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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

it is to this second « Pentan » (which he has suppressed) that BENEDETTO applies the name in the
beginning of the next chapter, and that is why he substitutes « Malaiur ».

I see things in a different light. BENEDETTO's view is that Polo really went from Bintan to
« Malaiur », and then from « Malaiur » to « Ferlec » on the north-western coast of Sumatra. But,
since BENEDETTO admits that « Malaiur » was towards the Jambi river, there was no reason for Polo's
junk to go first from Bintan South to Jambi and then a long way north again before turning towards
« Ferlec ». It is much more natural to admit with YULE and BLAGDEN that the whole section on
« Malaiur » is a digression, and that the next chapter starts from Bintan again, following the normal
route (FERRAND's objection, JA, 1918, II, 94, to Polo's speaking of « Malaiur » in Sumatra, and then
coming back to Bintan to go again to the same island of Sumatra, is of no avail; Polo did not know
that « Malaiur », where he did not go, was on the same island as the north-western states he visited;
moreover, there would be no more point in coming back from Malacca to Bintan to pursue a road
towards « Ferlec »). As to the alterations in the text, I think they can be accounted for. An
early « intelligent » copyist was shocked when reading, after the notice of « Malaiur », that the tra-
veller went on from « Pentan », and added « Pentan » as the name of the « island » of « Malaiur ».
Another « intelligent » copyist, who did not have that spurious addition of a second « Pentan »,
(Mss. FA) arranged things by making the account start again from « Malaiur » instead of « Pentan »;
moreover, to fit better with the general course of the journey, he suppressed the mention, given
by both F and Z, that to go from « Pentan » to « Malaiur », one had to travel « South-East » (which
is true from Bintan to Jambi, especially for people who thought Sumatra to extend due West-East;
« South-East » is omitted by YULE, and consequently by FERRAND). My conclusion is that we
must suppress the mention of « Pentan » as the name of the « island » of « Malaiur », but carefully
keep « Pentan » afterwards as the point from which the journey and the narrative start again.

As to « Malaiur », which one reaches South-East of « Pentan », and in spite of wrong distances
collected by hearsay, I have no doubt that it is in the south-eastern half of Sumatra. In 1904,
I had spoken of the region of Palembang. But, in view of all the information that has been collected
since, it seems practically certain that « Malaiur » is here a name used for the Minangkabāw kingdom,
the centre of which was on the Jambi river. The Malāyu kingdom of Minangkabāw exerted political
influence, and even had a real power in the southern half of the Malay Peninsula, and that is why,
at the end of the 13th cent., the Ma-li-yü-êrh, that is to say the Malāyu of Minangkabāw, could
wage war there with the Siamese (cf. BEFEO, XXIII, 475).

The name of « Malaiur » seems to have been omitted from mediaeval cartography, unless it is
represented by the city of « Melaro » which the Catalan Map places on the northern coast of Java
(cf. HALLBERG, 347).

FERRAND has attempted to connect with the name Malāyu the legendary 馬留人 Ma-liu-jen
of ancient Chinese texts, which are interpreted in Chinese as « men left behind by Ma [Yüan] »
(cf. JA, 1918, II, 163-168); I am not prepared to join in that saltus mortalis.

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