Was the City of Melek predisposed to accept Alma’s message? Certain words and names in the Book of Mormon are demonstrably of Hebrew origin. For example, Melek in Hebrew means king. In written Hebrew, vowels are not typically used, thus the name Melek may be linguistically related to Mulek. This could have been a Mulekite city, and because of the close similarity between their names, it could have been a royal city or one in which a king had great influence. A few chapters earlier, Alma the Younger had to fight against the king-men (Alma 2–3). While Amlici’s base of operations is unknown, it is possible that Alma went to the city of Melek specifically because they had preferred the traditional institution of kingship and needed reinforcement in accepting the "holy order of God" (8:4) and the new system of judges in the land of Zarahemla.
When Alma went next to the city of Ammonihah, however, he was running straight into a hotbed of Nehorism. In fact, we are told that they "were of the profession of Nehor," whom Alma had caused to be executed in Alma 1, and that as Nehorites they "did not believe in the repentance of their sins" (15:15; see also Alma 1:4). Moreover, Ammonihah was called the "Desolation of Nehors" (16:11) after it was destroyed. The mention of the city of Melek appears here as a strong literary contrast, setting the stage spiritually for readers to hope that Alma would have the same success in Ammonihah. That, however, did not happen.
Book of Mormon Central, "Why Should Readers Pay Close Attention to the Mulekites? (Omni 1:19)," KnoWhy 434 (May 17, 2018).