Steingass as "zedoary, a Chinese root." Further, we read under mah-
parwdr or parwin, " zedoary, a Chinese root like ginger, but perfumed."
7. Abu Mansur distinguishes under the Arabic name zanjabll three
kinds of ginger (product of Amomum zingiber, or Zingiber officinale),
Chinese, Zanzibar, and Melinawi or Zurunbaj, the best being the
Chinese. 1 According to SiEiNGASS, 2 Persian anqala denotes "a kind
of China ginger." 3 The Persian word (likewise in Arabic) demonstrates
that the product was received from India: compare Prakrit singabera }
Sanskrit $rngavera (of recent origin), 4 Old Arabic zangabil, Pahlavi
Sangawr, New Persian $ankalil, Arabic-Persian zanjabll, Armenian
snroel or snkrvil (from *singivel), Greek iyyi(3epis, Latin zingiberi;
Madagasy Sakawru (Indian loan-word). 5
The word galangal, denoting the aromatic rhizome of Alpinia
galanga, is not of Chinese origin, as first supposed by D. HANBURY, G
and after him by HiRTH 7 and GILES. 8 The error was mainly provoked
by the fact that the Arabic word from which the European name is
derived was wrongly written by Hanbury khalanjdn, while in fact it is
khulanjdn (xulandzdri) , Persian xdwalinjdn. The fact that Ibn Khor-
dadzbeh, who wrote about A.D. 844-848, mentions khulanjdn as one of
the products of China, 9 does not prove that the Arabs received this
word from China; for this rhizome is not a product peculiar to China,
but is intensively grown in India, and there the Arabs made the first
acquaintance of it. Ibn al-Baitar 10 states expressly that khulanjdn
comes from India; and, as was recognized long ago, the Arabic word
is derived from Sanskrit kulanja, 11 which denotes Alpinia galanga.
The European forms with ng (galangan, galgan, etc.) were suggested by
the older Arabic pronunciation khillangdn. 12 In Middle Greek we have
1 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 76.
2 Persian Dictionary, p. 113.
3 Concerning ginger among the Arabs, cf. LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. II,
p. 217; and regarding its preparation, see G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs a 1'Extreme-
Orient, p. 609.
4 Cf. the discussion of E. HULTZSCH and F. W. THOMAS in Journal Roy. As. Soc.,
1912, pp. 475, 1093. See also YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 374.
5 The curious word for "ginger" in Kuca or Tokharian B, tvankaro (S. Lvi,
Journal asiatique, 1911, II, pp. 124, 137), is not yet explained.
6 Science Papers, p. 373.
7 Chinesische Studien, p. 219.
8 Glossary of Reference, p. 102.
9 G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs a I'Extr&ne-Orient, p. 31.
10 Ibid., p. 259. Cf. also ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 60.
11 ROEDIGER and POTT, Z. K. d. Morgenl., Vol. VII, 1850, p. 128.
12 E. WIEDEMANN (Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. ErL, Vol. XLV, 1913, p. 44) gives
as Arabic forms also xaulangad and xalangdn.
546 SlNO-lRANICA
/coXour"ta, xauXife*', and 7a\cry7d; in Russian, kalgdn. The whole group
has nothing to do with Chinese kao-lian-kian. 1 Moreover, the latter
refers to a different species, Alpinia officinarum; while Alpinia galanga
does not occur in China, but is a native of Bengal, Assam, Burma,
Ceylon, and the Konkan. GARCIA DA ORTA was already well posted on
the differences between the two. 2
8. Abu Mansur mentions the medical properties of mamiran*
According to AcnuNDOW, 4 a rhizome originating from China, and
called in Turkistan momiran, is described by Dragendorff , and is re-
garded by him as identical with the so-called mishmee (from Coptis
teeta Wall.), which is said to be styled mamiralin in the Caucasus. He
further correlates the same drug with Ranunculus ficaria (xe\Ldovt,ov
rb viKpov), subsequently described by the Arabs under the name
mamirun. Al-Jafiki is quoted by Ibn al-Baitar as saying that the
mantiran comes from China, and that its properties come near to
those of Curcuma? these roots, however, are also a product of Spain,
the Berber country, and Greece. 6 The Sheikh Daud says that the best
which comes from India is blackish, while that of China is yellowish.
Ibn Batuta 7 mentions the importation of mamlran from China, saying
that it has the same properties as kurkum. Hajji Mahomed, in his
account of Cathay (ca. 1550), speaks of a little root growing in the
mountains of Succuir (Su-6ou in Kan-su), where the rhubarb grows,
and which they call Mambroni Cini (mamiran-i Cini, "mamiran of
China"). "This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ail-
ments, but especially where the eyes are affected. They grind it on
a stone with rose-water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is
wonderfully beneficial." 8 In 1583 LEONHART RAUWOLF 9 mentions
1 Needless to say that the vivisections of Hirth, who did not know the Sanskrit
term, lack philological method.
2 MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 208. Garcia gives lavandou as the name used in
China; this is apparently a corrupted Malayan form (cf. Javanese laos}. In Java, he
says, there is another larger kind, called lancuaz; in India both are styled lancuaz. This
is Malayan lenkuwas, Makasar lankuwasa, Cam lakuah or lakuak, Tagalog lankuas.
The Arabic names are written by Garcia calvegiam, chamligiam, and galungem; the
author's Portuguese spelling, of course, must be taken into consideration.
3 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 138.
4 Ibid., p. 268.
6 LECLERC, Traite* des simples, Vol. II, p. 441. Dioscorides remarks that the
sap of this plant has the color of saffron.
6 In Byzantine Greek it is y.o.\n\pk or nepriptv, derived from the Persian-Arabic
word.
7 Ed. of DEFREMERY and SANGUINETTI, Vol. II, p. 186.
8 YULE, Cathay, new ed., Vol. I, p. 292.
9 Beschreibung der Raiss inn die Morgenlander, p. 126.
IRANO-SINICA MAMIRAN, RHUBARB 547
the drug mamirani tchini for eye-diseases, being yellowish like Curcuma.
Bernier mentions mamiran as one of the products brought by the
caravans from Tibet. Also according to a modern Mohammedan source,
mamiran and rhubarb are exported from Tibet. 1
Mamlra is a reputed drug for eye-diseases, applied to bitter roots
of kindred properties but of different origin. By some it is regarded as
the rhizome of Coptis teeta (tlta being the name of the drug in the Mishmi
country); by others, from Tkalictrum foliosum, a tall plant common
throughout the temperate Himalaya and in the Kasia Hills. 2 In another
passage, however, YULE S suggests that this root might be the ginseng
of the Chinese, which is highly improbable.
It is most likely that by mamira is understood in general the root of
Coptis teeta. This is a ranunculaceous plant, and the root has some-
times the appearance of a bird's claw. It is shipped in large quantities
from China (Chinese hwan-Uen H 31) ma Singapore to India. The
Chinese regard it as a panacea for a great many ills; among others, for
clearing inflamed eyes.
9. Abu Mansur discriminates between two kinds of rhubarb, the
Chinese (riwand-i slm) and that of Khorasan, adding that the former
is most employed. 4 Accordingly a species of rhubarb (probably Rheum
ribes) must have been indigenous to Persia. Yaqut says that the finest
kind grew in the soil of Nisapur. 5 According to E. BoissiER, 6 Rheum
ribes occurs near Van and in Agerowdagh in Armenia, on Mount Pir
Omar Gudrun in Kurdistan, in the Daena Mountain of eastern Persia,
near Persepolis, in the province Aderbeijan in northern Persia, and in
the mountains of Baluchistan. There is a general Iranian name for
"rhubarb": Middle Persian rewds, New Persian rewds, rewand, riwand
(hence Armenian erevant), Kurd riwds, rlbds; Baluci rava$; Afghan
rawdL 1 The Persian name has penetrated in the same form into Arabic
1 CH. SCHEFER, Histoire de 1'Asie centrale par Mir Abdoul Kerim Boukhary,
p. 239. Cf. also R. DOZY, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, Vol. II, p. 565.
2 YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 548.
3 Cathay, Vol. I, p. 292.
4 AcHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 74. Chinese rhubarb is also called simply Uni
("Chinese") in Persian, fini in Arabic.
5 BARBIER DE MEYNARD, Diet. g6ogr. de la Perse, p. 579.
6 Flora Orientalis, Vol. IV, p. 1004. Rheum ribes does not occur in China or
Central Asia.
7 The Afghan word in particular refers to Rheum spiciforme, which grows wild
and abundantly in many parts of Afghanistan. When green, the leaf-stalks are
called rawas; and when blanched by heaping up stones and gravel around them,
lukri; when fresh, they are eaten either raw or cooked (WATT, Dictionary, Vol.VI,
p. 487). The species under notice occurs also in Kan-su, China: FORBES and
548 SlNO-lRANICA
and Turkish, likewise into Russian as reven' and into Serbian as reved.
It is assumed also that Greek priov (from *rewon) and pd are derived from
Iranian, and it is more than likely that Iran furnished the rhubarb
known to the ancients. The two Greek names first appear in Dios-
corides, 1 who states that the plant grows in the regions beyond the
Bosporus, for which reason it was subsequently styled rha ponticum
or rha barbarum (hence our rhubarb, Spanish ruibarbo, Italian rabarbaro,
French rhubarbe), an interesting case analogous to that of the Hu
plants of the Chinese. In the fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus 2
states that the plant receives its name from the River Rha ('Pd, Finnish
Rau, Rawa), on the banks of which it grows. This is the Volga, but the
plant does not occur there. It is clear that Ammianus' opinion is
erroneous, being merely elicited by the homophony of the names of
the plant and the river. Pliny 3 describes a root termed rhacoma, which
when pounded yields a co^or like that of wine but inclining to saffron,
and which was brought from beyond the Pontus. Certain it is that
this drug represents some species of Rheum, in my opinion identical
with that of Iran. 4 There is no reason to speculate, as has been done by
some authors, that the rhubarb of the ancients came from China; for
the Chinese did not know rhubarb, as formerly assumed, from time
immemorial. This is shown at the outset by the composite name ta
hwan i$ 3? ("the great yellow one") or hwan lian jH &.("the yellow
good one"), merely descriptive attributes, while for all genuinely ancient
plants there is a root-word of a single syllable. The alleged mention of
rhubarb in the Pen kin or Pen ts *ao, attributed to the mythical Emperor
Sen-nun, proves nothing; that work is entirely spurious, and the text
in which we have it at present is a reconstruction based on quotations
in the preserved Pen-ts'ao literature, and teems with interpolations and
anachronisms. 5 All that is certain is that rhubarb was known to the
HEMSLEY, Journal Linnean Soc., Vol. XXVI, p. 355. There is accordingly no rea-
son to seek for an outside origin of the Iranian word (cf. SCHRADER, Reallexikon,
p. 685). The Iranian word originally designated an indigenous Iranian species,
and was applied to Rheum officinale and palmatum from the tenth century onward,
when the roots of these species were imported from China.
1 in, 2. Theophrastus is not acquainted with this genus.
2 XXII. vm, 28.
3 xxvn, 105.
4 FLUCKIGER and HANBURY (Pharmacographia, p. 493) state, "Whether pro-
duced in the regions of the Euxine (Pontus), or merely received thence from remoter
countries, is a question that cannot be solved." The authors are not acquainted
with the Iranian species, and their scepticism is not justified.
6 It is suspicious that, according to Wu P'u of the third century, Sen Nun and
Lei Kun ascribed poisonous properties to ta hwan, while this in fact is not true.
The Pen kin (according to others, the Pie lu) states that it is non-poisonous.
IRANO-SINICA RHUBARB 549
Chinese in the age of the Han, for the name ta hwan occurs on one of
the wooden tablets of that period discovered in Turkistan by Sir A.
Stein and deciphered by CnAVANNES. 1
Abu Mansur, as cited above, is the first Persian author who speaks
of Chinese rhubarb. He is followed by a number of Arabic writers.
It is therefore reasonable to infer that only in the course of the tenth
century did rhubarb develop into an article of trade from China to
western Asia. In 1154 Edrisi mentions rhubarb as a product of China
growing in the mountains of Buthink (perhaps north-eastern Tibet). 2
Ibn Sa'ld, who wrote in the thirteenth century, speaks of the abundance
of rhubarb in China. 3 Ibn al-Baitar treats at great length of rawend,
by which he understands Persian and Chinese rhubarb, 4 and of ribas,
"very common in Syria and the northern countries," identified by
LECLERC with Rheum ribes. 5
MARCO POLO relates that rhubarb is found in great abundance over
all mountains of the province of Sukchur (Su-cou in Kan-su), and that
merchants go there to buy it, and carry it thence all over the
world. 6 In another passage he attributes rhubarb also to the mountains
around the city of Su-ou in Kian-su, 7 which, Yule says, is believed by
the most competent authorities to be quite erroneous. True it is that
rhubarb has never been found in that province or anywhere in middle
China; neither is there an allusion to this in Chinese accounts, which
restrict the area of the plant to Sen-si, Kan-su, Se-c'wan, and Tibet.
Nevertheless it would not be impossible that at Polo's time a sporadic
attempt was made to cultivate rhubarb in the environs of Su-ou. Friar
Odoric mentions rhubarb for the province Kansan (Kan-su), growing
in such abundance that you may load an ass with it for less than six
groats. 8
Chinese records tell us very little about the export-trade in this
article. Cao Zu-kwa alone mentions rhubarb among the imports of
1 Documents chinois de'couverts dans les sables du Turkestan oriental, p. 115,
No. 527.
2 W. HEYD, Histoire du commerce du levant, Vol. II, p. 665. See also FLUCKIGER
and HANBURY, Pharmacographia, pp. 493-494.
3 G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs a I'Extr&ne-Orient, p. 350.
4 LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. II, pp. 155-164.
6 Ibid., p. 190. This passage was unknown to me when I identified above the
Persian term riwand with this species, arriving at this conclusion simply by consult-
ing Boissier's Flora.
6 YULE, Marco Polo, Vol. I, p. 217.
7 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 181.
8 YULE, Cathay, Vol. II, p. 247.
550 SlNO-lRANICA
San-fu-ts'i (Palembang) and Malabar. 1 In vain also should we look in
Chinese books for anything on the subject that would correspond to the
importance attached to it in the West.
GARCIA DA ORTA (1562) held it for certain that "all the rhubarb
that comes from Ormuz to India first comes from China to Ormuz by
the province of Uzbeg which is part of Tartary. The fame is that it
comes from China by land, but some say that it grows in the same
province, at a city called f amarcander (Samarkand) . 2 But this is very
bad and of little weight. Horses are purged with it in Persia, and I
have also seen it so used in Balagate. It seems to me that this is the
rhubarb which in Europe we called ravam turquino, not because it is
of Turkey but from there." He emphasizes the point that there is no
other rhubarb than that from China, and that the rhubarb coming to
Persia or Uzbeg goes thence to Venice and to Spain; some goes to
Venice by way of Alexandria, a good deal by Aleppo and Syrian Tripoli,
all these routes being partly by sea, but chiefly by land; 3 the rhubarb
is not so much powdered, for it is more rubbed in a month at sea than in
a year going by land. 4 As early as the thirteenth century at least, as we
see from Ibn al-Baitar, what was known to the Arabs as "rhubarb of
the Turks or the Persians," in fact hailed from China. In the same
manner, it was at a later time that in Europe "Russian, Turkey, and
China rhubarb' 7 were distinguished, these names being merely in-
dicative of the various routes by which the drug was conveyed to
Europe from China. 5 Also CHRISTOVAL ACOSTA notes the corruption
of rhubarb at sea and its overland transportation to Persia, Arabia,
and Alexandria.
1 HIRTH, Chau Ju-kua, pp. 61, 88.
2 Probably Rheum ribes, mentioned above.
3 LEONHART RAUWOLF (Beschreibung der Raiss inn die Morgenlander, 1583,
p. 461) reports that large quantities of rhubarb are shipped from India to Aleppo
both by sea and by land.
4 Cf. MARKHAM, Colloquies, pp. 390-392.
5 In regard to the Russian trade in rhubarb see G. CAHEN, Le livre de comptes
de la caravane russe a P6kin, p. 108 (Paris, 1911).
6 Reobarbaro (medicina singular, y digna de ser de todo el linage humano ve-
nerada) se halla solamente dentro de la China, de donde lo traen a vender a Cataon
(que es el puerto de mas comercio de la China, donde estan los Portugueses) y de
alii viene por mar a la India: y deste que viene por mar no se haze mucho caso, por
venir, por la mayor parte corropido (por quanto el Reobarbaro se corrope co mucha
facilidad enla mar) y dela misma tierra d e tro de la China, lo lleuan a la Tartaria,
y por la prouincia de Vzbeque lo lleua a Ormuz, y a toda la Persia, Arabia, y Alex-
adria: de dode se distribuye por toda la Europa (Tractado de las drogas, y medicinas
de las Indias Orientales, p. 287, Burgos, 1576). Cf. also LINSCHOTEN (Vol. II, ,
p. 101, ed. of Hakluyt Society), who, as in most of his notices of Indian products,
exploits Garcia.
IRANO-SINICA RHUBARB, VARIOUS PLANTS 551
JOHN GERARDE 1 illustrates the rhubarb-plant and annotates, "It
is brought out of the countrie of Sina (commonly called China) which
is towarde the east in the upper part of India, and that India which is
without the river Ganges: and not at all Ex Scenitarum provincia,
(as many do unadvisedly thinke) which is in Arabia the happie, and far
from China/' etc. "The best rubarbe is that which is brought from
China fresh and newe," etc.
WATT 2 gives a Persian term revande-hindi ("Indian rhubarb") for
Rheum emodi. Curiously, in Hindustani this is called Hindi-remand
cim ("Chinese rhubarb of India")? and in Bengali Bangla-revan cml
("Chinese rhubarb of Bengal"), indicating that the Chinese product
was preeminently in the minds of the people, and that the Himalayan
rhubarbs were only secondary substitutes.
10. Abu Mansur 3 mentions under the Arabic name ratta a fruit
called "Indian hazel-nut" (bunduq-i hindi), also Chinese Salsola kali.
It is the size of a small plum, contains a small blackish stone, and
is brought from China. It is useful in chronic diseases and in cases of
poisoning, and is hot and dry in the second degree. This is Sapindus
mukorossi, in Chinese wu (or mu)-hwan-tse $& (or /fC) ,S -?* (with a
number of synonymes), the seeds being roasted and eaten.
11. Arabic suk, a drug composed of several ingredients, according
to Ibn Sina, was originally a secret Chinese remedy formed with amlaj
(Sanskrit amalaka, Phyllanthus emblica, the emblic myrobalan). 4 It
is the 3 j|l (jf an-mo-lOj *an-mwa-lak, of the Chinese. 5 In Persian it
is amala or amula.
12. Persian guli xaira (xairu) is explained as Chinese and Persian
hollyhock (Alihcea rosea). Q This is the $u k'wei 13 U ("mallow of Se-
c'wan") of the Chinese, also called Zun k'wei ("mallow of the Zun").
It is the common hollyhock, which STUART T thinks may have been
originally introduced into China from some western country.
13. Ibn al-Baitar 8 speaks of a "rose of China" (ward smi), usually
called nisrin. According to Leclerc, this is a malvaceous plant. In
Persian we find gul-cim ("rose of China"), the identification of which,
1 The Herball or Generall Historic of Plantes, p. 317 (London, 1597).
~ Dictionary, Vol. VI, p. 486.
3 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 74.
4 E. SEIDEL, Mechithar, p. 215.
5 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 30, p. 5 b; Fan yi min yi tsi, Ch. 8, p. I. STUART (Chinese
Materia Medica, p. 421) wrongly identifies the name with Spondias amara.
6 STEINGASS, Persian Dictionary, p. 1092.
7 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 33.
8 LECLERC, Traits' des simples, Vol. Ill, pp. 369, 409.
552 SlNO-lRANICA
judging from what Steingass says, is not exactly known. The Arabic
author, further, has a $ah-smi ("Chinese king"), described as a drug
in the shape of small, thin, and black tabloids prepared from the sap
of a plant. It is useful as a refrigerant for feverish headache and in-
flamed tumors. It is reduced to a powder and applied to the diseased
spot. 1 Leclerc annotates that, according to the Persian treatises, this
plant originating from China, as indicated by its name, is serviceable
for headache in general. Dimaski, who wrote about 1325, ascribes
$ah-ftm to the island of Cankhay in the Malayan Archipelago, saying
that its leaves are known under the name "betel." 2 STEINGASS, in
his Persian Dictionary, explains the term as "the expressed juice of
a plant brought from China, good for headaches." I do not know what
plant is understood here.
14. According to Ibn al-Baitar, the mango (Arabic anbd) is
found only in India and China. 3 This is Mangifera indica (family
Anacardiaceae) , a native of India, and the queen of the Indian fruits,
counting several hundreds of varieties. Its Sanskrit name is amra,
known to the Chinese in the transcription ^ jH an-lo, *am-la(ra).
Persian amba and Arabic anbd are derived from the same word. During
the T'ang period the fruit was grown in Fergana. 4 Malayan manga
(like our mango) is based on Tamil mangas, and is the foundation of the
Chinese transcription mun HI . The an-lo tree is first mentioned for
Cen-la (Camboja) in the Sui Annals, 5 where its leaves are compared
with those of the jujube (Zizyphus vulgaris), and its fruits with those
of a plum (Prunus tri flora) .
15. Isak Ibn Amran says, "Sandal is a wood that conies to us from
China." 6 Santalum album is grown in Kwan-tun to some extent, but it
is more probable that the sandal-wood used in western Asia came from
India (cf. Persian Randan, candal, Armenian candan, Arabic sandal,
from Sanskrit candand).
1 6. Antaki notes the xalen tree ("birch") in India and China; and
Ibn al-Kebir remarks that it is particularly large in China, in the
country of the Rus (Russians) and Bulgar, where are made from it
vessels and plates which are exported to distant places; the arrows
made of this wood are unsurpassed. According to Qazwmi and Ibn
1 Ibid., p. 314.
2 G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs a I'Extr^me-Orient, p. 381.
8 LECLERC, Trait< des simples, Vol. II, p. 471. Cf. Ibn Batata* ed. of DE-
FREMERY and SANGUINETTI, Vol. Ill, p. 127; YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 553.
4 T'ai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 181, p. 13 b.
6 Sui $u, Ch. 82, p. 3 b.
6 LECLERC, op. cit., p. 383.
IRANO-SINICA MANGO, BIRCH, TEA 553
Fadlan, the tree occurred in Tabaristan, whence its wood reached the
comb-makers of Rei. 1 The Arabic xalen, Persian xadan or xadanj,
is of Altaic origin: Uigur qadan, Koibal, Soyot and Karagas kaden,
Cuwas xoran, Yakut xatyn, Mordwinian kilen, all referring to the birch
(Betula alba). It is a common tree in the mountains of northern China
(hwa IS ), first described by C'en Ts'an-k'i of the eighth century. 2 The
bark was used by the Chinese for making torches and candles filled with
wax, as a padding or lining of underclothes and boots, for knife-hilts
and the decoration of bows, the latter being styled " birch-bark bows." 3
The universal use of birch-bark among all tribes of Siberia for pails,
baskets, and dishes, and as a roof -covering, is well known.
17. It would be very desirable to have more exact data as to
when and how the consumption of Chinese tea (Camellia theifera)
spread among Mohammedan peoples. The Arabic merchant Soleiman,
who wrote about A.D. 851, appears to be the first outsider who gives an
accurate notice of the use of tea-leaves as a beverage on the part of the
Chinese, availing himself of the curious name sax* It is strange that
the following Arabic authors who wrote on Chinese affairs have nothing
to say on the subject. In the splendid collection of Arabic texts relative
to the East, so ably gathered and interpreted by G. FERRAND, tea
is not even mentioned. It is likewise absent in the Persian pharmacology
of Abu Mansur and in the vast compilation of Ibn al-Baitar. On the
other hand, Chinese mediaeval authors like Cou K'u-fei and Cao Zu-
kwa do not note tea as an article of export from China. As far as
we can judge at present, it seems that the habit of tea-drinking spread
to western Asia not earlier than the thirteenth century, and that it
was perhaps the Mongols who assumed the r61e of propagators. In
Mongol, Turkish, Persian, Indian, Portuguese, Neo-Greek, and Rus-
sian, we equally find the word cai, based on North-Chinese 'a. 5 Ramu-
1 G. JACOB, Handel sartikel der Araber, p. 60.
2 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 35 B, p. 13.
3 Ko ku yao lun, Ch. 8, p. 8 b. Cf. also O. FRANKE, Beschreibung des Jehol-
Gebietes, p. 77.
4 REINAUD, Relation des voyages, Vol. I, p. 40 (cf. YULE, Cathay, new ed.,
Vol. I, p. 131). Modern Chinese c'a was articulated *ja (dza) in the T'ang period;
but, judging from the Korean and Japanese form sa, a variant sa may be supposed
also for some Chinese dialects. As the word, however, was never possessed of a
final consonant in Chinese, the final spirant in Soleiman's sax is a peculiar Arabic
affair (provided the reading of the manuscript be correct).
5 The Tibetans claim a peculiar position in the history of tea. They still have
the Chinese word in the ancient form ja (dza}, and, as shown by me in T'oung Pao
(1916, p. 505), have imported and consumed tea from the days of the T'ang. In
fact, tea was the dominant economic factor and the key-note in the political rela-
tions of China and Tibet.
554 SlNO-lRANICA
sio, in the posthumous introduction to his edition of Marco Polo pub-
lished in 1545, mentions having learned of the tea beverage from a
Persian merchant, Hajji Muhammed. 1 A. DE MANDELSLO, 2 in 1662,
still reports that the Persians, instead of The, drink their Kahwa (coffee).
In the fifteenth century, A-lo-tin, an envoy from T'ien-fan (Arabia),
in presenting his tribute to an emperor of the Ming, solicited tea-
leaves. 3
The Kew Bulletin for 1896 (p. 157) contains the following inter-
esting information on " White Tea of Persia:"
"In the Consular Report on the trade of Ispahan and Yezd (Foreign Office,
Annual Series, 1896, No. 1662) the following particulars are given of the tea trade
in Persia: 'Black or Calcutta tea for Persian consumption continues to arrive in
steady quantities, 2,000,000 pounds representing last year's supply. White tea from
China, or more particularly from Tongking, is consumed only in Yezd, and, there-
fore, the supply is limited.' Through the courtesy of Mr. John R. Preece, Her
Majesty's Consul at Ispahan, Kew received a small quantity of the 'White tea*
above mentioned for the Museum of Economic Botany. The tea proved to be very
similar to that described in the Kew Bulletin under the name of P'u-erh tea (Kew
Bulletin, 1889, pp. 118 and 139). The finest of this tea is said to be reserved for the
Court of Peking. The sample from Yezd was composed of the undeveloped leaf
buds so thickly coated with fine hairs as to give them a silvery appearance. Owing
to the shaking in transit some of the hairs had been rubbed off and had formed small
yellow pellets about ^ inch diameter. Although the hairs are much more
abundant than usual there is little doubt that the leaves have been derived from
the Assam tea plant (Camellia theifera, Griff.) found wild in some parts of Assam
and Burma but now largely cultivated in Burma, Tongking, etc. The same species
has been shown to yield Lao tea (Kew Bulletin, 1892, p. 219), and Leppett tea (Kew
Bulletin, 1896, p. 10). The liquor from the Persian white tea was of a pale straw
colour with the delicate flavour of good China tea. It is not unknown but now little
appreciated in the English market."
1 8. The Arabic stone-book sailing under the false flag of Aristotle
distinguishes several kinds of onyx (jiza'), which come from two places,
China and the country of the west, the latter being the finest. Qazwin!
gives Yemen and China as localities, telling an anecdote that the
Chinese disdain to quarry the stone and leave this to specially privileged
slaves, who have no other means of livelihood and sell the stone only
outside of China. 4 As formerly stated, 5 this may be the pi yti H 3i of
the Chinese.
19. Qazwlni also mentions a stone under the name husyat ibtis
("devil's testicles") which should occur in China. Whoever carries it is
1 YULE, Cathay, new ed., Vol. I, p. 292; or Hobson-Jobson, p. 906.
2 Travels, p. 15.
3 BRETSCHNEIDER, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. II, p. 300.
4 J. RUSKA, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 145; and Steinbuch des Qazwlni,
p. 12; LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. I, p. 354.
6 Notes on Turquois, p. 52.
IRANO-SINICA MINERALS, METALS 555
not held up by bandits; also his baggage in which the stone is hidden is
safe from attack, and its wearer rises in the esteem of his fellow-mates. 1
I do not know what Chinese stone is understood here.
20. It is well known that the Chinese have a peculiar alloy of copper
consisting of copper 40.4, zinc 25.4, nickel 31.6, iron 2.6, and occa-
sionally some silver and arsenic. It looks white or silver-like in the
finish, and is hence called pai-t'un (" white copper")- In Anglo-Indian
it is tootnague (Tamil tutundgum, Portuguese tutanaga). 2 It is also
known to foreigners in the East under the Cantonese name paktung.
It is mentioned as early as A.D. 265 in the dictionary Kwan ya 9t 5S, 3
where the definition occurs that pai-t'un is called wu 4 .
This alloy was adopted by the Persians under the name xar-clm
(Arabic xdr-sim) . 4 The Persians say that the Chinese make this alloy
into mirrors and arrowheads, a wound from which is mortal. 5 Vullers
cites a passage from the poet Abu al Ma'am, "One who rejects and
spurns his friend pierces his heart with xdr-slni." Qazwinl speaks of
very efficient lance-heads and harpoons of this metal. The Persians
have further the term isfidruj, which means "white copper," and which
accordingly represents a literal rendering of Chinese pai-t*uh. More-
over, there is Persian sepidmi (Arabic isbiaddri, isbdddrlti)\ that is,
"whitish in appearance." English spelter (German s planter, speauter,
spialter, Russian Spiauter), a designation of zinc, is derived from this
word. 6 Bimasqi, who wrote about 1325, explains ocdr-sml as a metal
from China, the yellow color of copper being mixed with black and
white; the mirrors imported from China, called "mirrors of distortion, "
are made from this alloy. It is an artificial product, hard, and fragile;
it is injured by fire, after being wrought. Qazwmi adds that no other
metal yields a ring equalling that of this alloy, and that none is so suit-
able for the manufacture of large and small bells. 7
21. In the thirteenth century the Arabs became acquainted with
saltpetre, which they received from China; for they designate it as
1 RusKA, ibid., p. 21.
2 Cf. YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 932. This, of course, is a misnomer, as the
Indian word, connected with Persian tutiya (above, p. 512), in fact refers to zinc.
3 Ch. 8 A, p. 1 6 (ed. of Kifu ts'un $u).
4 Literally, "stone of China." Spanish kazini is derived from the Arabic word.
6 STEINGASS, Persian Dictionary, p. 438.
6 It seems also that the Persian word is the source of the curious Japanese term
sabari or sahari, which denotes the white copper of the Chinese. The foreign char-
acter of this product is also indicated by the writing jjjfl iff fj|.
7 Cf. E. WIEDEMANN, Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. ErL, Vols. XXXVII, 1905,
pp. 403-404; and XLV, 1913, p. 46; R. DOZY, Supplement, Vol. I, p. 857.
SlNO-lRANICA
thelg as-sm (" Chinese snow"), and the rocket as sahm xatai (" Chinese
arrow"). 1
22. Ibn al-Faqlh extols the art-industries of the Chinese, par-
ticularly pottery, lamps, and other such durable implements, which are
admirable as to their art and permanent in their execution. 2 Kaolin is
known to the Persians as xak-i Zlm ("Chinese earth"). In excellent
quality it is found in Kermanshah, but the art of making porcelain
there is now lost. 3 The Persian term for porcelain is fag fun or fagfur-i
.* Fagfur (Sogdian va7vur, "Son of Heaven"), as far as I know, is
the only sinicism to be found in Iranian, being a literal rendering of
Chinese Vien-tse X ?.
23. Persian Itibi elm ("China root"), Neo-Sanskrit cobaclnl or
copaclm (kub-cim in the bazars of India), is the root of Smilax pseudo-
china , so-called Chinese sarsaparilla (t'u-fu-lin dhK^), a famous
remedy for the treatment of Morbus americanus, first introduced into
Europe by the returning sailors of Columbus, and into India by the
sailors of Vasco da Gama (Sanskrit phirangaroga, "disease of the
Franks"). It is first mentioned, together with the Chinese remedy, in
Indian writings of the sixteenth century, notably the Bhavaprakaca. 5
Good information on this subject is given by GARCIA DA ORTA, who
says, "As all these lands and China and Japan have this morbo napo-
litano, it pleased a merciful God to provide this root as a remedy with
which good doctors can cure it, although the majority fall into error.
As it is cured with this medicine, the root was traced to the Chinese,
when there was a cure with it in the year 1535." Garcia gives a detailed
description of the shrub which he says is called lampatam by the Chi-
nese. 7 This transcription corresponds to Chinese len-fan-fwan & Hfc US
(literally, "cold rice ball"), a synonyme of t'u-fu-lin; pronounced at
1 G. JACOB, Oriental Elements of Culture in the Occident (Smithsonian Report
for 1902, p. 520). See also LECLERC, Traite des simples, Vol. I, pp. 71, 333; and
QUATREM^RE, Journal asiatique, 1850, I, p. 222.
2 E. WIEDEMANN, Zur Technik bei den Arabern, Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. ErL,
Vol. XXXVIII, 1906, p. 355-
3 SCHLIMMER, Terminologie, p. 334.
4 See Beginnings of Porcelain, p. 126.
B J. JOLLY, Indische Medicin, p. 106.
6 C. MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 379. Cf. also FLUCKIGER and HANBURY, Phar-
macographia, p. 712. F. PYRARD (Vol. I, p. 182; ed. of Hakluyt Society), who trav-
elled in India from 1601 to 1610, observes, "Venereal disease is not so common,
albeit it is found, and is cured with China-wood, without sweating or anything
else. This disease they call farangui baescour (Arabic basur, 'piles'), from its coming
to them from Europe." A long description of the remedy is given by LINSCHOTEN
(Vol. II, pp. 107-112, ed. of Hakluyt Society).
7 C. ACOSTA (Tractado de las drogas, p. 80) writes this word lampatan.
IRANO-SINICA CHINA ROOT, PAPER 557
Canton lan-fan-t'un, at Amoy lin-hoan-toan. It must be borne in mind
that final Portuguese m is not intended for the labial nasal, but indicates
the nasalization of the preceding vowel, am and a being alternately
used. The frequent final guttural nasal n of Chinese has always been
reproduced by the Portuguese by a nasalized vowel or diphthong; for
instance, tufao (" typhoon "), given by Fernao Pinto as a Chinese
term, where fao corresponds to Chinese fun ("wind"); tutao, repro-
ducing Chinese tu-t'un 8$ $ (" Lieutenant-General"). Thus the tran-
scription lampatam moves along the same line. The Portuguese designa-
tion of the root is raiz da China ("root of China").
There is an overland trade in this root from China by way of Turkis-
tan to Ladakh, and probably also to Persia. 1 The plant has been known
to the Chinese from ancient times, being described by T'ao Hun-kin. 2
The employment of the root in the treatment of Morbus americanus
(yah mei tu cwah Hf Jf8 H 3f ) is described at length by Li Si-cen, who
quotes this text from Wan Ki feE ffi, a celebrated physician, who lived
during the Kia-tsin period (1522-66), and author of the Pen ts'ao hui
pien >fc 3$ 'fr 81. This is an excellent confirmation of the synchronous
account of Garcia. 3 Li Si-cen states expressly, "The yah-mei ulcers
are not mentioned in the ancient recipes, neither were there any people
afflicted with this disease. Only recently did it arise in Kwan-tun,
whence it spread to all parts of China."
24. Of Chinese loan-words in Persian, HORN 4 enumerates only
cdi ("tea"), ladan ("teapot"), cdu ("paper money"), and perhaps also
kdgab or kdgid ("paper"). As will be seen, there are many more Chinese
loans in Persian; but the word for "paper" is not one of them, although the
Persians received the knowledge of paper from the Chinese. This theory
was first set forth by HiRTH, 5 who asserts, "The Arabic word
kdghid for paper, derived from the Persian, 6 can without great difficulty
be traced to a term ku-chih He &K (ancient pronunciation kok-dz'),
which means 'paper from the bark of the mulberry-tree,' and was
already used in times of antiquity." This view has been accepted by
1 T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 477.
2 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 8 B, p. 2; also Ch. 4 B, p. 6 b; BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot.
Sin., pt. Ill, p. 320.
3 1 have sufficient material to enable me to publish at some later date a detailed
history of the disease from Chinese sources.
4 Grundriss der iran. Phil., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 7.
5 T'oung Pao, Vol. I, 1890, p. 12; or Chines. Studien, p. 269.
6 In my opinion, the word is of Uigur origin (kagat, kagas), and was subsequently
adopted by the Persians, and from the Persians by the Arabs. In Persian we have
the forms kdyad, kdyid, kdyaz, and kdgiz (Baluci kdgad). Aside from this vacillating
mode of spelling, the word is decidedly non-Persian. See, further, below, p. 558.
558 SlNO-lRANICA
KARABACEK and HoERNLE. 1 Let us assume for a moment that the prem-
ises on which this speculation is based are correct : how could the Uigur,
Persians, and Arabs make kdgad out of a Chinese kok-li (or dzi)?
How may we account for the vocalization a, which persists wherever the
word has taken root (Hindi kdgad, Urdu kdgaz, Tamil kdgidam, Mala-
yalam kdyitam, Kannada kdgada) ? 2 The Uigur and Persians, according
to their phonetic system, were indeed capable of reproducing the
Chinese word correctly if they so intended; in fact, Chinese loan-words
in the two languages are self-evident without torturing the evidence.
For myself, I am unable to see any coincidence between kok-ti and
kdgad. But this alleged kok-ci, in fact, does not exist. The word ku,
as written by Hirth, is known to every one as meaning " grain, cereals; "
and none of our dictionaries assigns to it the significance "mulberry."
It is simply a character substituted for kou HI (anciently *ku, without
a final consonant), which refers exclusively to the paper-mulberry
(Broussonetia papyri/era), expressed also (and this is the most common
word) by fru fif. The Pen ts'ao kan mu z gives the character ku i on
the same footing with *u, quoting the former from the ancient dic-
tionary Si min* and adding expressly that it has the phonetic value of
$$*, and is written also S . The character ku, accordingly, to be read
kou, is merely a graphic variant, and has nothing to do with the word
ku (*kuk), meaning "cereals."
According to Li Si-Sen, this word kou (*ku) originates from the
language of C'u 3&, in which it had the significance "milk" (Zu ?L);
and, as the bark of this tree contained a milk-like sap, this word was
transferred to the tree. It is noteworthy in this connection that Ts'ai
Lun, the inventor of paper in A.D. 105, was a native of C'u. The
dialectic origin of the word kou shows well how we have two root-words
for exactly the same species of tree. This is advisedly stated by Li
Si-en, who rejects as an error the opinion that the two words should
refer to two different trees; he also repudiates expressly the view that
the word kou bears any relation to the word ku in the sense of cereals or
rice. According to T'ao Hun-kin, the term kou li was used by the
people of the south, who, however, said also ?u ci; the latter word,
1 Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1903, p. 671.
2 According to BUHLER (Indische Palaographie, p. 91), paper was introduced
into India by the Mohammedans after the twelfth century. The alleged Sanskrit
word for "paper," kdyagata, ferreted out by HOERNLE (Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1911,
p. 476), rests on a misunderstanding of a Sanskrit text, as has been shown by Lieut.-
Col. WADDELL on the basis of the Tibetan translation of this text ((ibid., 1914,
pp. 136-137).
3 Ch. 36, p. 4.
4 See above, p. 201.
iRANO-SiNiCA PAPER 559
indeed, has always been more common. Hirth's supposition of a former
pronunciation kok cannot be accepted; but, even did this alleged kok
exist, I should continue to disbelieve in the proposed etymology of the
Persian-Arabic word. There is no reason to assume that, because
paper was adopted by the Arabs and Persians from the Chinese, their
designation of it should hail from the same quarter. I do not know
of a foreign language that was willing to adopt from the Chinese
any designation for paper. Our word comes from the Greek-Latin
papyrus; Russian bumaga originally means " cotton," being ultimately
traceable to Middle Persian pambak. 1 The Tibetans learned the tech-
nique of paper-making from the Chinese, but have a word of their own
to designate paper (sog-bu). So have the Japanese (kami) and the
Koreans (muntsi). The Mongols call paper tsagasun (Buryat tsaraso,
sdrahan), a purely Mongol word, meaning "the white one." Among
the Golde on the Amur I recorded the word ocausal. The Lolo have
f o-i, the Annamese bia, the Cam baa, baar, or biar, the Khmer credas,
which, like Malayan kertas, is borrowed from Arabic kirtas (Greek
xaprr?s). 2 As stated, the Persian- Arabic word is borrowed from a
Turkish language: Uigur kagat or kagas; Tuba, Lebed, Kumandu,
Comanian kagat; Kirgiz, Karakirgiz, Taranci, and Kazan kagaz. The
origin of this word can be explained from Turkish; for in Lebed, Ku-
mandu, and Sor, we have kaga$ with the significance " tree-bark. "
I need not repeat here the oft-told story of how the manufacture of
paper was introduced into Samarkand by Chinese captives in A.D. 751.
Prior to this date, as has been established by Karabacek, Chinese
paper was imported to Samarkand as early as 6501, again in 707. 3
Under the Sasanians, Chinese paper was known in Persia ; but it was a
very rare article, and reserved for royal state documents. 4
25. Another form in which paper reached the Persians was paper
money. It is well known that the Chinese were the originators of
1 See above, p. 490.
2 S. FRAENKEL, Die aramaischen Fremdworter im Arabischen, p. 245.
3 Cf. HOERNLE, Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1903, p. 670. I regret being unable to
accept his general result that the Arabs or Samarkandis should be credited with the
invention of pure rag-paper (p. 674). This had already been accomplished in China,
and indeed was the work of Ts'ai Lun. I expect to come back to this problem on
another occasion. With all respect for the researches of Karabacek, Wiesner, and
Hoernle, I am not convinced that the far-reaching conclusions of these scholars are
all justified. We are in need of more investigations (and less theorizing), especially
of ancient papers made in China. There are numerous accounts of many sorts of
paper, hitherto unnoticed, in Chinese records, which should be closely studied.
4 According to Masudi (B. DE MEYNARD, Les Prairies d'or, Vol. II, p. 202);
see also E. DROUIN, Me"moire sur les Huns Ephthalites, p. 53 (reprint from Le
Museon, 1895).
560 SlNO-lRANICA
paper bank-notes. 1 The Mongol rulers introduced them into Persia,
first in 1294. The notes were direct copies of Kubilai's, even the Chinese
characters being imitated as part of the device upon them, and the
Chinese word Vao $3? being employed. This word was then adopted
by the Persians as tau or av. 2 The most interesting point about this
affair is that in that year (1294) the Chinese process of block-printing
was for the first time practised in Tabriz in connection with the printing
of these bank-notes.
In his graphic account describing the utilization of paper money
by the Great Khan, MARCO PoLO 3 makes the following statement:
"He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the mul-
berry tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms, these
trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them. What
they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood
of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something
resembling sheets of paper, but black. When these sheets have been
prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes." In the third
edition of Yule's memorable work, the editor, HENRI CORDIER,* has
added the following annotation: "Dr. Bretschneider (History of
Botanical Discoveries, Vol. I, p. 4) makes the remark: 'Polo states
that the Great Khan causeth the bark of great mulberry trees, made
into something like paper, to pass for money.' He seems to be mistaken.
Paper in China is not made from mulberry-trees, but from the Brous-
sonetia papyri/era, which latter tree belongs to the same order of
Moraceae. The same fibres are used also in some parts of China for
making cloth, and Marco Polo alludes probably to the same tree when
stating that 'in the province of Cuiju (Kuei-chou) they manufacture
stuff of the bark of certain trees, which form very fine summer clothing.' "
This is a singular error of Bretschneider. Marco Polo is perfectly
correct: not only did the Chinese actually manufacture paper from
the bark of the mulberry-tree (Morns alba), but also it was this paper
which was preferred for the making of paper money. Bretschneider
is certainly right in saying th#t paper is made from the Broussonetia, but
1 KLAPROTH, Sur 1'origine du papier-monnaie (in his Memoires relatifs a 1'Asie,
Vol. I, pp. 375-388); YULE, Marco Polo, Vol. I, pp. 426-430; ANONYMUS, Paper
Money among the Chinese (Chin. Repository, Vol. XX, 1851, pp. 289-296); S. SA-
BURO, The Origin of the Paper Currency (Journal Peking Or. Soc., Vol. II, 1889,
pp. 265-307); S. W. BUSHELL, Specimens of Ancient Chinese Paper Money (ibid.,
pp. 308-316); H. B. MORSE, Currency in China (Journal China Branch Roy. As. Soc. r
Vol. XXXVIII, 1907, pp. 17-31); etc.
2 For details consult YULE, /. c.
3 H. YULE, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. I, p. 423.
4 Ibid., p. 430.
IRANO-SINICA PAPER MONEY 561
he is assuredly wrong in the assertion that paper is not made in China
from mulberry-trees. This fact he could have easily ascertained from
S. JULIEN/ who alludes to mulberry- tree paper twice, first, as "papier
de racines et d'ecorce de murier;" and, second, in speaking of the bark
paper from Broussonetia, "On emploie aussi pour le mme usage
1'ecorce d' Hibiscus Rosa sinensis et de murier; ce dernier papier sert
encore a recueillir les graines de vers & soie." What is understood by
the latter process may be seen from plate i in Julien's earlier work on
sericulture, 2 where the paper from the bark of the mulberry-tree is like-
wise mentioned.
The Ci p*u jffi Mf, a treatise on paper, written by Su Yi-kien S H IB
toward the close of the tenth century, enumerates, among the various
sorts of paper manufactured during his lifetime, paper from the bark
of the mulberry-tree (san p*i Jk &) made by the people of the north. 3
Chinese paper money of mulberry-bark was known in the Islamic
world in the beginning of the fourteenth century; that is, during the
Mongol period. Accordingly it must have been manufactured in China
during the Yuan dynasty. Ahmed Sibab Eddin, who died in Cairo
in 1338 at the age of ninety-three, and left an important geographical
work in thirty volumes, containing interesting information on China
gathered from the lips of eye-witnesses, makes the following comment
on paper money, in the translation of CH. ScHEFER: 4 "On emploie
dans le Khita, en guise de monnaie, des morceaux d'un papier de forme
allonge*e fabrique* avec des filaments de muriers sur lequel est imprime*
le nom de 1'empereur. Lorsqu'un de ces papiers est use", on le porte
aux officiers du prince et, moyennant une perte minime, on regoit un
autre billet en ^change, ainsi que cela a lieu dans nos hdtels des mon-
naies, pour les matieres d'or et d'argent que 1'on y porte pour tre
converties en pieces monnayees."
And in another passage: "La monnaie des Chinois est faite de
billets fabriqu6s avec l'e*corce du murier. II y en a de grands et de
1 Industries anciennes et modernes de 1'empire chinois, pp. 145, 149 (Paris
1869).
2 Re'sume' des principaux trace's chinois sur la culture des muriers et 1'e'ducation
des vers a soie, p. 98 (Paris, 1837). According to the notions of the Chinese, JULIEN
remarks, everything made from hemp, like cord and weavings, is banished from the
establishments where silkworms are reared, and our European paper would be
very harmful to the latter. There seems to be a sympathetic relation between the
silkworm feeding on the leaves of the mulberry and the mulberry paper on which
the cocoons of the females are placed.
3 Ko ci kin yuan, Ch. 37, p. 6.
4 Relations des Musulmans avec les Chinois (Centenaire de 1'Ecole des langues
orientales vivantes, Paris, 1895, p. 17).
562 SlNO-lRANICA
petits. . . . On les fabrique avec des filaments tendres du mirier et,
apres y avoir appose un sceau au nom de Tempereur, on les met en
circulation." 1
The bank-notes of the Ming dynasty were likewise made of mul-
berry-pulp, in rectangular sheets one foot long and six inches wide, the
material being of a greenish color, as stated in the Annals of the Dy-
nasty. 2 It is clear that the Ming emperors, like many other institutions,
adopted this practice from their predecessors, the Mongols. KLAPROTH S
is wrong in saying that the assignats of the Sung, Kin, and Mongols
were all made from the bark of the tree Zu (Broussonetia) , and those of
the Ming from all sorts of plants. 4
In the Hui kian U 31 t&, an interesting description of Turkistan
by two Manchu officials Surde and Fusambd, published in i772, 5 the
following note, headed " Mohammedan Paper" -f $, occurs: " There
are two sorts of Turkistan paper, black and white, made from mulberry-
bark, cotton ffi! 'Iff , and silk-refuse equally mixed, resulting in a coarse,
thick, strong, and tough material. It is cut into small rolls fully a foot
long, which are burnished by means of stones, and are then fit for
writing."
Sir AUREL STEiN 6 reports that paper is still manufactured from mul-
berry-trees in Khotan. Also J. WIESNER, ? the meritorious investigator
1 Ibid., p. 20. .
* Minti, ch. 8i, P . i (# M U # i -K A -* K it ,)
The same text is found on a bill issued in 1375, reproduced and translated by
W. VISSERING (On Chinese Currency, see plate at end of volume), the minister of
finance being expressly ordered to use the fibres of the mulberry-tree in the com-
position of these bills.
3 M6moires relatifs a 1'Asie, Vol. I, p. 387.
4 This is repeated by ROCKHILL (Rub ruck, p. 201). I do not deny, of course,
that paper money was made from Broussonetia. The Chinese numismatists, in their
description of the ancient paper notes, as far as I know, make no reference to the
material (cf., for instance, Ts'uan pu t'un li ^ ^fij $t ;, Ch. 5, p. 42; 6 A, p. 2;
6 B, p. 44). The Yuan li (Ch. 97, p. 3) does not state, either, the character of the
paper employed in the Mongol notes. My point is, that the Mongols, while they
enlisted Broussonetia paper for this purpose, used mulberry-bark paper as well,
and that the latter was exclusively utilized by the Ming.
5 A. WYLIE, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 64. The John Crerar Library of
Chicago owns an old manuscript of this work, clearly written, in 4 vols. and chapters,
illustrated by nine ink-sketches of types of Mohammedans and a map. The volumes
are not paged.
6 Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. 134.
7 Mikroskopische Untersuchung alter ostturkestanischer Papiere, p. 9 (Vienna,
1902). I cannot pass over in silence a curious error of this scholar when he says
(p. 8) that it is not proved that Cannabis sativa (called by him "genuine hemp")
is cultivated in China, and that the so-called Chinese hemp paper should be intended
for China grass. Every tyro in things Chinese knows that hemp (Cannabis sativa)
IRANO-SINICA PAPER MONEY, PARCHMENT 563
of ancient papers, has included the fibre of Morus alba and M. nigra
among the materials to which his researches extended.
Mulberry-bark paper is ascribed to Bengal in the Si yan c'ao kun
tien fo V# 1MI- JlJRby Hwafi Siii-ts'en ^ ^ 't", published in 1520.!
Such paper is still made in Corea also, and is thicker and more solid
than that of China. 2 The bark of a species of mulberry is utilized by
the Shan for the same purpose. 3
As the mulberry-tree is eagerly cultivated in Persia in connection
with the silk-industry, it is possible also that the Persian paper in the
bank-notes of the Mongols was a product of the mulberry. 4 At any
rate, good Marco Polo is cleared, and his veracity and exactness have
been established again.
Before the introduction of rag-paper the Persians availed them-
selves of parchment as writing-material. It is supposed by Herzfeld
that Darius Hystaspes introduced the use of leather into the royal
archives, but this interpretation has been contested. 5 A fragment of
Ctesias preserved by Diodorus 6 mentions the employment of parchment
(di
parchment (membrana) superseded wooden tablets in the first century
A.D. 7 The Avesta and Zend written on prepared cow-skins with gold ink
is mentioned in the Artai-viraf-namak (i, 7). The Iranian word post
("skin") resulted in Sanskrit pusta or pustaka (" volume, book"), 8
from which Tibetan po-ti is derived. 9 On the other hand, the Persians
have borrowed from the Greek dufrdepa ("skin, parchment") their
word daftar or defter ("book," Arabic da/tar, diftar), which likewise
belongs to the oldest cultivated plants of the Chinese (see above, p. 293), and that
hemp paper is already listed among the papers invented by Ts'ai Lun in A.D. 105
(cf. CHAVANNES, Les Livres chinois avant 1'invention du papier, Journal asiatique,
I 95 P- 6 of the reprint).
1 Ch. B., p. 10 b (ed. of Pie Ma lai ts'un Su).
2 C. DALLET, Histoire de l'e*glise de Core*e, Vol. I, p. CLXXXIII.
3 J. G. SCOTT and J. P. HARDIMAN, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan
States, pt. I, Vol. II, p. 411.
4 The Persian word for the mulberry, tu8, is supposed to be a loan-word from
Aramaic (HORN, Grundriss iran. Phil., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 6); but this is erroneous
(see below, p. 582).
5 Cf. V. GARDTHAUSEN, Buchwesen im Altertum, p. 91.
6 ii, 32.
7 K. DZIATZKO, Ausgewahlte Kapitel des antiken Buchwesens, p. 131.
8 R. GAUTHIOT in Memoires Soc. de Linguistique, Vol. XIX, 1915, p. 130.
9 T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 452.
564 SlNO-lRANICA
spread to Central Asia (Tibetan deb-t*er, Mongol debter, Manchu
debtelin) *
The use of parchment on the part of the people of Parthia (An-si) has
already been noted by the mission of Can K'ien, who placed it on record
that "they make signs on leather, from side to side, by way of literary
records." It is accordingly certain that parchment was utilized in
Iran as early as the second century B.C. There are also later references
to this practice; for instance, in the Nan &, 2 where it is said that the
Hu (Iranians) use sheep-skin ^ & as paper. The Chinese have hardly
ever made use of parchment for writing-purposes, but they prepare
parchment (from the skins of sheep, donkeys, or oxen) for the making
of shadow-play figures. The only parchment manuscripts ever found
in China were the Scriptures of the Jews of K'ai-fon, which are also
mentioned in their inscriptions. 3
26. Most of the Chinese loan-words in Persian were imported by
the Mongol rulers in the thirteenth century (the so-called Il-Khans,
1265-1335), being chiefly terms relative to official and administrative
institutions. The best known of these is pdizah, being a reproduction of
Chinese p^ai-tse ft$ ?, an official warrant or badge containing imperial
commands, letters of safe-conduct, permits of requisition, according to
the rank of the bearer, made of silver, brass, iron, etc. They were
taken over by the Mongols from the Liao and Kin, 4 and are mentioned
by Rubruck, Marco Polo, 5 and Raid-eddin.
27. Titles like wan 3i ("king, prince"), fai wan : 3: ("great
prince"), kao wan iSi i ("great general"), Vai hu :Jc Jo ("empress"),
fu Sen (Persian fucln) ^ A (title for women of rank), and kun lu
& l ("princess") were likewise adopted in Mongol Persia. 6 Persian
jinksdnak, title of a Mongol prefect or governor, transcribes Chinese
Fen sian 7$t 9 ("minister of state"). 7
28. From Turkish tribes the Persians have adopted the word toy
1 T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 481.
2 Ch. 79, P- 7-
3 Cf. J. TOBAR, Inscriptions juives de K'ai-fong-fou, pp. 78, 86, 96 (note 2).
4 CHAVANNES, Journal asiatique, 1898, I, p. 396.
5 YULE'S edition, Vol. I, p. 351, which consult for a history of the p'ai-tse; see,
further, LAUFER, Keleti Szemle, 1907, pp. 195-196; ZAMTSARANO, Paiza among the
Mongols at the Present Time (Zapiski Oriental Section Russian Archaol. Soc.,
Vol. XXII, 1914, pp. 155-159).
6 E. BLOCHET, Introduction a 1'histoire des Mongols de Rashid Ed-din, p. 183;
and Djami el-Tevarikh, p. 473. Regarding the title wan, see also J. J. MODI, Asiatic
Papers, p. 251.
7 Cf. my notes in Toung Pao, 1916, p. 528.
i
IRANO-SINICA CHINESE LOAN-WORDS IN PERSIAN 565
(togti) or tuy, 1 which designates the tassels of horse-hair attached to the
points of a standard or to the helmet of a Pasha (in the latter case a
sign of rank). Among the Turks of Central Asia, the standard of a
high military officer is formed by a yak's tail fastened at the top of a
pole. This is said also to mark the graves of saintly personages. 2 In
the language of the Uigur, the word is tuk? As correctly recognized by
ABEL-REMUS AT, 4 who had recourse only to Osmanli, the Turkish word
is derived from Chinese HI tu, anciently *duk, that occurs at an early
date in the Cou li and Ts*ien Han $u. Originally it denoted a banner
carried in funeral processions; under the Han, it was the standard of the
commander-in-chief of the army, which, according to Ts'ai Yun ^
(A.D. 133-192), was made of yak-tails. 5 Yak-tails (Sanskrit cdmara,
Anglo-Indian chowry) were anciently used in India and Central Asia as
insignia of royalty or rank. 6
29. The Cou $u 7 states that in respect to the five cereals and the
fauna Persia agrees with China, save that rice and millet are lacking
in Persia. The term " millet" is expressed by the compound $u $u
3J l'1t; that is, the glutinous variety of Panicum miliaceum and the
glutinous variety of the spiked millet (Setaria italica glutinosa). Now,
we find in Persian a word $U$M in the sense of "millet." It remains
to study the history of this word, in order to ascertain whether it might
be a Chinese loan-word.
ScHLiMMER 8 notes erzen as Persian word for Panicum miliaceum.
30. Persian (also Osmanli) cank ("a harp or guitar, particularly
played by women") is probably derived from Chinese cen ^ ("a
harpsichord with twelve brass strings").
31. One of the most interesting Chinese loan-words in Persian is
ooutu (khutu), from Chinese ku-tu (written in various ways), principally
denoting the ivory tooth of the walrus. This subject has been dis-
1 In Sugnan, a Pamir language, it occurs as tux (SALEMANN, in VostoSnye Za-
m'atki, p. 286).
2 SHAW, Turkl Language, Vol. II, p. 76.
3 RADLOFF, Wort, der Turk-Dial., Vol. Ill, col. 1425.
4 Recherches sur les langues tatares, p. 303.
5 See K'an-hi sub ^.
6 YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 214. Under the Emirs of the Khanat Bukhara
there was the title toksaba: he who received this title had the privilege of having a
tug carried before him; hence the origin of the word toksaba (V^LIAMINOF-ZERNOF,
Melanges asiatiques, Vol. VIII, p. 576). Cf. also a brief note by PARKER (China
Review, Vol. XVII, p. 300).
7 Ch. 50, p. 6.
8 Terminologie, p. 420.
566 SlNO-lRANICA
cussed by me in two articles. 1 VuLLERS 2 gives no less than seven
definitions of the Persian word: (i) cornu bovis cuiusdam Sinensis;
(2) secundum alios cornu rhinocerotis; (3) secundum alios cornu avis
cuiusdam permagnae in regno vastato, quod inter Chinam et Aethiopiam
situm est, degentis, e quo conficiunt anulos osseos et manubria cultri
et quo res venenatae dignosci possunt; (4) secundum alios cornu ser-
pentis, quod mille annos natus profert; (5) secundum alios cornu
viperae; (6) secundum alios cornu piscis annosi; (7) secundum alios
dentes animalis cuiusdam. Of these explanations, No. 3 is that of
al-Akfanl, and the bird in question is the buceros. No. 4 is a reproduc-
tion of the definition of ku-tu-si in the Liao Annals ("the horn of a
thousand-years-old snake"). How the Persians and Arabs arrived at
the other definitions will be easily understood from my former dis-
cussion of the subject. In. the Ethiopic version of the Alexander Ro-
mance are mentioned, among the gifts sent to Alexander by the king of
China, twenty (in the Syriac version, ten) snakes' horns, each a cubit
long. 3
Meanwhile I have succeeded in tracing a new Chinese definition
of ku-tu. Cou Mi J$ $8 (1230-1320), in his Ci ya fan tsa c*ao* states,
"According to Po-ki f& |i&, 5 what is now styled ku-tu si if" JS IP is
a horn of the earth (ti kio J& ft, 'a horn found underground'?)." He
refers again to its property of neutralizing poison and to knife-hilts
made of the substance.
In the edition of the Ko ku yao lun, 6 the text regarding ku-tu-si is
somewhat different from that quoted by me in T'oung Pao (1913, p. 325).
Ku-tu-si is not identified there with pi-si, as appears from the text of
the P*ei wen yunfu and Pen ts'ao kan mu, but pi-si is a variety of ku-tu-si
of particularly high value.
1 Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory (T'oung Pao, 1913,
pp. 315-364, with Addenda by P. PELLIOT, pp. 365-370); and Supplementary
Notes on Walrus and Narwhal Ivory (ibid., 1916, pp. 348-389). Regarding objects
of walrus ivory in Persia, see pp. 365-366.
8 Lexicon Persico-Latinum, Vol. I, p. 659.
8 E. A. W. BUDGE, Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, p. 180; likewise
his translation of the Syriac version, p. 112 (Syriac edition, p. 200). In the Syriac
occurs another gift from China, "a thousand talents of mai-kdsi" (literally, "waters
of cups"). Budge leaves this problem unsolved. Apparently we face the tran-
scription of a Chinese word, which I presume is *mak, mag HI (at present mo),
"China ink." In Mongol and Manchu we find this word as bexe, in Kalmuk as beke.
* Ch. A, p. 29 b (ed. of Yue ya fan ts'un ).
6 Surname of Sien-yu C'u iff ^f fll, calligraphist and poet at the end of the
thirteenth century (see PELLIOT, T'oung Pao, 1913, p. 368).
8 Ch. 6, p. 9 b (ed. of Si yin Man ts'un $u).
IRANO-SINICA WALRUS IVORY 567
The Chinese Gazetteer of Macao 1 contains the following notice of
the walrus (hai ma): "Its tooth is hard, of a pure bright white with
veins as fine as silk threads or hair. It can be utilized for the carving of
ivory beads and other objects."
Finally I have found another document in which the fish-teeth of
the Russians are identified with the tusks of the walrus (morse). This
is contained in the work of G. FLETCHER, "The Russe Common Wealth,"
published in London, i59i, 2 and runs as follows: "Besides these (which
are all good and substantiall commodities) they have divers other of
smaller account, that are natural and proper to that country: as the
fishe tooth (which they cal ribazuba), which is used both among them-
selves and the Persians and Bougharians, that fetcht it from thence
for beads, knives, and sword hafts of noblemen and gentlemen, and
for divers other uses. Some use the powder of it against poyson, as
the unicornes home. The fish that weareth it is called a morse, and is
caught about Pechora. These fishe teeth, some of them are almost two
foot of length, and weigh eleven or twelve pound apiece." 3
1 Ao-men ci lio, Ch. B, p. 37.
2 Ed. of E. A. BOND, p. 13 (Hakluyt Society, 1856).
3 The following case is interesting as showing how narwhal ivory could reach
India straight from the Arctics. PIETRO DELLA VALLE (Vol. I, p. 4, Hakluyt Soc. ed.),
travelling on a ship from the Persian Gulf to India in 1623, tells this story: "On
Monday, the Sea being calm, the Captain, and I, were standing upon the deck of
our Ship, discoursing of sundry matters, and he took occasion to show me a piece
of Horn, which he told me himself had found in the yar 161 1 in a Northern Country,
whither he then sail'd, which they call Greenland, lying in the latitude of seventy-
six degrees. He related how he found this horn in the earth, being probably the horn
of some Animal dead
