In 2002 he released "1515", an alternative historical fiction that takes on the Portuguese conquest of Malacca with victory siding instead to the Malacca Sultanate. It won first place in the 2002 Utusan Malaysia-Exxon Mobil Literature Prize plus the 2005 National Book Award in the General Malay Fiction category. The book is also used as a reading text for Malay studies at the University of Cologne in Germany. The book was eventually translated in 2011 by the National Translation Institute of Malaysia (Institut Terjemahan Buku Malaysia, or ITBM). "1515" is considered to be the most significant work by Faisal Tehrani at the beginning of his writing. For instance, Professor Emeritus Dr Salleh Yaapar, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), talks about the greatness of 1515; "which re-reveals the history and identity of the Malays". In an academic paper, Professor Salleh also named "1515" as a masterpiece. Professor Sohaimi Abdul Aziz, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), also named 1515 as a novel full of techniques and literary approaches. Rosma Derak from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia, described "1515" as the best of Faisal Tehrani's works and his strength was the use of 'deconstructing historiography' or 'rewriting history'. "1515" is also the only contemporary Malaysian novel mentioned in The Encyclopedia of the Blackwell issue of the novel (2011).