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0165 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 165 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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270. LAMBRI   761

t, 26; HALLBERG, 307-308. I have adopted « Laias » as Rustichello's original spelling, due to the common use of this form among the « Franks »; it is of course = « L'Ayas ». The true form was nevertheless well-known, and used in Latin; the alternance between the forms in Polo's French texts and the Latin ones is the same as in the French and Latin texts of Hethum. If « Aiaç » _ Ayaz could be proved to be Polo's original form, we ought perhaps to see in « Laias » of the French texts an influence of Hethum's work, such as I have supposed in the case of « Man » and « Batu » and « Badascian ».

270. LAMBRI

abraan, lanbren VB cambu G

labri F, VA

labrin Fr

lambra FB   lambry FA

lambri FB, L, LT, P, TA',   lanbri F, Ft, L, TM, VA, Z

TA3, VL, Z; R   lanbrin V

This « kingdom » occupied the north-western end of the island of Sumatra; it must have been in the neighbourhood of the future Acheh (or Achin); cf. Y, ir, 300-301, who points out a village Lamreh, on Achin territory, as the possible site of ancient « Lambri ». RocKHILL (TP, 1915, 253)

sees Achin in 1,2   Ya-chih, although one would not expect the name of Achin (Aceh) to be
already known in 1349-1350.

The name is Lamuri in the Javanese Nâgarakrétagama of 1365 (Fe, 652) ; the earliest mention of it is « Ilâmuri » in the Tanjore inscription of 1030 (i- is a Tamil prefix; Fe, 647). The Mussulman texts write SrY Lâmuri (once probably Lamûri in Rasidu-'d-Din); cf. Fe, 715, and JA, 1922, tt, 71-72; they range from the 13th to the middle of the 16th cent. Odoric mentions « Lamori » (Wy, 445; hence « Lamory » in Maundeville and « Lamuri » in Fra Mauro; cf. HALLBERG, 310). A late Malay chronicle and Barros have « Lambri », and « Lambrij », just like Polo ( Y, n, 300, 303).

The first Chinese mention of this «kingdom» is in 1178, under the form   Lan-li (= Lamri);
in 1225, Chao Ju-kua writes e P;I,an-wu-li (*Lammuri); cf. HR, 72-73. The YS writes

j

4121 Nan-wu-li (*Nammuri) for an embassy of 1284 and also in the biography of Yiymis (YS,

131, 8 b),   fj Nan-wu-li (*Nammuri) for another embassy of 1286 (cf. TP, 1914, 439-440);
it is the last spelling that occurs again in YS, 210, 7 b, and in the preliminaries of the Ching-ship ta-tien of c. 1330 reproduced un Yiian wên lei, 41, 20 b. The it g Mu-li of YS, 162, 6 a (cf. GROENEVELDT, in Miscell. papers relating to Indo-China, 2nd Ser., I, 152), is perhaps altered

from [Nan-]mu-li, *Namuri. In 1349, we find Pkj   Nan-wu-li (Nammuri) in the Tao-i chih-lio
(TP, 1915, 148).

In the beginning of the 15th cent., the place was visited by Chêng Ho's missions, but curiously enough, appears under two slightly different names, Mj 1! Nan-wu-li (*Nammuri) and jj fq Nan-po-li (*Nambori or *Nambri), and envoys of these « two » countries were received together on November 19, 1416, and left on December 28, 1416 (cf. TP, 1933, 295-296; 1934, 287-288); I have