Sultan Megat Iskandar Shah ibni Almarhum Raja Parameswara (died 1424) is believed to be either the first or the second

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

and the son of Parameswara. The position of Megat Iskandar Shah as the second ruler of

has historically been contested. Some argued that he is the same person as Parameswara, but was mistaken as a different person after Parameswara converted to Islam and changed his name, others however disagree that such a mistake could be made, and that Megat Iskandar Shah was indeed the second ruler of Malacca. He maintained a good relationship with the

Ming Empire The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

of China and paid tribute to China regularly. According to Portuguese sources he pushed for trade to move to Malacca instead of Singapura.

Identity

Due to discrepancies between Malay, Chinese and Portuguese sources on the early history of Malacca, there have been some differences in opinions about the early rulers of the kingdom. The ''

Malay Annals The ''Malay Annals'' (Malay: ''Sejarah Melayu'', Jawi: سجاره ملايو), originally titled ''Sulalatus Salatin'' (''Genealogy of Kings''), is a literary work that gives a romanticised history of the origin, evolution and demise of the gr ...

'' indicates that the founder of Malacca was Iskandar Shah, while Portuguese sources give the name Parameswara, and that Iskandar Shah was his son. Chinese sources recorded the name Mekat Iskandar Shah as the son of Parameswara. The ''Malay Annals'' refers to the son of Iskandar Shah as Raja Besar Muda, or Raja Kechil Besar / Sultan Megat in Raffles MS. Sir Richard Winstedt initially supported the existence of Megat Iskandar Shah as a separate person in 1935. However, soon after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he re-evaluated his opinion after the accounts in the ''Suma Oriental'' by the Portuguese writer

Tomé Pires Tomé Pires (1465?–1524 or 1540)Madureira, 150–151. was a Portuguese apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in Southeast As ...

was published in 1944. Winstedt argued that Ming dynasty sources had mistaken Parameswara and Megat Iskandar Shah as two different persons when Parameswara had merely adopted a new name after converting to Islam in 1414.

George Coedes George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

states that Iskandar Shah was simply the name of Paramesvara after he had converted to Islam and married a daughter of the king of Pasai. In the 2005 book ''Admiral Zheng He & Southeast Asia'' published by Singapore's

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

, Professor

Wang Gungwu Wang Gungwu, (; born 9 October 1930) is a Chinese-Singaporean historian, sinologist, and writer. He is a historian of China and Southeast Asia. He has studied and written about the Chinese diaspora, but he has objected to the use of the word ...

, in his paper ''The First Three Rulers of Melaka'', published in 1968, put forward evidence to support the belief that Megat Iskandar Shah was the second ruler of Malacca. The Ming annals named Parameswara as ''Bai-li-mi-su-la'' (拜里迷蘇剌) and his son ''Mu-gan Sa-yu-ti-er-sha'' (母幹撒于的兒沙) or Megat Iskandar Shah. Wang argued that the Parameswara had already visited China in 1411 and met the Emperor, and it is therefore unlikely that they would have mistaken him for his son who visited three years later. According to ''

History of Ming The ''History of Ming'' or the ''Ming History'' (''Míng Shǐ'') is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the ''Twenty-Four Histories''. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It ...

'', "The Prince Mugansakandi'ersha (Megat Iskandar Shah) paid tribute to the

Yongle Emperor The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyn ...

in 1414. After being informed that his father had died, the Emperor gave him gold coins and granted him his inherited title. After that Iskandar Shah paid frequent tribute to the Emperor."

Conversion

According to ''Suma Oriental'' written by

, the son of Paramicura (Parameswara), Chaquem Daraxa (Iskandar Shah), converted to Islam at the age of 72 and died when he was 80. Megat Iskandar Shah's conversion to Islam may have made it easier for him to establish a relationship with the traders of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Megat Iskandar Shah 1424 deaths Year of birth unknown Sultans of Malacca History of Malacca 15th-century monarchs in Asia