Arabia (Tashi)

The Arabs are to the very far northwest of Guangzhou. This makes it hard for foreign ships to trade to it directly.

After these ships have left Guangzhou, they arrive in Srilanka after 40 days to to trade. The next year, they go out to sea again and make the journey in 60 days in regular wind.

Their products are brought to Palembang Sumatra where they are forwarded by merchants to China.

Arabia is powerful and warlike. Its area is very large. Its inhabitants are pre-eminent among all foreigners for their distinguished bearing.

The climate is mostly cold with snow falling to 2-3 feet. This makes rugs valuable.

Its capital is Misuli (some make it to be Malopa), an important trade center for foreigners.

The king wears a turban of silk brocade and foreign cotton.

On each new moon and full moon, he puts on an eight-sided flat-topped headdress of pure gold, set with the most precious jewels in the world. His robe is of sik brocade and is bound around him with a jade girdle.

He wears golden shoes. His residence has:

• pillars of cornelian stone
• walls of lu-kan stone (It is as transparent as crystal)
• tiles of rock-crystal
• bricks of green stone (jasper?)
• mortar of huo stone
• curtains and screens of brocade with rich designs woven in all kinds of colour in silk and pure gold thread.

The king’s throne is set with pearls and precious stones.

• The steps of the throne are covered with pure gold.
• The vessels and utensils around the throne are of gold or silver
• Precious pearls are knotted in the screen behind it.
  • In great court ceremonies, the king sits behind this.
  • On either side, the ministers of state surround him, protecting him. They bear golden bucklersand helmets and armed with precious swords.

His other officers are called Tai-wei.

• Each of them command 20,000 horsemen.
• The horses are 7 feet high and are shod with iron.
• His army is brave and excels in all military exercises.

The streets of the capital are over 50 feet wide. These have sidewalks paved with green and black flagstones of surpassing beauty. These are for the convenience of the pedestrians’ business.

• In the middle is a roadway 20 feet wide for camels, horses, and oxen carrying goods about.

The houses are like those of the Chinese, except that they use thin flagstones instead of tiles.

Their food consists of:

• rice and other cereals.
• mutton stewed with strips of dough, which is considered a delicacy.

The poor live only on:

• fish
• vegetables
• fruits

Sweet dishes are preferred to sour.

Wine is made out of the juice of grapes. They have a drink called ssi which is a decoction of sugar and spices.

By mixing honey and spices, they make a drink called “mei-ssi-ta-hwa”, which is very heating.

Very rich persons use a measure instead of scales in business transactions in gold or silver.

The markets are noisy and bustling, and are filled with a great store of gold and silver damasks, brocades, and similar wares.

The artisans have the true artistic spirit.

Everyone revere Heaven.

• They have a Buddha named “Mahiawu”.
• Every 7 days, they cut their hair and clip their fingernails.
• At the New Year for a while month, they fast and chant prayers.
• They pray daily to Heaven 5 times.

The peasants work their fields of floods or droughts. Irrigation water is supplied by a river whose source is unknown.

in progress, the level of the river remains even with the banks. At the start of cultivation, it rises daily. They have an official tp watch the river and await the highest level. He then summons people who then plough and sow their fields.

When they have had enough water, the river returns to its former level.

There is a great harbour over 200 feet deep. It opens southwest to the sea and has branches connecting with all quarters of the country.

Its exports are:

• pearls
• ivory
• rhinoceros horns
• frankincense
• ambergris
• putchuck
• cloves
• nutmegs
• benzoin
• aloes
• myrrh
• dragon’s-blood
• asofoetida
• wu-na-ish
• borax
• opaque and transparent glass,
• rose-water
• yellow wax
• nut-galls
• tm-lo cottonades
• shell
• coral
• cat’s-eyes
• gardenia flowers,
• gold brocades
• camel’s-hair cloth,
• foreign satins

The foreign traders bring them to Sumatra and to Kedah to barter.

Their dependencies are:

• Malomo

• Shiho

• Lossimei

• Mukulan

• Kieliki

• Pinoye

• Ilu

• Baghdad (Paita)

• Ssi-lien

• Pailien

• Nufa

• Yassipauhien

• Puhualo

• Tsongpa

Africa

• Pipalo (Ethiopia)

Arab Coast

• Yemen (Wupa)
• Oman (Wongli)
• Kish

Afghanistan

• Makia
• Pissilo
• Ghazni (Kitzini)
• Herat (Wussili)

This country was originally a branch of the Persians. Around 605-617, a high-minded and wise Persian found a stone in a deep hole bearing an inscription, and this he took for a good omen.

So he got the people together, took weapons by force and enrolled followers, increased in number until he became powerful enough to make himself king. He then conquered Western Possi.

Since 650-656, they have come repeatedly to our Court to present tribute.

Before the time of their king Ponnimohuan (Beni Merwan), they were called the “white-robed Arabs”. After Apolopa, Abul Abbas) they were called The Black-robed Arabs.

In 966 AD, they sent envoys with tribute to our Court.

In 971, they sent presents with South Vietnam and Java to Li Yu in Kiang-nan. Yu did not go to accept them, so the envoys submitted the matter to the Court, and an Order in Council was issued forbidding that tribute presents should henceforth be brought.

In 993, they sent tribute through the Assistant Envoy Liawu who stated, at an audience granted him in the Ch’ung-chong Audience Hall (of the Palace), that his country bordered on Baghdad and that it produced ivory and rhinoceros horns.

The Emperor Taitsung asked him how rhinoceros and elephants were captured.

He replied= To capture elephants, we use decoy elephants to get near them. We then catch them with a big lasso. To bow and arrow

To capture a rhinoceros, a man with a big bow and arrow climbs a big tree, where he shoots it. The young rhinoceros are not shot as they can be caught.

The envoy was presented with a court dress, a hat and girdle, and, besides these, with as much gold as the tribute presents were worth

In 986, Arab envoys came to Court with a mission from the Pintunglung country.

In 1003, they sent Mani and others a tribute of pearls and a request that return presents should not be made them.

Nevertheless, Emperor Chon-tsung gave them extraordinary honours before returning home.

In 1004, the Arab envoy remained behind at the capital, together with the envoys from Sumatra, and Pukan, to celebrate the Feast of Lanterns where they were treated to their heart’s content with money and wine.

In 1007, they accompanied a tribute mission from Southern Vietnam and were treated with most particular attention,. They were allowed to visit the Buddhist and Taoist temples and the Imperial gardens and parks.

In 1008-1017, while the Emperor was absent in the eastern part of the poses, the chief Topoli was allowed to give his presents directly to the Emperor on the Tai-shan (where he had gone to sacrifice).

In 1011, while the Emperor had gone to Fonyin to make sacrifices, the envoy (Topoli) came again, and was ordered by the Emperor to follow the Court.

According to an old Cantonese tradition, an Arab man named Wusihuluhua who lived to be 130 years.

• He had double ear-beadings and an extraordinarily imposing aspect.
• He said that he had a high regard for Chinese civilization and so he went to China on a ship from the Kulo country.
• The Emperor presented him with a brocade gown and a silver girdle, to which he added a piece of silk

In 1086-1094 and 1205-1208, the Arabs sent missions to Court with tribute.

An Arab trader named of Shi-na-wei, living in Canton disdained wealth, but was charitable and filled with Arabian spirit.

He built a charnel house in the south-western corner of the suburb as a last resting-place for the abandoned bodies of foreign traders.

The Customs Inspector Lin Chiki has recorded this.