The Malacca Sultanate (Malay: Kesultanan Melayu Melaka; Jawi script: كسلطانن ملايو ملاك) was a Malay sultanate centred in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks c. 1400 as the founding year of the sultanate by a renegade Malay Raja of Singapura, Parameswara who was also known as Iskandar Shah. At the height of the sultanate's power in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important entrepots of its time, with territory covering much of the Malay Peninsula, Riau Islands and a significant portion of the east coast of Sumatra.

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 the lingua franca of the 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, the Malaccan era witnessed the enculturation of a Malay identity, the Malayisation of the region and the subsequent formation of an Alam Melayu.

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