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Marco Polo in South-East Asia: A preliminary essay in reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Colin Jack-Hinton
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Extract

If there is one figure in world history who has certainly not been neglected it is surely Marco Polo. His narrative has appealed to readers since it was first dictated to Rustichello, Polo's fellow prisoner in the dungeons of Genoa, and its many versions have attracted the enthusiastic attentions of some of the finest textual scholars in Europe. It is, however, in respect of the identification of the places which Polo visited in the Far East and Central Asia that a formidable body of published material has now accumulated, embracing the fields of history, linguistics and geography, and of varying quality, perception and relevance. In South-East Asia itself Polo refers to only twelve geographical locations, yet despite this, or perhaps in part because of it, even the most summary investigation of the question of their identity will quickly reveal that the material which has been published on this very limited aspect of Polo's narrative has now reached almost unmanageable proportions, save for the dévoué who is prepared to direct his attentions to little else. In this may be seen the real importance of Polo's narrative within the early history of South-East Asia, for the identification of his geographical nomenclature demands a detailed study of so many aspects of the history of the area prior to and immediately following the period of his narrative. Indeed, with his first cursory examination of Polo's narrative the reader finds himself face to face with some of the more fundamental problems of the study of the early history of South-East Asia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , September 1964 , pp. 43 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1964

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References

1. See also Olschki, 1960:12Google Scholar and Hambis, 1955:xii–xvii.Google Scholar

2. There seem to be no good reason for doubting that Polo is here referring to the old kingdom of Champa extending up the eastern coastline of Indo-China, and I have proceeded from this identification.

3. It is fairly clear, as Marsden was the first to point out, that the narrative is here in error, and that Polo is speaking not of Java but of Chamba (Champa). Whether this error originated in Polo's original narrative or in a later text it is as yet impossible to determine, but I have found no text which renders the name, correctly, as Champa. That the name can only be intended as Champa is perfectly obvious if one attempts to plot Polo's later information on the assumption that Java Major was either Borneo or Java. In either case this results in Polo's later nomenclature being applied to non-existent lands to the south of Java, and it appears to have been this error which led some sixteenth century cartographers to identify much of Polo's nomenclature with an extension of the antipodean and antarctic continent which is so marked a feature of many sixteenth century world-maps. The continent itself had its roots in the cosmographical hypotheses of classical Greek antiquity, but the question of whether this error in Polo's narrative actually induced cartographers to assume that the continent had a promontory to the south of Java, or whether they simply applied his nomenclature to a promontory which seemed to be justified by information obtained from South-East Asian sources of what was in fact Australia, is a question which will be discussed later.

4. All the editors who have treated Polo's narrative in - detail have accepted the necessary correction of south-east to south-west, and some texts read “beyond” “instead of “to the south-east”. To accept the direction as southeast is to identify Lochac with some kingdom in Borneo, and although the early historic importance of that island may well be greater than is generally assumed, it is unlikely that Polo would have wandered from what we know to have been the main maritime trade route between the Straits of Malacca and the China Sea. To accept the reading south-east as correct is to involve a whole sequence of later corrections in order to reconcile Polo's route with the topography of the area.

5. The various renderings of Malaiur are Malayur, Maliur, Malavir, Malenir Malayur.

6. The text seems to be very confused here, and the only conclusion which seems reasonable is that the intrusion of Pentan in association with Malaiur is an error. Some commentators have assumed that Polo is referring to two separate places with similar names, but this is not supported by a textual comparison.

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9. Polo continues to describe the rhinoceros; and then to explain how monkeys were killed, dried and treated, and then purveyed as mummified dwarfs.

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11. Polo continues with a description of witchcraft and cannibalism.

12. Polo describes the cultivation of brazil-wood, and refers to tho existence of men with tails and to the fauna of the area.

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84. He added that it was the Little Thais, another branch, who founded Ayuthia in 1351.

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95. There is indeed a Kampong Sungei Malaya at the mouth of the Sungei Malayu in 103°41′S 1°27′N.

96. I can find no evidence of this name today.

97. Ferrarid, 1922:140.Google Scholar

98. Schlegel espoused a peninsular identification of Polo's Malaiur in 1898 on the same grounds.

99. Logan.

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101. See BEFFO, vol. iv, 1904, pp. 321–333, 341, 347.Google Scholar

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109. It will be immediately clear to the reader that the rendering of this name is crucial to its identification.

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111. Hill for example (Hill, 1960: 11) refers to “Polo's statement that in 1292 only Perlak was Muslim”, and attributes a positive statement to Polo which he never in fact made. Polo simply remarks that the inhabitants of the port of Ferlec had become Muslim, but he neither says nor implies anything about the presence or absence of Islamic influence in the other kingdoms.Google Scholar

112. Most students of this question seem to have limited themselves by their choice of text, or been limited by the availability of texts, and have worked on the assumption that the name of the port was Samara, the rendering of the name in Ramusio and the FG texts.

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118. Penzer, 1929:lix.Google Scholar

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122. Yule, 1929:II:301.Google Scholar

123. Penzer and Blagden remaik that Lambry “is well known from other sources and cannot have been situated far away from Kota Raja, the capital of Achin, close to the NW end of Sumatra” (Penzer, 1929:lix)Google Scholar. Coedès, 1944:263Google Scholar; Yule, 1929:II:302–3.Google Scholar

124. Penzer 1929:lx; Yule 1929:II:307;

125. This at least has been the opinion of most commentators. On the other hand in some versions of his text, eg. LT, Polo claims to have visited the six out of eight kingdoms in Sumatra which he names, and I can see no reason why we should doubt Polo's statement that he did visit Fansur.