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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

ginally a Hsi-Hsia name (PALLADIUS, in Y, 1, 225, was mistaken in believing that the name occurred
first under Qubilai); N. A. NEVSKII (Zap. Inst. Vostokoved., 1933, 129-150) has made it probable
that it represents Hsi-Hsia * Rźie-njä, « Black River », the 黑 水 Hei-shui of Chinese texts. A road
connected Eçina and Qara-qorum, and I agree with PALLADIUS that this is the reason why Polo,
having inserted after Kan-chou his digression on Eçina, adds to it his notice on Qara-qorum, a
place which he never visited.
The notice in YS, 60, 11 b, says : « Circuit (lu) of I-chi-nai; 3rd rank. Lies 1.500 li to the north
of Kan-chou. North-east of the city, there is a great marshy lake. North-west, it confines with
the Sandy desert (= Gobi). This is the ancient city of 居 延 Chü-yen of the commandery (chün)
of Hsi-hai (« Western Sea ») of the Han. The [Hsi-] Hsia kingdom established there the [seat of the]
military district (chün) of 威 福 Wei-fu. [The place] made its submission in 1226. In 1284, a
tsung-kuan-fu was established there. » The text goes on with an account, in smaller characters, of
the irrigation works undertaken in the region in 1286, including the making of the canal of 合 卯
Ha-chi (* Qazi ? ?).
Eçina still occurs in Mongolian as Isina in the unpublished Sino-Mongol inscription of the Prince
Indu (Hindu), dated 1362. It must have been abandoned some time after the overthrow of the
Mongols, during the second half of the 14th century, though the name I-chi-nai is found under the
year 1490 in 殊 域 周 咨 錄 Shu yü chou tzŭ lu, 17, 3 a, a rare work by MOULE 嚴 從 簡 Yen Ts'ung-
chien, reprinted in 1930.
For finds of Han relics in the region of the Edzin-γol, cf. TP, 1932, 264.


215. EGIPTE

egipte F egitto TA³ egipte FA, FB

In agreement with the habit of the time, Polo usually speaks of Egypt as « Babilonie » (q. v.);
he also once mentions Cairo (see « Chaiero »). But in the Prologue, we are told that the two elder
Polo, on reaching Acre, found « Teald de Plajence » appointed legate for the Church of Rome « in
all the realm of Egipte » (cf. Vol. 1, 80). In Vol. 1, 23-25, MOULE has explained the chronological
difficulties which this information entails; I am concerned here only with the sense which we must
attach in the present case to « Egypt ». Whether a legate or not, Theobald of the Visconti of Placen-
tia a certainly wielded great authority in the Holy Land, but he does not seem to have visited Egypt.
My opinion is that, by « all the realm of Egypt », we must understand all the territories under the
authority of the Mamlük sultans, that is to say not only Egypt, but also Palestine and a great part
of Syria.
The name « Egypt » did not pass into Asiatic languages at an ancient date; its Chinese transcrip-
tion 埃 及 Ai-chi is modern. Shortly before and after our era, the Chinese knew Alexandria (see
«Alexandre²»), and it is only from the second half of the 12th cent. that Egypt itself is mentioned
in Chinese texts; it was then known to the Chinese under the Arabic name of مصر Miṣr (cf. Hebrew