Parameswara of Malacca

Parameswara (1344 – c. 1414), thought to be the same person named in the Malay Annals as Iskandar Shah, was the last king of Singapura and the founder of Malacca. According to the Malay Annals, he ruled Singapura from 1389 to 1398. The king fled the island kingdom after a Majapahit naval invasion in 1398 and founded his new stronghold on the mouth of Bertam river in 1402. Within decades, the new city grew rapidly to become the capital of the Malacca Sultanate. Portuguese accounts however, written a hundred years after his death, suggest he was from Palembang in Sumatra and usurped the throne of Singapura; he was driven out, either by the Siamese or the Majapahit, and went on to found Malacca. The name Parameswara is found in Portuguese sources such as Suma Oriental, and written Paramicura or Parimicura. Parameswara is a Hindu name derived from the Sanskrit word Parameśvara (परमेश्वर), a concept literally meaning the "Supreme Lord". The word "parama" meaning "the supreme" is added to Ishvara as an intensifier. Parameśvara is also one of the names of Lord Shiva. However, the name Parameswara is not found in the Malay Annals, which tell a romanticized history of the kingdoms of Singapura and Malacca. It gives the name Iskandar Shah as the last ruler of Singapura and founder of Malacca. Iskandar is Persian for "Alexander", after Alexander the Great, and Shah the Persian title for a king. It has been conjectured that Iskandar Shah of the Malay Annals is the same person as Parameswara based on certain commonalities in their biographies. The Ming Chronicle (Ming Shilu) recorded that the consort of Parameswara known as Bā-ér-mí-sū-lǐ (八兒迷蘇里) ('Parameswari') attended a banquet together with the king Bai-li-mi-su-la (拜里迷蘇剌, 'Parameswara') in the Ming court. It is more likely that 'Parameswari' ("Supreme Lordess") referred to a title rather than a given name as evidenced by its application in the Malay Annals to Sang Nila Utama's mother-in-law, Queen Parameswari Iskandar Shah, and is in fact still in use today in the form of "Permaisuri" ('Queen') in the Malay language.

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