The Malurians are from the Malurian system. They had a total population of four billion spread out on four planets.
In 2151, the Malurians were secretly mining the Akaali homeworld for veridium isotope. The crew of the NX-01 Enterprise put a stop to this.
In 2267, their civilization was nearly wiped out by the Nomad space probe from Earth. They were being studied by a Federation science team under the direction of Dr. Manway.