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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Ming-an whose biography is in YS, 135, 5 a-6 a; I have come across another mention of him, under
1291, in T'ung-chih t'iao-ko, 28, 11 b. He was a Qangli. Placed at the head of the kuei-ch'ih
(see « Cuiucci ») when they were created in 1276, he led them during the campaign to the north in
1284. In 1288 (not « 1286 » as in YS), he fought against Qaidu in the region of Beš-baliq, to which
he led a second expedition in 1292. He marched again against Qaidu in 1298, and died in the
field in 1303. One of his sons, his younger brother, and one of his grandsons succeeded him in
turn at the head of the kuei-ch'ih troops (kuei-ch'ih-chün). Further details and somes notes are
given by T'u Chi, 102, 16 b-17 b.

237. MOGEDAXO

madaigascar V (cor.) madeigascar F, Fr, FAt, FB, L, P maideigascar VL
madaschor V madeigoschar VA mandeghaschar TA³
madegastar TA¹r madeisgascar FA mandeschar TA³r
madeghaschar, mandegaschar magastar VB; R mogclasio Ft
TA¹ maideigascar VLr mogdaxo Z

All the old editors have adopted « Madagascar »; Ricci-Ross, while writing « Mogdasio », have
given « Madagascar » as the modern equivalent in their vocabulary (RR, 341, 427). Benedetto,
to whom RR owe their « Mogdasio », has the following note : « The French text which has preserved
the form « Mogdasio » gives also, as an equivalent name, the form « Madeigascar ». We have no
data to decide whether Polo himself had used the two forms indifferently. There is no doubt that
he meant the island of Madagascar : this is proved by the distance he gives from Socotra. But it
is probable — as the characteristic information he gives seems to indicate — that he made a confu-
sion and considered as one and the same country Madagascar and Magadoxo (our Mogadiscio) »
(B¹, 445).
In 1892, Alfred Grandidier, the explorer of Madagascar, expressed the view that Polo
had never meant to speak of Madagascar, and that « Madeigascar », for which there was also in the
main manuscript a reading « Mogelasio », was simply a corruption of « Magadicho ou Mogdicho »
(Hist. de la géogr. de Madagascar², 1892, 26; and again in t. I-II of Coll. des ouvr. anciens concer-
nant Madagascar, 1903 and 1904).
Grandidier was not an Arabic scholar, and there were some weak points in his argument;
he was not followed. Yule had already admitted that most of Polo's description could only apply
to Mogadišo, but thought that it was through some confusion, and that nevertheless Polo was the
first writer of any country to speak « unambiguously » of Madagascar (Y, II, 413-414). In 1918,
Longworth Dames (Duarte Barbosa, I, 24) said : « The modern name of Madagascar seems to have
been derived from Makdashau or Magadoxo, whence it was probably first colonised by Arabs. The
name in the form Madeigascar is first found in Marco Polo ». This comes, in fact, from
Sir R. Burton through Yule, Hobson-Jobson², 535. In 1925, La Roncière replies to Gran-
didier's opinion by the single word « No » (La découverte de l'Afrique, II, 88).