Moluccas

From Maluku, thought to have been derived from the term used by Arab traders for the region, Arabic جَزِيرَات المَلِك (jazīrāt al-malik, literally “king islands”), from the word مَلِك (malik). However, since the name itself has been mentioned in a 14th-century Majapahit eulogy, Nagarakretagama, that predates the arrival of Islam in Maluku at the late fifteenth century, other sources claim that the name comes from a local language with the meaning "the head of a bull" or "the head of something large".^[1]

• IPA^(key): /məˈlʌkəz/

Moluccas

1. An archipelago of Indonesia.

• Maluku, Malukus
• Maluku Islands/Maluku islands
• Moluccan Islands
• Spice Islands