According to the Malay Annals, a fleeing Palembang prince named Sang Nila Utama, who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great (via his Islamic interpretation as Iskandar Zulkarnain), took refuge in the island of Bintan for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299. In this era, Temasek was a small trading outpost and primarily inhabited by Orang Laut seafarers. Historically, these Orang Laut were very loyal to the Malay kings, patrolling adjacent seas and repelling other petty pirates, directing traders to their Malay overlords' ports and maintaining those ports' dominance in the area. These Orang Laut eventually acclaimed him as Raja ("king"), and Sang Nila Utama renamed Temasek as "Singapura" and founded his capital around the mouth of the Singapore River.
