Ch'uan Chin and Li Hui (1402)
(Yoktae chewang honil kangnido)

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The Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Ji Do (Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals (of China), often abbreviated as Kangnido, is a world map created in Korea, produced by Yi Hoe and Kwon Kun in 1402. In the last years a total of 8 copies of the map were found all in Japan. No copies are left in Korea. They have later modifications added.

Taken from: 大地の肖像: 絵図・地図が語る世界 by Sugiyama Masaaki

The wrong position of India, Arabia, and Africa in the map Kangnido - by Kai-lung Ho

Philip Snow : The Star Raft

Imago Mundi 10,1950

THE PLACE NAMES OF EURO-AFRICA IN THE KANGNIDO Nurlan Kenzheakhmet

混一疆理歷代國都之圖》南洋地名的五個系統- 美圖控 - by Zhou Yunzhong 周運中

A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Chosŏn Dynasty by CHOI, Chang-Mo

View of the total map

There are in fact several copies.

Kangnido copies

1 《混一疆理歷代國都之圖》"Hunyi Jiangli Map of the National Capitals of the Past Dynasties" (Collection of the Affiliated Library of Ryukoku University), with postscripts

2 《混一疆理歷代國都之圖》"Hunyi Jiangli Maps of the National Capitals of the Past Dynasties" '' (Honkoji Temple Collection, Shimabara City), with postscript

3 《大明國地圖》"Map of Da-Ming Country" (Kumamoto City Honmyoji Temple Collection), without postscript

4《大明國圖》"Da-Ming Country Map" (Collection of Tenri Library), without postscript

5《混一疆理歷代國都之圖》"Hunyi Jiangli Map of National Capitals of Successive Dynasties" (Collection of Geography Classroom, Department of Letters, Kyoto University), no postscript

6《混一歷代國都疆理之圖》Hunyi Map of National Capitals of Successive Dynasties" (Collection of Mausoleum Department of Palace Hall), with Postscripts, different formats

7《混一歷代國都疆理之圖》"Hunyi Map of the Frontiers of the Capitals of Different Dynasties" (Collected by Linxiangyuan), with postscripts, broken

8《混一歷代國都疆理之圖》"Hunyi Map of the Frontiers of National Capitals of Different Dynasties" (Collection of Geography Classroom, Department of Letters, Kyoto University), no postscript

The inscriptions are partly different. Only parts of the maps are given here.

Under: Ryukoku Kangnido which is the oldest copy (1470) as the original does not exist anymore.


Honkoji Kangnido
Honkoji Kangnido
This map is a 1910 copy from Kyoto University. The red line in the upper right corner separates the western part of the map. (Derived from Persian sources).
This map is a 1910 copy from Kyoto University. The red line in the upper right corner separates the western part of the map. (Derived from Persian sources).

In this map Africa is very vague the

other parts of the map are OK.


Tenri Kangnido (1568)
Tenri Kangnido (1568)

The "Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals" [Korean: Honil kangniryo ktae gukto jido;

Chinese: 混一疆理歷代國都之圖 was created by combining Chinese and Arabic maps during the Mongol-Yuan dynasty.

 

This is a map based on the work of Chinese cartographers which appeared in Korea in 1402. This map and the one of

Chu Ssu Pen place the southern part of Africa immediately opposite the Indonesian islands, with a string of smaller islands

in between. Europe is rather well represented: In the utmost NW Germany is given as A-lu-mang-ni-a and France as Fa-li-si-na.

 

Research into the names of places in Southeast Asia, India and the Arabic Peninsula, proves that the map shows a low

geographic knowledge of those regions. Vietnam, Thailand, both east and west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and even a

port of Sumatra were all lined up along a straight coast. Both the Gulf of Thailand and the Malay Peninsula disappeared.

And India was cut into a northern and southern part .The North India (with the Ganges) is correctly placed in the Asia

continent. The large round island east of Arabia Hai-tao: Ceylon. But South India was drawn as a big island in the Indian

Ocean. All the coastal cities known by the Southern Sung dynasty were placed into this “South India Island”. The port Zufar

(in Oman) was not at the south coast of Arabic Peninsula but was placed into another non-existent island, south of the

“South India Island”. The famous port of Mogadishu (in Somali) was not at the east coast of Africa but was placed into a

non-existent island located at south of the “South India Island” and “South Arabia Island”. This map reflects the low-level

geographic knowledge around the Indian Ocean by both the Chinese and Arabic source.

 

The Arabic Source

-They use the Ptolemaic map of Africa, drawing a big lake as the source of the Nile, and it indicates names on some of the copies.

-It adds a stream emerging on the African continent's south west coast in the approximate position of the Orange River.

-To the north of the African continent, beyond the unexplored black central mass, a pagoda is represented for the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Arab word: Misr for Cairo is found.

-Sugiyama Masaaki found: 麻哈荅采: Ma-ha-da-cai; Mogadishu a name found on the Red Sea coast close to Egypt.

Kai-Lung Ho gives it as: 麻哈答來 ; Ma-ha-da-lai or 麻哈答束 Ma-ha-da-shu.

This map taken from Kai-Lung Ho shows Mogadishu wrongly placed on the Red Sea.But correctly just north of the mouth of the Nile of Mogadishu and opposite Aden.Sugiyama Masaaki identifies the first three places of interest for East Africa:

1: Mogadishu 麻哈答來 (Ma-ha-da-lai) (Sugiyama 2007 p58)

2: Aden 哈丹 (Ha-dan) (Choi, Chang-Mo, 2012 p32)

3: Zufar? 外法剌 (Wai-fa-la) (Choi, Chang-Mo, 2012 p32)

4: The place just left of Mogadishu is: 顔細哈 (Yan xi ha ni chi) according to me to be replaced by 顔細哈拔赤 (yan xi ha ba chi)

as the Arab and Persian geographers correctly called the place: The Zan-shi of the Habashi.

5: Just north of Mogadishu is 羅的里尼 (Luo di li ni) being Rud-I Nil the Persian name for the Nile (Hudud al Alam). The Yongle Dadian

(the Great Encyclopaedia) has Lude-Nile in the country of Misr. (the places further north are also from inside Egypt) (Liu Yingsheng 2010 p93)


-All the placenames that are transliterations are found in the work of Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250) Kitab Djoughrafiya. And Ibn Said makes them also all into islands off the east coast of Africa, except for Sofala which he puts on the main land.

-The names that give other information are in accordance with the information given by Muslim geographers. These are 4: Ti ba nu (Diba-nu) Island slaves. 11: Huang sha (yellow desert).

- Most geographers have one source for the Nile of Egypt and of Ghana and the Nile of Mogadishu. Here the last one has a different source. Only the annon. Cowar el-aqalim (1347) written in Kirkman-Perzia (the Configurations of the Countries) and Abd el Mo’al (Persia 15th?) give him a separate source like here on the map. See my webpages:

-Cowar el-aqalim (1347)

-Abd al Moal (15th century?)

1  桑骨八or 桑骨八 Sang gu ren (Zangi people) or San gu ba (Zanzibar) (wrongly put on the west coast).

2 這不魯哈麻 Zhebulu Hama = Jabal al-Qamar (Mountains of the Moon) (Takahashi 1963)

3 亦思圭 He na yi si gui  = Hatt al-Istiua (Equator) Chu Ssu pen calls it Hanayisijin 哈納亦思津 (Takahashi 1963).

4 梯八奴 Ti ba nu (Ti-pa-nu) Island slaves (Ti-pa from diva and nu meaning slaves) Diba or dwipa is the old name for the Maldive Islands. Or: Tabarna Arabic for Taprobane (Ceylon)of Ptolemy (Kenzheakhmet p113).

5 库六 Ku liu (Kilwa)

6 喝卒 He zu ?? (Pronounced: gou-tzoe) I think:  Djeziret-el-Qeroud (pronounced el goe-roo) island overtaken by monkeys and close to the island of Kilwa. For this see my web-page for Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250) Kitab Djoughrafiya. Rapoport and Savage-Smith, 2014 p445 translate this as Heis or Hais; a place in N-Somalia, but to me it really does not belong to the list of very common Arab-Persian medieval placenames for the East-African coast.

7 阿剌 A-la ??Chu Ssu-Pen (1320) calls this island : 阿剌秃里赤 (Si a la tu li shi) The Chinese web-book of the: Ancient Seven Seas Gazetteer (http://www.world10k.com/blog/?p=1335) on page 1335 translates 秃里赤Tu li shi as: ‘place of those made naked black and red’ and gives a list of books in which it is used. I think this must be translated here just as 失阿剌 Sofala.

In the same web-book (http://www.world10k.com/blog/?p=1309) is given as translation for: 失阿剌禿里赤 as a different translation of the ancient name Sinhala dvipa in Sri Lanka. I find it difficult to accept a name coming from a different culture to show up in a list of very common Arab-Persian medieval placenames for the East-African coast.

8 冒西哈必剌 Mao xi ha bi la  or  昌西哈必剌 Chang xi ha bi la = Zanj-I-Qanbala (Zanj of Qanbalu) (translation from Nurlan Kenzheakhmet)

9 顆細打賓 Ke xi da bin ??I think: Djezir Arin = dome of the earth. For this see my web-page for Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250) Kitab Djoughrafiya.

10 哇阿哇 Wa a wa = I think: Waq-Waq

11 The island in the big lake of Africa has the name: 黃沙 Huang sha (yellow desert)


The Chinese Source.

-Except of this Mogadishu there is another one this time not taken from Arabian sources but from Chinese sources.


Map of the islands on the very bottom of the map on the edge between Africa and Asia.

 

-Of the three big islands on this map the lowest is East Africa (x-island), above it Arabia island, and above it South India island

according to the Chinese sources of this map. The explanation is that the Chinese sailors knew that if you cross the

ocean starting from the Asian continent you come to South India, crossing again you arrive in South Arabia and crossing

again in East Africa.

-On the Arabian island Kai-lung Ho only identifies the first: 奴發  Nu-fa as Zufar – Dhofar

The others are:

西穴: xi xue (pronounced gichai) ???

阿里: a-li but another copy has:  阿串: a chuan (pronounced Atjan) what closely resembles Adan

-On the African East Coast we have four names: left to right:

哈八牙  Ha-ba-ya (Habasha)

馬合哈叔 or 馬合答叔  Ma-ge-ha-shu or Ma-ge-da-shu (Mogadishu)

奴喏 or 奴啱 : Nu nuo -  Nu yan; the first translates as submissive slaves. Or: 奴發 which translates as nu-fa = Zufar

麻龍沙 Ma-long-sha ???(= traditional Chinese). In simplified Chinese it becomes 麻龙沙.  According to 周运中 Zhou Yunzhong's point of view, the traditional characters of and are easily mixed up. Malongsha 龙沙 (in simplified Chinese) is repaired as: Mafasha 发沙 and can be restored to Mombasa. This is correct but it can also be restored to Mafasha = Wilderness. The mafaza of Ibn Said (1250) and the mafaza=desert of Ibn Hawqal (970) and Istakhri (957). For Ibn Said Mafaza is the uninhabited stretch between the Zanj and Sofala. For Ibn Hawqal and Istakhri it is the dessert (mafaza) between Bilad-al-Habash (ethiopia) and Bilad al-Zanj.

 

Note: this x-island (=East Africa island) is also found on the Da Ming hun yi tu (with also four inscriptions) but not on the Kuang yu tu. That has however an island in the total south east of the Chinese Sea (and so on a different map than the one with Africa)

which has six of the seven names of X plus Arabia island. The missing one is Zufar. Note however that there are

considerable differences between the different copies of the atlas.

 

Some of the Kangnido copies also miss the islands but a similar X-island plus Arabia island appears way further away.

I have no information as to the inscriptions on the islands.

 

For the 1560 Honkoji version of the map.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the encircled area

south of Africa the names

from the travels of Zheng He

are painted.

 

From the southeast

Ceylon Hill, Kezhi,

Banggal, Zhao-na-pu-er,

錫蘭山、柯枝、

榜葛剌、詔納朴兒,

 

Then there is southwest

Fu-lin (Byzantium),

 Tian Fangguo (Mecca),

Mo-de-na (Medina),

拂菻、天方國、默德那,

 

Westward

Zouli, Ji Ma Li, Su Lu,

Pa Heng, Bai Hua,

瑣里、吉麻利、蘇祿、

彭亨、百花,

 

To the northwest

Hu-Lu, A-Wow, Bai-Geda,

Guli, Die-li, He-mao-li

忽魯、阿哇、白葛達、

古里、碟里、合貓里,

 

As to the other places in

the encircled area: I did not

find any translation yet.