Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
[Mr. Geo. Phillips finds a strong argument in favour of Changchau
being Zayton in this passage of Ibn Batuta. He says (_Jour. China
Br. R. A. Soc._ 1888, 28–29): “Changchow in the Middle Ages was
the seat of a great silk manufacture, and the production of its
looms, such as gauzes, satins and velvets, were said to exceed in
beauty those of Soochow and Hangchow. According to the _Fuhkien
Gazetteer_, silk goods under the name of Kinki, and porcelain were,
at the end of the Sung Dynasty, ordered to be taken abroad and to
be bartered against foreign wares, treasure having been prohibited
to leave the country. In this Kinki I think we may recognise the
Kimkha of IBN BATUTA. I incline to this fact, as the characters
Kinki are pronounced in the Amoy and Changchow dialects Khimkhi
and Kimkhia. Anxious to learn if the manufacture of these silk
goods still existed in Changchow, I communicated with the Rev.
Dr. TALMAGE of Amoy, who, through the Rev. Mr. Ross of the London
Mission, gave me the information that Kinki was formerly somewhat
extensively manufactured at Changchow, although at present it
was only made by one shop in that city. IBN BATUTA tells us that
the King of China had sent to the Sultan, five hundred pieces of
Kamkha, of which one hundred were made in the city of Zaitún. This
form of present appears to have been continued by the Emperors of
the Ming Dynasty, for we learn that the Emperor Yunglo gave to
the Envoy of the Sultan of Quilon, presents of Kinki and Shalo,
that is to say, brocaded silks and gauzes. Since writing the
above, I found that Dr. HIRTH suggests that the characters Kinhua,
meaning literally gold flower in the sense of silk embroidery,
possibly represent the mediæval Khimka. I incline rather to my own
suggestion. In the _Pei-wen-yun-fu_ these characters Kien-ki are
frequently met in combination, meaning a silk texture, such as
brocade or tapestry. Curtains made of this texture are mentioned
in Chinese books, as early as the commencement of the Christian
era.”—H. C.]
Rashiduddin, in enumerating the Sings or great provincial
governments of the empire, has the following: “7th FUCHÚ.—This
is a city of Manzi. The Sing was formerly located at ZAITÚN,
but afterwards established here, where it still remains. Zaitún
is a great shipping-port, and the commandant there is Boháuddin
Ḳandári.” Pauthier’s Chinese extracts show us that the seat of the
_Sing_ was, in 1281, at T’swan-chau, but was then transferred to
Fu-chau. In 1282 it was removed back to T’swan-chau, and in 1283
recalled to Fu-chau. That is to say, what the Persian writer tells
us of Fújú and Zayton, the Chinese Annalists tell us of Fu-chau and
T’swan-chau. Therefore Fuju and Zayton were respectively Fu-chau
and T’swan-chau.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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