Malaysia

Malaysia is a point of convergence of several major cultural traditions that stem from archipelagic Southeast Asia as well as from China, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West.

From the 13th through the 17th century, Sunni Islam, carried chiefly by Arab and Indian merchants, spread widely through peninsular and insular Southeast Asia.

Melaka (Malacca) is a key city in the countries development, in 1400, as the Eastern Terminus for Middle Eastern trade, distributing goods from China to Europe. Setup as a Free Trade zone with Islamic approaches to business.

Malacca’s political and religious influence reached its height under Tun Perak, who served as chief minister (1456–98) after defeating the expanding Siamese (Thai) in a fierce naval battle; during his tenure Islam became well entrenched in such districts (and subsidiary sultanates) as Johor (Johore), Kedah, Perak, Pahang, and Terengganu.

The mostly Islamicized people of 15th-century Malacca began calling themselves “Malays” (“Melayu”), likely a reference to their Sumatran origins. Thereafter the term Malay was applied to those who practiced Islam and spoke a version of the Malay language. 

Religious and linguistic behaviour, rather than descent, then, became the criteria for being Malay; this enabled previously Hindu-Buddhist peoples and former adherents of local religions to identify themselves (and even merge) with the Malays—regardless of their ancestry.  (Fascinating, different to Sunni and Shia in the Middle East, which was either Political or Direct blood-line to Muhammad).

Information has been copied and pasted from (https://www.britannica.com/place/Malaysia/The-advent-of-Islam), and will be edited later into the story that I wish to tell based on experiences had.