This led to the expansion of Portuguese sea exploration, pioneered by Vasco da Gama , into the east coasts of India that resulted in the establishment of Portuguese stronghold in Calicut . Years later, during the reign of Manuel I , a fidalgo named Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was assigned to analyse trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived in Malacca on 1 August 1509 carrying with him

11352-502: The mutual support it had established among leaders and states in the region. Sultan Mansur Shah died in 1477 whilst Malacca was at the peak of its splendour. The prosperous era of Malacca continued under the rule of his son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah ( r. 1477–1488 ) and more foreign rulers within the region began paying homage to the Sultan of Malacca. Among them were a ruler from the Moluccas who were defeated by his enemies,

11484-654: The new base, the Sultan rallied the disarrayed Malay forces and organised several attacks and blockades against the Portuguese's position. Frequent raids on Malacca caused the Portuguese severe hardship and helped convince the Portuguese that the exiled Sultan's forces needed to be destroyed. A number of attempts were made to suppress the Malay forces but were unsuccessful, until 1526 when the Portuguese razed Bintan. The Sultan retreated to Kampar in Sumatra where he died two years later. He left behind two sons named Muzaffar Shah and Alauddin Riayat Shah II . Muzaffar Shah

11616-485: The option of answering questions using Jawi. The Latin script, however, is the most commonly used in Brunei and Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes. Historically, Malay has been written using various scripts. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using the Pallava , Kawi and Rencong scripts; these scripts are no longer frequently used, but similar scripts such as

11748-729: The pronunciation of words ending in the vowel 'a'. For example, in some parts of Malaysia and in Singapore, kita (inclusive 'we, us, our') is pronounced as /kitə/ , in Kelantan and Southern Thailand as /kitɔ/ , in Riau as /kita/ , in Palembang as /kito/ , in Betawi and Perak as /kitɛ/ and in Kedah and Perlis as /kitɑ/. Malacca Sultanate The Malacca Sultanate ( Malay : Kesultanan Melaka ; Jawi script : کسلطانن ملاک ‎ )

11880-541: The region during the Malacca Sultanate era (1402–1511). It was the period the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic , Sanskrit , and Tamil vocabularies, called Classical Malay . Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognisable to speakers of modern Malay. When

12012-641: The region surrounding Malacca gradually intensified between the 15th and 16th centuries through study centres in Upeh, the district on the north bank of the Malacca River. Islam spread from Malacca to Jambi, Kampar, Bengkalis, Siak, Aru and the Karimun Islands in Sumatra, throughout much of the Malay Peninsula, Java and the Philippines. The Malay Annals mention that the courts of Malacca and Pasai posed theological questions and problems to one another. Of

12144-480: The region. The defeat of Ayutthaya brought political stability to Malacca and enhanced its reputation in South East Asia. Malacca reached its height of glory between the mid to late 15th century up to before the Portuguese occupation. The reign of Sultan Muzaffar Shah saw the territorial incorporation of the region between Dindings and Johor, and was the first Malaccan ruler to impose authority over both

12276-486: The reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah ( r.  1424–1444 ), who called the kingdom "Malakat" ( Arabic for "congregation of merchants") because it was home to many trading communities. Following the establishment of his new city in Malacca, Parameswara began to develop the city and laid the foundation of a trade port. The Orang Laut , were employed to patrol the adjacent sea areas, to repel pirates, and to direct traders to Malacca. Within years, news about Malacca becoming

12408-512: The rising power of Ayutthaya to the north. The growing ambitions of Ayutthaya against its neighbours and the Malay Peninsula had alarmed the ruler of Malacca. In a preemptive measure, the king headed a royal visit to China in 1418 to raise his concerns about the threat. Yongle responded in October 1419 by sending his envoy to warn the Siamese ruler. Relationship between China and Malacca were further strengthened by several envoys to China, led by

12540-515: The river was developed as a tourist attraction in the city as the Malacca River Cruise , where tourists would hop on a boat and embark on a 45-minute sightseeing tour of the city and its historic core as it cruises along the river, from Pengkalan Rama in the east to Bandar Hilir near the coast of the Strait of Malacca . This Malacca location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to

12672-486: The river which is the central to Malacca as a historical city was carried out. This included construction of a tidal barrage , restoration of buildings and bridges, dredging, and building concrete river banks with river walkways. Land reclamation projects have extended the river mouth further into the Straits. The Malacca River, near its mouth, flows in the middle of Malacca City , a World Heritage Site . This section of

12804-414: The same person, but a number of authors also accept the similarly named Megat Iskandar Shah as Parameswara's son. During the reign of Megat Iskandar Shah ( r.  1414–1424 ), the kingdom continued to prosper, the Sultan's control spread from Kuala Linggi to Kuala Kesang, roughly corresponding to the modern state of Malacca . The period saw the diversification of economic sources of the kingdom with

12936-407: The settlement after the tree he was leaning against while witnessing the portentous event. Today, the mouse deer is part of modern Malacca's coat of arms . The name "Malacca" itself was derived from the fruit-bearing Melaka tree ( Malay : Pokok Melaka ) scientifically termed as Phyllanthus emblica . Another theory to the origin of Malacca's name is that it originated from Arab merchants, during

13068-416: The so-called Wali Sanga responsible for spreading Islam on Java, at least two, Sunan Bonang and Sunan Kalijaga , are said to have studied in Malacca. Tomé Pires mentions in his Suma Oriental that the rulers of Kampar and Indragiri on the east coast of Sumatra converted to Islam as a result of Sultan Muzaffar Shah's influence and went on to study the religion in Malacca. The Malay Annals also mentions

13200-652: The sole official language in West Malaysia in 1968, and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in the superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that of Malaysia. In Singapore, Malay was historically the lingua franca among people of different nationalities. Although this has largely given way to English, Malay still retains

13332-507: The son of Tun Wati who in turn a daughter of a wealthy Indian merchant, and Raja Ibrahim, the son of the Princess of Rokan. He was succeeded by his younger son, Raja Ibrahim, who reigned as Sultan Abu Syahid Shah ( r. 1444–1446 ). Abu Syahid was a weak ruler and his administration was largely controlled by Raja Rokan, a cousin of his mother who stayed in the court of Malacca during his reign. The situation prompted court officials to plan

13464-435: The status of national language and the national anthem , Majulah Singapura , is entirely in Malay. In addition, parade commands in the military, police and civil defence are given only in Malay. Most residents of the five southernmost provinces of Thailand —a region that, for the most part, used to be part of an ancient Malay kingdom called Pattani —speak a dialect of Malay called Yawi (not to be confused with Jawi), which

13596-422: The subjects of Malacca listened to his teachings. Shortly after, Raja Tengah adopted the Muslim name, Muhammad Shah and the title Sultan on the advice of the ulama. He began to Islamise his administration—customs, royal protocols, bureaucracy and commerce were made to conform to the principles of Islam. As Malacca became increasingly important as an international trading centre, the equitable regulation of trade

13728-548: The superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that in Malaysia. In the Philippines , Indonesian is spoken by the overseas Indonesian community concentrated in Davao City . Functional phrases are taught to members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as well as local students. Malay, like most Austronesian languages,

13860-572: The surviving population. As a result of mutual agreement between the Dutch and Johor earlier in 1606, Malacca was handed over to the Dutch. The fall of Malacca benefited other kingdoms such as Brunei whose ports became a new entrepôt as the kingdom emerged as a new center of trade in the Malay Archipelago, attracting many Muslim traders who fled from the Portuguese occupation after the ruler of Brunei's conversion to Islam . Malacca had

13992-660: The territory of Melaka will they be allowed to come to Court to offer a gift. If they refuse and blindly hold to their ways, although the foreign yi are not used to using weapons, we will have to summon the various yi to arms, proclaim the crimes and punish the Fo-lang-ji, so as to make clear the Great Precepts of Right Conduct. — Qiu Dao Long, the Investigating Censor of Ming, Ming Shilu , 13 January 1521 The Portuguese conquest of Malacca enraged

14124-597: The throne, acting on Tun Perak's advice, he agreed to dispatch a peace envoy to Siam. Tun Perak also advised the Sultan to marry the daughter of the King of Majapahit, Malacca's traditional enemy. Next to the Bendahara was a state treasurer, called the Penghulu bendahari . Next was the Temenggung which was comparable to a chief of public police and state security. After the Temenggung was the Laksamana. The Laksamana

14256-403: The tributary system, just like Srivijaya did centuries earlier. Learning of this diplomatic maneuver, King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit sent an envoy to Nanking and convinced the emperor that Malayu was their vassal, and not an independent country. Subsequently, in 1377—a few years after the death of Gajah Mada , Majapahit sent a punitive naval attack against a rebellion in Palembang, which caused

14388-510: The warehouses. To administer the cosmopolitan marketplace, the traders were grouped according to region and placed under one of four shahbandars . Malacca had few domestic products with which to trade. It produced small amounts of tin and gold as well as dried fish , yet even the salt for preserving the fish had to be sourced from elsewhere in the region. Basic goods, including vegetables , cattle and fish , were supplied by Malacca's trading partners. Rice , mainly for local consumption,

14520-453: The west coast of the Malay Peninsula . Malay and Portuguese sources give different accounts of the fall of Singapura and its last king. In Portuguese sources, he is referred to as Parameswara and originated in Palembang but usurped the throne of Singapura, but in Malay sources he is Iskandar Shah, a descendant Seri Teri Buana who became the fifth king of Singapura. Parameswara fled north to Muar , Ujong Tanah and Biawak Busuk before reaching

14652-621: The western and eastern ends of the Malay Peninsula . The kingdom controlled a section of global trade on a vital choke point; the narrow strait that today bears its name, the Strait of Malacca . Its port city had become the centre of regional and international trade, attracting regional traders as well as traders from major states such as the Chinese Ming dynasty , the Ryukyu Kingdom as well as Persians, Gujarats and Arabs. The reign of Mansur Shah ( r. 1459–1477 ) witnessed

14784-458: The young and enslaved them. In view of the Lê dynasty's position as a protectorate to China, Malacca abstained from any act of retaliation. Instead, Malacca sent envoys to China in 1481 to report on the Vietnamese aggression and their invasion plan against Malacca, as well as to confront the Vietnamese envoys who happened to be present in the Ming court. However, the Chinese informed that since the incident

14916-480: 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

15048-466: Was already strongly entrenched among the local population. Melaka is a country which offers tribute and which has been Imperially enfeoffed. The Fo-lang-ji have annexed it and, enticing us with gain, are seeking enfeoffment and rewards. Righteousness will certainly not allow this. It is requested that their gift be refused, that the difference between according and disobedience be clearly made known and that they be advised that only after they have returned

15180-427: Was also able to vassalise Siak in Sumatra. Later in his reign, Pahang, Kampar and Indragiri rebelled but were eventually subdued. The friendly relations between China and Malacca escalated during the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah. The Sultan sent an envoy headed by Tun Perpatih Putih to China, carrying a diplomatic letter from the Sultan to the Emperor. According to the Malay Annals , Tun Perpatih succeeded in impressing

15312-523: Was also accompanied by these warriors. At that time, Majapahit was already declining and found itself unable to overcome the rising power of the Malaccan Sultanate. After a display of Malaccan military prowess in his court, the king of Majapahit, afraid of losing more territories, agreed to marry off his daughter, Raden Galuh Cendera Kirana to Sultan Mansur Shah and hand over control of Indragiri, Jambi, Tungkal and Siantan to Malacca. Mansur Shah

15444-817: Was an important factor in enabling Malacca to foster good relations with other Islamic polities, including the Ottoman Empire , thereby attracting Muslim traders to Malacca. Thirdly, Islam brought many great transformation into Malaccan society and culture, and ultimately it became a definitive marker of a Malay identity. This identity was in turn enriched further through the standards set by Malacca in some important aspects of traditional Malay culture, notably in literature , architecture , culinary traditions , traditional dress, performing arts, martial arts, and royal court traditions. Over time, this common Malay cultural idiom came to characterise much of Maritime Southeast Asia through Malayisation . Malacca developed from

15576-418: Was captured on that day . The Portuguese constructed a fortress called A Famosa using rocks and stones taken from Muslim graves, mosques, and other buildings. Several churches and convents, a bishop's palace, and administrative buildings such as the governor's palace were built. The Portuguese imposed higher taxes on Chinese traders and restricted their ownership of land. The news of the city's capture reached

15708-476: Was chased away by a Malaccan army that beheaded 30,000 Đại Việt soldiers. The expansionist policy of Mansur Shah was maintained throughout his reign when he later added Kampar and Siak to his realm. He also turned a number of states in the archipelago into his imperial dependencies. The ruler of such states would come to Malacca after their coronation to obtain the blessing of the Sultan of Malacca. Rulers who had been overthrown also came to Malacca requesting

15840-571: Was described in his own words when he arrived to Malacca: If they were only to take "Malaca" out of the hands of the Moors , Cairo and Mecca would be entirely ruined, and Venice would then be able to obtain no spiceries except what her merchants might buy in Portugal. The Portuguese launch their first attack on 25 July 1511, but this was met with failure. Albuquerque then launched another attack on 15 August 1511, which proved successful as Malacca

15972-635: Was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra , on the banks of the Tatang, a tributary of the Musi River . It is a small stone of 45 by 80 centimetres (18 by 31 in). For centuries, Srivijaya , through its expansion, economic power and military prowess, was responsible for the widespread of Old Malay throughout the Malay Archipelago . It

16104-727: Was governed with several sets of laws. The formal legal text of traditional Malacca consisted of the Undang-Undang Melaka (Laws of Malacca), variously called the Hukum Kanun Melaka and Risalat Hukum Kanun , and the Undang-Undang Laut Melaka (the Maritime Laws of Malacca'). The laws as written in the legal digests went through an evolutionary process. The legal rules that eventually evolved were shaped by three main influences, namely

16236-456: Was gradually replaced by the Rumi script. Malay is spoken in Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia , East Timor , Singapore and southern Thailand . Indonesia regulates its own normative variety of Malay, while Malaysia and Singapore use a common standard. Brunei, in addition to Standard Malay, uses a distinct vernacular dialect called Brunei Malay . In East Timor , Indonesian is recognised by

16368-684: Was imported. Much of the mercantile activity in Malacca, therefore, relied on the flow of goods from other parts of the region. Among Malacca's most crucial functions was its role as both a collection centre for cloves , nutmeg and mace from the Maluku Islands and a redistribution centre for cotton textiles from ports in Gujarat , the Coromandel Coast , Malabar Coast and Bengal . Other goods traded in Malacca included porcelain , silk and iron from China and natural products of

16500-546: Was invited by the people in the north of the peninsula to become their ruler, establishing the Sultanate of Perak. Meanwhile, Mahmud Shah's other son, Alauddin succeeded his father and established the Sultanate of Johor . Malacca was later conquered by the Dutch in a joint military campaign in January 1641. The Portuguese fortress, did not fall to the force of Dutch or Johorean arms as much as to famine and disease that decimated

16632-489: Was once wooed by the sultan himself. By the 15th century, Europe had developed an appetite for spices . At that time, the spice trade was virtually monopolised by Venetian merchants via a convoluted trade route through the Arabian Peninsula and India, which in turn linked to its source in the Maluku Islands via Malacca. Upon becoming king in 1481, John II of Portugal decided to break this chain and control

16764-531: Was strong enough militarily to defend itself. In spite of these developments, China maintained a continuous show of friendship, suggesting that it placed Malacca in high regard. In fact, although it was China's practice to consider most foreign countries as vassal states – including Italy and Portugal – its relations with Malacca were characterised by mutual respect and friendship, such as that between two sovereign countries. Muhammad Shah died in 1444 after reigning for twenty years and left behind two sons; Raja Kasim,

16896-547: Was the head of the navy and also the chief emissary of the Sultan. He ensured that the Malacca Strait was safe and enforced the Undang-Undang Laut Melaka (Maritime Laws of Malacca). Malacca's most prominent Laksamana was Hang Tuah . At the bottom of this nobility structure were the four Shahbandars ('harbour masters') for the different communities in the port—one focused exclusively on handling

17028-464: Was the key to continued prosperity—and the Undang-Undang Laut Melaka (Maritime Laws of Malacca), promulgated during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah, was an important facet of this. So too was the appointment of four Shahbandars for the different communities of the port. This accommodated foreign traders, who were also assigned their own enclaves in the city. In the 1430s, China had reversed its policy of maritime expansion. However, by then Malacca

17160-675: Was the working language of traders and it was used in various ports, and marketplaces in the region. Other evidence is the Tanjung Tanah Law in post-Pallava letters. This 14th-century pre-Islamic legal text was produced in the Adityawarman era (1345–1377) of Dharmasraya , a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that arose after the end of Srivijayan rule in Sumatra . The laws were for the Minangkabau people , who today still live in

17292-870: Was used solely as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communications. Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean , with a smaller number in continental Asia . Malagasy , a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean , is also a member of this language family. Although these languages are not necessarily mutually intelligible to any extent, their similarities are often quite apparent. In more conservative languages like Malay, many roots have come with relatively little change from their common ancestor, Proto-Austronesian language . There are many cognates found in

17424-499: Was years old, they could do nothing about it, and the Chinese Emperor Chenghua sent a letter to the Vietnamese ruler reproaching him for the incident. The Emperor also granted permission for Malacca to retaliate with violent force should the Vietnamese attack, an event that never happened again. An unsubstantiated Chinese account reported that Lê Thánh Tông led 90,000 men on an invasion to Lan Sang but this force

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