The youngest of the four sons, Baab Mashur Malamo was, according to Ternatan legend, born in heaven, and therefore enjoyed a special status.

[3] Ternate along with neighbouring Tidore were the world's single major producer of cloves, upon which their rulers became among the wealthiest and most powerful sultans in the Indonesian region.

Up until the Dutch completed the colonisation of Maluku in the 19th century, the Sultans of Ternate ruled realms that claimed at least nominal influence as far as Ambon, Sulawesi and Papua.

[5] In part as a result of its trade-dependent culture, Ternate was one of the earliest places in the region to which Islam spread, coming from Java in the late 15th century.

[7] Initially, the faith was restricted to Ternate's small ruling family, and spread only slowly to the rest of the population.

According to historian Leonard Y. Andaya, Ternate's "dualistic" rivalry with Tidore is a dominant theme in the early history of the Maluku Islands.

In a punitive expedition, it once destroyed Bo-ol in the Central Visayas region, forcing the Boholanos to re-establish their kingdom in Northern Mindanao.

[10] The first Europeans to stay on Ternate were part of the Portuguese expedition of Francisco Serrão out of Malacca, which was shipwrecked near Seram and rescued by local residents.

The Spanish forced the Ternate ruler, Sultan Said Din Berkat to settle in Manila and pushed him to accept Christianity.

Till this day, the Ternate community speak Ternateño Chavacano, a creole language of Spanish with Ternatean and Portuguese influence.

In attempts to frustrate Spain, the Ternateans militarily supported the Sultanates of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines by sending reinforcement, during the Spanish-Moro Wars.

[19] Sultan Haji Muhammad Usman (1902–1914) made a last attempt to oppose the Dutch by clandestinely endorsing revolts in the region; he failed and was dethroned, his wealth being confiscated, and he was exiled to Bandung, where he lived until 1932.

This spelt the end of the traditional Ternatan kingdom, since the administration and settlement pattern were forcibly changed by the Dutch.

The throne of Ternate was left vacant from 1914 to 1929, until the board of ministers under the blessing of the Dutch created Crown Prince Iskandar Muhammad Jabir the next Sultan.

The male members of his wife's family, the Dutch Van Gelders, were named Prince of Ternate in 2012, and tried to control the sultanate after Mudaffar's death [citation needed].

Other main officials were the sea lord (kapitan laut) and two magistrates (hukum) who saw it that the commands of the jogugu were followed by the soa leaders.

[25] Outside of Ternate, the Sultan held suzerainty over a realm shifting in size, usually including parts of Halmahera, Buru, the Ambon Quarter, the Sula Islands, and the east coast of Sulawesi.

Local Malukan rulers who acknowledged Ternate's rule were called sangaji and must send tribute to the Sultan.

Fields in Halmahera and elsewhere which belonged to the royal court, were worked by serfs called ngofangare and non-Muslim locals, so-called Alfurs.

Most importantly, they tended and harvested the clove trees, which gave the Sultan most of his income up to the onset of Dutch colonialism.

The museum exhibits the genealogy of the Ternatean royal family from 1257, a collection of Portuguese and Dutch helmets, swords and armour, and memorabilia from the previous sultans.

The form of the organization of the empire and the application of Islamic law which was first introduced by Sultan Zainal Abidin and later implemented by his successors in the 16th century, became the standard followed by all the kingdoms in Maluku without significant changes.

[30] The success of the Ternate people under Sultan Baabullah in expelling Portugal in 1575, was the first indigenous victory of an archipelagic polity over western powers.

The 20th-century writer Buya Hamka praised the victory of the Ternate people as it delayed the western occupation of the archipelago for 100 years while at the same time strengthening the position of Islam.

[31] If Ternate had not halted European political and missionary efforts, the eastern part of Indonesia might have become a Christian center like the Philippines.