国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

more details, JA, 1921, II, 315). The name appears in the 13th cent. at the latest. The labial
vowel of the first syllable is established for the beginning of the 15th cent. by the Chinese
transcription 木骨都束 Mu-ku-tu-shu (*Mugudušu; cf. TP, 1933, 297). In EI, s. v. Makdishū,
E. CERULLI says that the place appears as an Arab colony in the 10th cent.; he does not allude to
Polo, nor to the Chinese texts.
Now, what was the form originally adopted in Polo's text? «Mogelasio» of F (< *Mogdasio),
Mogdaxo of Z would point to «Mogdasio» only. But Polo writes -sci- for -š-, and it is -scio which
can account for -scar. On the other hand, it is with a vowel between -g- and -d- that we can under-
stand, with a metathesis, how «Madeiga-» or «Madega-» came from «Mogeda-». That is why
I think Polo's original form is «Mogedascio»; I have nevertheless written «Mogedaxo» on account
of Z.
As to the modern use of the name «Madagascar», the explanation is fairly simple. Towards
the end of the 15th cent., Martin Behaim put on his globe an island of Madagascar and, more
to the South, an island of Zanzibar; all this is derived from Marco Polo, with the wrong reading
«Madagascar» for «Mogedaxo» or «Mogedascio». Others certainly did the same. From the infor-
mation already collected by others, we are lead to suppose that, in the first half of the 17th cent.,
learned travellers found in the South-East of Madagascar a tribe they call «Matacasi», «Made-
gache», «Malegasses», etc.; naturally enough, they may have thought of Polo's pseudo-island Mada-
gascar; however, they specify that «Madagascar» is a name given by geographers, unknown as such
in the country. This, nevertheless, does not cover all the facts. Ramusio, in the middle of the
16th cent., adds to the title of the chapter of «Magastar» the words «hora detta di San Lorenzo»,
and speaks of a map said to have been copied from one used by Polo or by his father, but which
had later received many additions, and he notes that on that map is figured the island of «Magastar»,
now called San Lorenzo (Dichiarazione, 17 a). As is well-known, San Lorenzo, Saint-Laurent,
is the first European name of Madagascar. So the wrong application of a wrong name of Mogadišo
to Madagascar goes back at least to the time of Ramusio. But the fact remains that a clerical error
in Polo's manuscripts gave the great island its name for evermore.

288. MONGATAI

mogata V mongatai F, VB; R mongatay FA, FB

I have retained the name, since Marco Polo probably used it, and although CHARIGNON (Ch,
III, 13) maintains it ought to be «Nangatai», that is to say Nangiatai (or Nangiadai). The case is
a difficult one.
There are many Nangiatai or Nangiadai (written Mongol Nanggiyadai) in Mongol history, as
it is an ethnic derived from the name Nanggiya (< 南 家 Nan-chia, «the Southerners»; cf. JA,
1913, I, 460-466) given by the Chin to the Southern Chinese, and which the Mongols inherited from
the Chin; the Nanggiya of the Mongols are the same as those called Manzi (see «Mangi») in