National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

214. EÇINA   637

Of course I am not blind to the fact that the chain of my argument lacks several links, and that I have to replace by hypotheses elements of information which have not reached us or which I have failed to trace. But I am confident that the solutions I have proposed may be nearer the truth, and at any rate are more coherent than those afforded hitherto.

On 1;, « Dhofar » of our maps, on the southern coast of Arabia, cf. Y, I, 445; the name is «Dofar» in Barbosa (cf. DAMES, Barbosa, I, 67); Fe, 395; FERRAND, in JA, 1925, I, 308-309; II, 209. There is no doubt that the transcription 7afâr, still given by some authors, is wrong, and that the name is Zufâr or 7ofàr.

In Chinese texts, the name appears first in 1225, used by Chao Ju-kua under the form SK Nu-fa (fa with ancient -t, used also for -1, -r) ; cf. HR, 116, 121, 195. It is then mentioned again in

the first half of the 15th cent. as jj~,   Q, Tsu-fa-êrh and Tso [ ]-fa-êrh (7ufâr and 7ofâr) ; cf. ROCK-
HILL, in TP, 1915, 611-614; DUYVENDAK, Ma Huan re-examined, 58-59; my remarks in TP, 1933, 299-300, 418-420. Chêng Ho's visit to 7ofâr is probably to be placed in 1421-1422.

214.  EÇINA

azian V   eezima TA'   ezina L, LTr, P; R

azina Z   esanar FA, FB   ocina VA

eccina VL   ezima TA3   zenoda (?), zinai VB

eçina F, Fr, t, L, LT

This is the j)   T I-chi-nai (I-tsi-nai, * Izinai ?) circuit (lu) of Mongol times, the name of

which survives in Etsin-gol (Edzin-yol) or « River Etsin », north of Kan-chou (in Kan-su) ; the city of Eçina corresponds to the ruins of Khara-khoto, Mara-ljoto, (« Black City »), well-known through the explorations and discoveries of KozLov and STEIN (cf. STEIN, Innermost Asia, 1, 435-506). It appears as « Ezina » on the map of Fra Mauro (cf. Zu, 35; HALLBERG, 200).

The name of the city of Eçina goes back at least to the beginning of the 13th cent., since we

find it then, transcribed jj; go . I-chi-na (I-tsi-na, * Izina ?) in Chinese, and probably   Isän
(or Esän) in Ragidu-'d-Din (cf. JA, 1920, I, 181-182, and see « Calacian »); it seems to have been ori-