The four sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Jailolo and Bacan were considered descendants of a legendary figure called Jafar Sadik and formed a ritual quadripartition.

Drawing wealth from the spice production and trade with other parts of Asia, Ternate and Tidore lorded over extensive realms which stretched from Sulawesi to Papua, while Jailolo and Bacan merely had local significance.

According to François Valentijn's account, Marhum was the son and successor of the seventeenth King Gapi Baguna II (r. 1432-1465), a pre-Islamic ruler of Ternate.

Reports were told by Javanese traders who came to the island, that native Ternateans were able to read out words from the letters of the Qur'an, it proves that the first tenets of Islam had entered North Molluccan society.

[8] Many Muslim Javanese traders frequented Ternate at the time and incited the king to learn more about the new creed, to establish an Islamic governance for his kingdom.

Bayan Sirrullah, also known as Abu Lais (in Portuguese sources, Boleife), was the eldest son of the first sultan of Ternate, Zainal Abidin.

[14] Islam had been accepted by the local elites of North Maluku in the second half of the 15th century, as a consequence of the importance of Muslim traders in the archipelago.

[16] His reign inaugurated a period of free trade in the spices and forest products that gave Maluku a significant role in Asian commerce.

[26] According to even later sources, he was descended from a line of Muslim qadis and thus started a new royal lineage, and eventually died in Gotowasi village in Halmahera.

Ciri Leliatu's son Sultan al-Mansur ruled when the Portuguese first visited Maluku in 1512, and met the remnants of the Magellan expedition in 1521.