The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 323 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0323	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

Arabic Alphabet) of Ṣanf or Chanf. Indeed it is highly probable that the Záβa or
Záβαι of Ptolemy's itinerary of the sea-route to the Sinae represents this same name.
[¹⁴ It is true," Sir Henry Yule wrote since (1882), "that Champa, as known in later
days, lay to the east of the Mekong delta, whilst Zabai of the Greeks lay to the west
of that and of the μέγα ἀκρωτήριον—the Great Cape, or C. Cambodia of our maps.
Crawfurd (Desc. Ind. Arch. p. 80) seems to say that the Malays include under
the name Champa the whole of what we call Kamboja. This may possibly be a slip.
But it is certain, as we shall see presently, that the Arab Ṣanf—which is unquestion-
ably Champa—also lay west of the Cape, i.e. within the Gulf of Siam. The fact is
that the Indo-Chinese kingdoms have gone through unceasing and enormous vicissi-
tudes, and in early days Champa must have been extensive and powerful, for in the
travels of Hiuen Tsang (about A.D. 629) it is called Mahā-Champa. And my late
friend Lieutenant Garnier, who gave great attention to these questions, has deduced
from such data as exist in Chinese Annals and elsewhere, that the ancient kingdom
which the Chinese describe under the name of Fu-nan, as extending over the
whole peninsula east of the Gulf of Siam, was a kingdom of the Tsiam or Champa
race. The locality of the ancient port of Zabai or Champa is probably to be sought
on the west coast of Kamboja, near the Campot, or the Kang-kao of our maps. On
this coast also was the Komâr and Kâmûrah of Ibn Batuta and other Arab writers,
the great source of aloes-wood, the country then of the Khmer or Kambojan People."
(Notes on the Oldest Records of the Sea-Route to China from Western Asia, Proc.
R. G. S. 1882, pp. 650-657.)
M. Barth says that this identification would agree well with the testimony of his
inscription XVIII. B., which comes from Angkor and for which Campā is a part of
the Dakshiṇāpatha, of the southern country. But the capital of this rival State of
Kamboja would thus be very near the Tréang province where inscriptions have been
found with the names of Bhavavarman and of Īçānavarman. It is true that in 627,
the King of Kamboja, according to the Chinese Annals (Nouv. Mél. As. I. p. 84), had
subjugated the kingdom of Fu-nan identified by Yule and Garnier with Campā.
Abel Rémusat (Nouv. Mél. As. I. pp. 75 and 77) identifies it with Tong-king and
Stan. Julien (J. As. 4e Sér. X. p. 97) with Siam. (Inscrip. Sanscrites du Cambodge,
1885, pp. 69-70, note.)
Sir Henry Yule writes (l.c. p. 657): "We have said that the Arab Ṣanf, as well
as the Greek Zabai, lay west of Cape Cambodia. This is proved by the statement
that the Arabs on their voyage to China made a ten days' run from Ṣanf to Pulo
Condor." But Abulfeda (transl. by Guyard, II. ii. p. 127) distinctly says that the
Komâr Peninsula (Khmer) is situated west of the Ṣanf Peninsula; between Ṣanf and
Komâr there is not a day's journey by sea.
We have, however, another difficulty to overcome.
I agree with Sir Henry Yule and Marsden that in ch. vii. infra, p. 276, the text
must be read, "When you leave Chamba," instead of "When you leave Java."
Coming from Zayton and sailing 1500 miles, Polo arrives at Chamba; from Chamba,
sailing 700 miles he arrives at the islands of Sondur and Condur, identified by Yule
with Sundar Fûlât (Pulo Condore); from Sundar Fûlât, after 500 miles, he finds
the country called Locac; then he goes to Pentam (Bintang, 500 miles), Malaiur, and
Java the Less (Sumatra). Ibn Khordâdhbeh's itinerary agrees pretty well with Marco
Polo's, as Professor De Goeje remarks to me: "Starting from Mâit (Bintang), and leaving
on the left Tiyuma (Timoan), in five days' journey, one goes to Kimèr (Kmer, Cambodia),
and after three days more, following the coast, arrives to Ṣanf; then to Lukyn, the
first point of call in China, 100 parasangs by land or by sea; from Lukyn it takes
four days by sea and twenty by land to go to Kanfu." [Canton, see note, supra p. 199.]
(See De Goeje's Ibn Khordâdhbeh, p. 48 et seq.) But we come now to the difficulty.
Professor De Goeje writes to me: "It is strange that in the Relation des Voyages of
Reinaud, p. 20 of the text, reproduced by Ibn al Fakih, p. 12 seq., Sundar Fûlât
(Pulo Condore) is placed between Ṣanf and the China Sea (Ṣandij); it takes ten days
to go from Ṣanf to Sundar Fûlât, and then a month (seven days of which between

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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