19901107海丝考察阿曼研讨会刘迎胜的发言论文稿

Inscription ln Memory of Sayyid bin Abu `Ali

- a study on relationship between Chinese and

Omanian during the llth--15th centuries

Liu Yingsheng

Nanjing University

China

About the historical relcitions between China and Oman,

Firdrich Hirth and W.W.Rockhill in the early yars of our

century in their studies on Zhao Rukua`s work, .namely CHAO

JU-KUA, HIS WORK ON THE CHINESE 'ARAB TRADE IN"THE 12TH-13TH

CENTURIES, IN TITLED CHU-FAN-CHI, gave us a lot of

importment  explaination  about  the  geographical  names.         11.(::。

concerning Oman. We know that Wong Man in this book was no

doubt Oman, and Wu Ba should be Mirbat, Nu Fa should be

Zufar.  After that  in  1930s Chinese  scholars  like  Zh ang

Xingliang and Feng Chengjuli accepted some ideas of Hirth and

Rockhill and made new contribution in this subjects (1).  In

1965 Japanese scholar Yajima Hikoichi in his excellent

article THE PORTS OF SOUTH ARABIA APPEARED IN THE SAILING

ROUTE BOOK BY KIA TAN identyfied some place names of Oman in

Chinese literature with that in moslem geographical works

(5). Except these the resent publications of the Chinese

geographical works of the early Ming period contain some                                              -t

important studies of this topic (3).

Only  few  Omanians  such as  Sinbad and Abu ",Abdal'lah b.al-

Oasim, who had visited China, remained their names in

historical literatures. In this article I would like to give

a reexamnation of an'Inscription of the Mongol-Yuan period

related an Omanian in China and as well as  a description of

his life.

The Name of this Omanian in Chinese was Bu A Li ( Abu `Ali

). There are three different resources remained about his

life so far as we have found till now. The first of them is

a chapter about Ma Ba Er ( that is Ma'abar, Cola of India )

and Ju Lan ( Quilon of India )  in Yuan Shi ( History of Yuan

Dynasty ). The text said:

In 1281 A.D. the envoys of the Mongol-Yuan goverment

started their mission to Ju Lan ( Quilon ) from Quan Zhou (

Zaytun ). After three months sailing they reached Seng Jia

Yie ( should be a copy mistake of Seng Jia Na, which comes

from Simhala, that is Sri Ianka ). Because they could no

more get the monsoon and also needed supplies, they sailed

to Ma`abar. In stead of sa.Lling they wanted go through

Ma`abar to Quilon A minister of Ma`abar called Bu A Li (

Abu 'Ali ) told them that lie himself would like to serve

Qubilai Qaghan and be his servant He had sent a envoy

called Zha Ma La Ding ( Jamal al-Din ) to China The Da Bi

Zhe Chi ( that is a Chinese-Mongolian mlxed word, means

great secretary ) had reported this news to the sultan of

Ma,abar. The sultan had got angry about this. He had

confiscated Abu 'Ali's monely, properies, wivies and slaves

and even had wanted to killhim  .  He 'was remitted only after

quibbling (4).                                                                                           /. .

The second text. is a paragraph in the chapter of Gao Li

Shi ( History of Korea ) written by Korean historian Zhe

Linzhi  in 1451,  which said:            .

A prince of Ma Ba Er ( Ma'abar ) called Bo Ha Li who had

contradicted with his king and escaped to Mongol-Yuan

empire. The emperor ( namely Yuan Cheng Zhong ) got him

married with a Korean girl. cThis description was eopied by

other Korean resources.

The one , who first connected these two materials together

and identified Bu A Li ( Abu 'Ali ) of Yuan Shi with Bo Ha

Li of the Korean resources, was Japanese schlar Jitsuzo

Kuwabara (5). But he mistook to continue to identjfy Bo Ha

Li ( Abu 'Ali ).with a prince of Kish called Fakhr al-Din

Ahmad, who was sent to visit China by the Mongol prince in

Iran Il-Khan Qazan. Karashi.ma Noboru, a Jananese scholar

repeated Jitsuzo Kuwabara's suggestion in a recent article

(6)

The third resource concei-ning him is the Inscription in.

'Memory of Sayyid b. Abu rAJ.iyt The inscriptionois no more.

existed.fortunately the tey.t ' of  the  inscrption remains  in  .

its author Liu Minzhongs cc)llected works namely Zhong An Ji,

which said: -the real name of Bu A Li ( Abu 'Ali ) in Chinese

was Sa Yi Di ( Sayyid ). His hometown was a city in Chinese

called Ha La Ha Di. His foi-efathrs had migrated to a country

in Chinese called Xi Yang ( Western Ocean ) near the coast

and settled there as merchant. The father of Sayyid called

Bu A Li (Abu 'Ali). He had been trusted by the king of that

kingdom. The king had five brothers including himself

Abu 'Ali had been called the sixth brother; and had been

ordered to rule some tribes. So he became very rich and had

300 servants and concubines;. His bed was made of ivory and

he owned a lot of gold ornaments. When Abu ,Ali died Sayyid

succeeded. The king called him with his fathers name Abu

rAli. So only few people krcew that his own name was Sayyid

(7) .

10 years ago Chinese scholar Chen Gaohua in a article

proved that the country Xi Yang ( Western Ocean ) where Abu

Ali`s forefather ,had settled was-Ma'abar of India (8). It

is correct. So the'se three resources which we mentioned

above are concerning a same person. But where is the

hometown of this Abu rAli? In h.is article Chen Gaohua said

that  he  could  not  solve  ths  problem

According to my study the name of the

`Ali's family Ha La Ha Di was a Chinese transcrption form

the ancient Omanian port cty Qalhat (9)

The name of Qalhat appeared many times in the Mediaeval

calssical Chinese literature,of cause in defferent forms

place name were mentioned.  One of them is called Jia Li Ji.

Pelliot thought it is a Ch:nese transcription form of Qalhat

(10).  I accepted this  suggestion.  And again in. Da De Na Hai

Zhi ( Regional Description of Hai Nan Island compiled in Da

'De Period ,) there is a list of countries from where ships

came to Hai Nan for trade In this list next to the name of

Kuo Li Mo Si ( that is no cloubt Khurmuz ) there is a place

.name caIled Jia La Du (11) ..  It is clear that this Jia La Du

is another chinese transcrption form of Qalhat in the

Mongol-Yuan  period.  .It's pronounciation is very near to

'Marco Polo,s Calatu In the 15th century Qalhat was called

Jia La Ha by the Chinese sailor. In the famous chart of Zhen

Hels navigation, four shipping line from different placec of

the Indian west coast to Jia La Ha';'were mentioned and every'

line was together mentioned with its course, especially with  .

its compass direction (12) . From this chart we know Zhen He

and his fleet visited here several times But the.editor put

this Jia La Ha. in a wrong place in his repainted map  ' '

So nowwe know that'these three materialswere not only

related to a same person aiid this person was an Omanian.

Based on these materials we can give a short description of

his life here.

Sayyid was born in Ma,abar ( Cola ) of India in 1251 A.D.

His  forefather worked there as  middleman  and tradet, both with

"the Gulf countries and ChiIla and kept frequent contact with

people of both side. So they knew the political change' of

China and Western Asia rather well. The Mongol conquest in

east and west gave his famly and the other moslem merchants

in India a good chance to extend their trade Their ships

were kindly recepted in Quan Zhou '( Zaytun ) by the local

Mongol-Yuan officers Although his envoy to China before

1281 A.D. caused the king angry, Sayyid kept on sending

***envoys to Qubilai Qaghan every year and also to the

Mongolian princes such as Abaqa and Qazan in Persia. And

when the envoys of Mongolian goverments in China and Iran

stopped in Ma,abar Sayyid always prepared ships. for them

before hand and gave them supplies. So his mercantila

interests and the duty of‘;ocial position in Ma,abar

conflicted each other. And his losted the trust of the king.

Noticing Sayyids position to be in danger Qubilai Qaghan

sent a minister called A L'i Bie ( 'Ali Beg ) as the head of

a group of envoys to Malabar in 1291 and brought a letter to

invite him to China Sayyid left his wifes, children,

relatives and properties iii Ma'abar, brought a hundred

servants together with the Mongol-Yuan envoys escaped to

China His arrival in'Dai Du ( Beijing ) should be in the

next year, that is in 1292 . Qubilai Qaghan received him with

respect, granted him clothes made from brocade, let him

married a young Korean lad'r and gave him a house to live. So

he also kept contact with the Korean royal family.

.- tn. r oyaJ

When Temur succeeded the throne in 1294 Sayyid got a title

of Zi De Dai Fu ( qualifiecl and moral minister ) and Zhong

Shu Yu Cheng ( Right Prime Minister of the Central       '

Government ) and Shang Yi Fu Jian Deng Chu Xing Zhong Shu

Sheng Shi  (  Consultant of the Government of  Fu Jian Province

)  This new emperor granted him huge amount of money several

times In 1298 his Korean wife died. Temur Qaghan married

him another girl

In the wint-er of 1299 Sayyid died in Beijing when he was

49 years old., He had a son and two daughters in China After

the news of Sayyids deathe reached Temur Qaghan he ordered

the  government  to  cover  the  costs  of  his funeral

arrangements and also issued another impe*-rihl edict to    .

protect his family. His coi-.pse was transported to Quan Zhou

( ZAytun ) through offical post stations and buried there '

The author of the text of l:he inscription of his tomb was

written by a famous scholar of that time, ely Liu

This iswhat I would like: to add to the history of the

relations between Chinese and Omanian.

1)  Zhang Xinglang: Zhorig Xi Jiao Tong Shi Liao Hui Bian

( Resources about Communications between China and Western

Countries ), vol.2, reprinted in Beijing, 1977, pp.272-273,

Zhu Fan 'Zhi Jiao Zhu  (  Description of Different Countries,

ed and noted by Feng Chengjun ), finished in 1937r printed

in Shanghai, 1956, p_59.

(2)  In Oriental Studies, vol.31, 1965.

(3)  Xi Yang Fan Guo Zhi ( Descriptions of Wesrern Lands

), written by Gong Zhen, ed. and noted by Prof. Xiang Da,

reprinted in Beijing, 1982, pp.33-35; Xi Yang Chao Gong Dian

Lu ( Description of Tributes Paying from Western Countries

to Chinese Court ), written by Huang Shengzeng, ed and

noted by Xie Fang, Beijing, 1982; etc.

(4)  Yuan Shi, chapter 210, pp.4669-4670.

(5)  Hojuko no jiseki ( Achievments of Pu Shou Geng ),

Tokyo, 1935; Chinese translation: Pu Shou Geng Kao, tr. by

Chen Yujing, Beijing, 1954, pp. 88-8

9.

(6)  Karashima Noboru: Trade Relations between South India

and China during the 13th and 14th Centuries, in East-West

Maritime Relations, vol.l, Study Group for East-West

Maritime Relations, the Middle Eastern Culture Center in

Japan, Tokyo, 1989, p_74.

(7)  Zhong An Xian Sheng Liu Wen Jian Gong Wen Jj,

published in late Yuan period, chapter 4,

(8)  Ying Du Ma Ba Er Wang Zhi Bo Ha Li Lai Hua Xin Kao (

A New Study on the Visit cf Pince Bo Ha Li of Ma`abar of

India to China ), in Nan Kai Da Xue Xue Bao ( Academical

Journal of Nan Kai University ), 1980, the 4th issue. The

description of   Liu Minzhong of that five brothers of the

king ruled Maiabar was supported by Marco Polo.

(9)  Liu Yingsheng: Cong Bu A Li Shen Dao Bei Ming Kan Nan

Ying Du Yu Yuan Chao Ji Bo Si Wan De Jiao Tong ( Inscription

in Memory of Abu  ,Ai and Communications among South India ,

Mongol-Yuan China and the Gulf ), in Li Shi Di Li (

Historical Geography ), Sbanghai, 1990, No. 7.

(10)  Notes on Marco Polo, Paris, 1959, p.138.

(II)  The fragment of Da De Nan Hai Zhi is kept in Beijing

Library. See chapter 7, p_21. Da De is one of the titles of

the sixth Mongol emperor rlemurs reign, the grandson of

Qubilai Qaghan, from 1297-1307 A_D.

(12)  Zhen He Hang Hai rlu ( the Chart of Zhen He ), drawed

by Mao Yuanyi, ed and noted by Prof Xiang Da, reprinted in

Beijing, 1982, see chart No. 20.  Also some other Omnian

place names located between Zuo Fa Er ( Zufar) and Ma Shi Ji

( Mascat ) were mentioned in this chart