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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CHAP. VIII. p. 280.

LAWĀKI PENTAM.   105

situation of this place which has been erroneously identified with

Tenasserim, see ibid., pp. 134-145 M. Ferrand places it in the

region of Ligor.

7.  pp. 278-279.

LAWÁKI.

Lawáki comes from Lovek, a former capital of Cambodia ;

referring to the aloes-wood called Lawáki in the Ain-i-Akbari

written in the 16th century, FERRAND, Textes, I., p. 285 n.,

remarks : " On vient de voir que Ibn-al-Baytār a emprunté ce

nom à Avicenne (980-1037) qui écrivit son Canon de la Médecine

dans les premières années du XIe siècle. Lawāk ou Lowāk nous

est donc attesté sous le forme Lawāki ou Lowākī dès le Xe siècle,

puis qu'il est mentionné, au début du XIe, par Avicenne qui

résidait alors à Djurdjān, sur la Caspienne."

8.  pp. 280-3.

OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY

MALAI UR.

The late Col. G. E. Gerini published in the J.R. A. S., July,

1905, pp. 485-511, a paper on the Nāgarakretāgama, a Javanese

poem composed by a native bard named Prapanca, in honour of

his sovereign Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389), the greatest ruler of

Mājapähit. He upsets all the theories accepted hitherto regard-

ing Panten. The southernmost portion of the Malay Peninsula

is known as the Malaya or Malayu country (Tänah-Maläyu) _

Chinese Ma-li yü-êrh = Malāyur = Maluir of Marco Polo,

witness the river Malāyu (Sungei Malayu) still so called, and

the village Bentan, both lying there (ignored by all Col. Gerini's

predecessors) on the northern shore of the Old Singapore Strait.

Col. Gerini writes (p. 509) : " There exists to this day a village

Bentam on the mainland side of Singapore Strait, right opposite

the mouth of the Sungei Selitar, on the northern shore of Singa-

pore Island, it is not likely that both travellers [Polo and Odoric]

mistook the coast of the Malay Peninsula for an island. The

island of Pentam, Paten, or Pantem must therefore be the Be-

Tūmah (Island) of the Arab Navigators, the Tamasak Island of

the Malays ; and, in short, the Singapore Island of our day."

He adds : " The island of Pentarn cannot be either Batang or

Bitang, the latter of which is likewise mentioned by Marco Polo

under the same name of Pentain, but 6o + 3o = 90 miles before

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