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0349 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 349 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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FRIAR ODORIC.   75

which the pepper groweth extendeth for a good eighteen days' journey, and in that forest there be two cities, the one whereof is called FLANDRINA and the other CYNGILIN.I In

1 Flandrina, as has been pointed out in a note on Jordanus (p. 40), is

s:

doubtless the Fandaraina of Ibn Batuta, and the Pandarani of the Ramusian geographer. It is found as Fandaraina (also miswritten Kandaraina) in Edrisi, and is probably the Bandinânah (for Bandirânah) of Abdarrazzak. It has vanished from the maps, but stood about twenty miles north of Calicut. Cyngilin is a greater difficulty. It is, however, evidently identical with the Cynkali of Marignolli, with the Singugli of Jordanus (p. 40), which that author mentions as a kingdom between Calicut and Quilon, with Jangli (which I doubt not should be read Chin kali) of Rashiduddin, and perhaps with the Gingala of Benjamin of Tudela. And it is unquestionably the Shinkala or Shinkali of Abulfeda (see Gilclermeister, p. 185, and Arab. text, p. 41), which he couples with Shaliyat, as two cities of Malabar, one of which was inhabited by Jews,

though his informant knew not which. Shaliyat, also mentioned under that name by Ibn Batuta, and called by the European navigators Chalia

and Chale, was the port next below Calicut, and the next to that again,

of any importance, was Cranganor. Now Assemani tells us incidentally (p. 440—see also p. 732) : " SCIGLA (i.e. Shigla or Shikala=Shinkala of

Abulfeda) alias et Chrongalor vocatur ea quain Cranganoriam dicimus

Malabarice urbem, ut testatur idem Jacobus Indiarum episcopus, ad calcem

Testamenti Novi ab ipso exarati   anno Christi 1510," etc. Cynkali or

Cyncilim or Shinkala, then, is CRANGANOR, the seat of one of the old

Malabar principalities, and famous in the early traditions of both Jews and Christians on that coast. It was there that, according to the former,

the black Jews of the tribe of Manasseh first settled and abode for more

than one thousand years ; it was there that St. Thomas is said to have first preached on the shores of India ; and there also the Mahomedans

were first allowed to settle and build a mosque. Barbosa, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, notices Crangalor as occupied by a varied population of " Gentiles, Moors, Indians (?), Jews, and Christians of St. Thomas." (J. R. A. Soc., i, 173, 174 ; Sir H. M. Elliot, Historians of

Muham., India, p. 43 ; Lassen, iv, 256 ; Ramusio, i, 311.) It is true that Odoric says in the text that the Jews and Christians lived in Flandrin a,

but what follows shows that there is some confusion, and that he means either that Jews and Christians lived in both cities, or Jews in the one and Christians in the other.

To these notices of Cyncilim, I may add that the Chinese annals also mention Sengkili, as one of the Western Kingdoms which sent tribute (i.e.,

envoys and presents) to Kublai; and as it is coupled with other countries which may be identified with Ma'bar and Somnath, it is highly probable

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