This article recommends a virtually unknown manuscript on the early Portuguese presence in India to wider scholarly attention. Dubbed here the Wye manuscript, this text purports to be an English translation of a sixteenth-century Malayalam history that was produced at the court of the ruler of Calicut. The South Indian kingdom of Calicut was central to Portugal’s project of monopolizing the region’s all-important pepper trade; the Wye manuscript therefore holds the promise of adding an Indian perspective to a history that has been written largely on the basis of European sources. This article examines the external and internal evidence for the author’s claim of having translated the text from an original palm-leaf manuscript held by members of Calicut’s royal family. An analysis of its content shows significant overlap with an Arabic history of the sixteenth century; a comparison of their similarities and differences suggests a number of insights into the processes of composition and revision of both the Malayalam and Arabic texts. Last, and most important, the Wye manuscript is transcribed in full in the hope of stimulating further discussion and study.

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异教国王回答：从印度角度看葡萄牙人抵达印度

这篇文章向更广泛的学术界推荐了一份关于早期葡萄牙人在印度存在的几乎不为人知的手稿。此处称为怀伊手稿，该文本声称是对 16 世纪马拉雅拉姆历史的英文翻译，该历史是在卡利卡特统治者的宫廷中制作的。南印度卡利卡特王国是葡萄牙垄断该地区最重要的胡椒贸易项目的核心。因此，怀伊手稿有望为主要根据欧洲资料编写的历史增添印度视角。本文检查了作者声称已从卡利卡特王室成员持有的原始棕榈叶手稿翻译文本的外部和内部证据。对其内容的分析表明，它与 16 世纪的阿拉伯历史有很大的重叠；通过比较它们的异同，可以对马拉雅拉姆语和阿拉伯语文本的组成和修订过程有一些见解。最后，也是最重要的，怀伊手稿被全文转录，希望能激发进一步的讨论和研究。