25. As indicated by our word "indigo" (from Latin indicum), this
dye-stuff took its origin from India. The indigo-plant (Indigofera
tinctoria), introduced into Persia from India, is discussed by Abu Man-
sur under the name nil or Ilia. The leaves are said to strengthen the
hair. The hair, if previously dyed with henna, becomes brilliant black
from the pounded leaves of the plant. Another species, I. linifolia,
is still used in Persia for dyeing beard and hair black. 1 The Persian
words are derived from Sanskrit nila, as is likewise Arabic mlej. 2 Also
nili hindi (" Indian indigo") occurs in Persian. GARCIA DA ORTA has
handed down a form on*/, 8 and in Spanish the plant is called anil
(Portuguese and Italian anil). 4 It may be permissible to assume that
indigo was first introduced into Sasanian Persia under the reign of
Khosrau I AnOSarwan (A.D. 531-579); for Masudl, who wrote about
A.D. 943, reports that this king received from India the book Kallla
wa Dimna, the game of chess, and the black dye-stuff for the hair,
called the Indian. 5
Under the designation ts'in tai W $5 ("blue cosmetic for painting
the eyebrows") the Chinese became acquainted with the true indigo
and the Iranian practice mentioned above. The term is first on record
as a product of Ts'ao ftSf (Jagu(Ja) 6 and Ku-lan 4H SB in the vicinity of
Tokharestan; 7 during the T'ang period, the women of Fergana did not
employ lead-powder, but daubed their eyebrows with ts'in tai. 8 Ma Ci
of the tenth century says that "ts*in tai came from the country Po-se
(Persia), but that now in T'ai-yuan, Lu-lin, Nan-k'an, and other
1 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, pp. 144, 271. SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 395)
gives ringi rl$ and wesme as Persian words for indigo-leaves.
2 LECLERC, Trait6 des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 384.
1 C. MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 51. The form anil is also employed by F. PYRARD
(Vol. II, p. 359, ed. of Hakluyt Society), who says that indigo is found only in the
kingdom of Cambaye and Surat.
4 ROEDIGER and POTT (Z. /. Kunde d. Morg., Vol. VII, p. 125) regard this
prefix a as the Semitic article (Arabic al-nil, an-nil).
6 BARBIER DE MEYNARD and PAVET DE COURTEILLE, Les Prairies d'or, Vol. II,
p. 203.
8 Sui $u, Ch. 83, p. 8 (see above, p. 317).
7 T*ai p'iA hwan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 12. It was also found in Ki-pin (ibid.,
Ch. 182, p. 12 b).
*Ibid., Ch. 181, p. 13 b.
370
INDIGO 371
places, a dye-stuff of similar virtues is made from tien Wi (the indigenous
Polygonum tinctorium)" 1 Li Si-Sen holds the opinfon that the Persian
ts'in tai was the foreign lan-tien H 85: (Indigo/era tinctoria). It must not
be forgotten that the genus Indigo/era comprises some three hundred
species, and that it is therefore impossible to hope for exact identifica-
tions in Oriental records. Says G. WATT 2 on this point, "Species of
Indigofera are distributed throughout the tropical regions of the globe
(both in the Old and New Worlds) with Africa as their headquarters.
And in addition to the Indigoferas several widely different plants yield
the self-same substance chemically. Hence, for many ages, the dye
prepared from these has borne a synonymous name in most tongues,
and to such an extent has this been the case that it is impossible to say
for certain whether the nlla of the classic authors of India denoted the
self -same plant which yields the dye of that name in modern com-
merce." " Indigo," therefore, is a generalized commercial label for a
blue dye-stuff, but without botanical value. Thus also Chinese indigo
is yielded by distinct plants in different parts of China. 3
It is singular that the Chinese at one time imported indigo from
Persia, where it was doubtless derived from India, and do not refer
to India as the principal indigo-producing country. An interesting
article on the term ts*in tai has been written by HiRTH. 4
1 Pen ts*ao kan mu, Ch. 16, p. 25 b.
2 Commercial Products of India, p. 663.
3 BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. II, p. 212.
4 Chinesische Studien, pp. 243-258.
RICE
26. While rice is at present a common article of food of the Persian
people, being particularly enjoyed as pilau, 1 it was entirely unknown
in the days of Iranian antiquity. No word for "rice" appears in the
Avesta. 2 Herodotus 3 mentions only wheat as the staple food of the
Persians at the time of Cambyses. This negative evidence is signally
confirmed by the Chinese annals, which positively state that there is
no rice or millet in Sasanian Persia; 4 and on this point Chinese testi-
mony carries weight, since the Chinese as a rice-eating nation were
always anxious to ascertain whether rice was grown and consumed by
foreign peoples. Indeed, the first question a travelling Chinese will
ask on arrival at a new place will invariably refer to rice, its qualities
and valuations. This is conspicuous in the memoirs of Can K'ien,
the first Chinese who travelled extensively across Iranian territory,
and carefully noted the cultivation of rice in Fergana (Ta-yuan), fur-
ther for Parthia (An-si), and T'iao-6i (Chaldasa). The two last-named
countries, however, he did not visit himself, but reported what he had
heard about them. In the Sasanian epoch, Chinese records tell us
that rice was plentiful in Kuca, KaSgar (Su-lek), Khotan, and Ts'ao
Qaguola) north of the Ts'ufi-lin; 6 also in Si (Tashkend). 6 On the
other hand, Aristobulus, a companion of Alexander on his expedition
in Asia and author of an Alexander biography written after 285 B.C.,
states that rice grows in Bactriana, Babylonia, Susis, and in lower
Syria; 7 and Diodorus 8 likewise emphasizes the abundance of rice in Susi-
1 Toung Pao, 1916, p. 481.
2 MODI, in Spiegel Memorial Volume, p. xxxvu.
3 III, 22.
4 Wei $u, Ch. 102, pp. 5 b-6 a; Cou $u, Ch. 50, p. 6. Tabari (translation of
NdLDEKE, p. 244) mentions rice among the crops taxed by Khusrau I (A.D. 531-578);
but this is surely an interpolation, as in the following list of taxes rice is not men-
tioned, while all other crops are. Another point to be considered is that in Arabic
manuscripts, when the diacritical marks are omitted, the word birinj may be read
as well naranj, which means "orange" (cf. OUSELEY, Oriental Geography of Ebn
Haukal, p. 221).
6 Sui $u, Ch. 83, pp. 5 b, 7 b.
8 Tai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 7 b.
' Strabo, XV. I, 18.
8 xix, 13.
372
RICE 373
ana. From these data HEHN 1 infers that under the rule of the Persians,
and possibly inconsequence of their rule, rice-cultivation advanced from
the Indus to the Euphrates, and that from there came also the Greek
name opva. This rice-cultivation, however, can have been but sporadic
and along the outskirts of Iran; it did not affect Persia as a whole. The
Chinese verdict of "no rice" in Sasanian Persia appears to me con-
clusive, and it further seems to me that only from the Arabic period
did the cultivation of rice become more general in Persia. This con-
clusion is in harmony with the account of Hwi Cao 3R fe, a traveller
in the beginning of the eighth century, who reports in regard to the
people of Mohammedan Persia that they subsist only on pastry and
meat, but have also rice, which is ground and made into cakes. 2 This
conveys the impression that rice then was not a staple food, but merely
a side-issue of minor importance. Yaqut mentions rice for the prov-
inces Khuzistan and Sabur. 3 Abu Mansur, whose work is largely based
on Arabic sources, is the first Persian author to discuss fully the subject
of rice. 4 Solely a New-Persian word for "rice" is known, namely birinj
or gurinj (Armenian and Ossetic brinj), which is usually regarded as a
loan-word from Sanskrit vrihi; Afghan vriXe (with Greek 6pua, /3p#a)
is still nearer to the latter. In view of the historical situation, the
reconstruction of an Avestan *verenja 5 or an Iranian *vrinji, 8 and the
theory of an originally Aryan word for "rice," seem to me inadmissible.
1 Kulturpflanzen, p. 505.
2 HIRTH, Journal Am. Or. Soc., Vol. XXXIII, 1913, pp. 202, 204, 207.
3 B. DE MEYNARD, Dictionnaire gographique de la Perse, pp. 217, 294.
4 AcnuNDow, Abu Mansur, p. 5. J. SCHILTBERGER (1396-1427), in his Bondage
and Travels (p. 44, ed. of Hakluyt Society, 1879) speaks of the "rich country called
Gilan, where rice and cotton alone is grown."
5 P. HORN, Neupersische Etymologic, No. 208.
6 H. HtfBSCHMANN, Persischc Studien, p. 27.
PEPPER
27. The pepper-plant (hu tsiao, Japanese ko$o, $1 V&, Piper nigrum)
deserves mention in this connection only inasmuch as it is listed among
the products of Sasanian Persia. 1 Ibn Haukal says that pepper, sandal,
and various kinds of drugs, were shipped from Slraf in Persia to all
quarters of the world. 2 Pepper must have been introduced into Persia
from India, which is the home of the shrub. 3 It is already enumerated
among the plants of India in the Annals of the Han Dynasty. 4 The
Yu yah tsa tsu b refers it more specifically to Magadha, 6 pointing out
its Sanskrit name marica or marica in the transcription Bfc J3. : mei-
li-ci. 1 The term hu tsiao shows that not all plants whose names have
the prefix hu are of Iranian origin: in this case hu distinctly alludes
to India. 8 Tsiao is a general designation for spice-plants, principally
belonging to the genus Zanthoxylon. Li Si-Sen 9 observes that the black
pepper received its name only for the reason that it is bitter of taste
and resembles the tsiao, but that the pepper-fruit in fact is not a tsiao.
It is interesting to note that the authors of the various Pen ts'ao seem
to have lost sight of the fact of the Indian origin of the plant, and do
not even refer to the Han Annals. Su Kun states that hu tsiao grows
among the Si 2un, which plainly shows that he took the word hu in
the sense of peoples of Central Asia or Iranians, and substituted for it
1 Sui Su, Ch. 83, p. 7 b; Cou Su, Ch. 50, p. 6; and Wei Su, Ch. 102, p. 6. According
to HIRTH (Chau Ju-kua, p. 223), this would mean that pepper was brought to China
by Persian traders from India. I am unable to see this point. The texts in question
simply give a list of products to be found in Persia, and say nothing about exporta-
tion of any kind.
8 W. OUSELEY, Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal, p. 133. Regarding the for-
mer importance of Slraf, which "in old times was a great city, very populous and
full of merchandise, being the port of call for caravans and ships," see G. LE STRANGE,
Description of the Province of Pars, pp. 41-43.
* In New Persian, pepper is called pilpil (Arabicized filfil, fulful), from the
Sanskrit pippatt.
4 Hou Han Su, Ch. 118, p. 5 b.
8 Ch. 18, p. II.
6 Cf . Sanskrit magadha as an epithet of pepper.
T In fact, this form presupposes a vernacular type *meriSi.
8 Hu tsiao certainly does not mean "Western Barbarians (Tartar) pepper,"
as conceived by WAITERS (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 441). What had
the "Tartars" to do with pepper? The Uigur adopted simply the Sanskrit word in
the form mur.
Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 32, p. 3 b.
374
PEPPER 375
its synonyme Si Zun; at least, it appears certain that the latter term
bears no reference to India. Li Si-cen gives as localities where the
plant is cultivated, "all countries of the Southern Barbarians (Nan
Fan), Kiao-Si (Annam), Yun-nan, and Hai-nan."
Another point of interest is that in the T*an pen ts'ao of Su Kun
appears a species called San hu tsiao ill $8 IK or wild pepper, described
as resembling the cultivated species, of black color, with a grain the
size of a black bean, acrid taste, great heat, and non-poisonous. This
plant-name has been identified with Lindera glauca by A. HENRY/
who says that the fruit is eaten by the peasants of Yi-6'an, Se-'wan.
The same author offers a ye hu-tsiao ("wild pepper"), being Zanihoxy-
lum setosum.
Piper longum or Chavica roxburghii, Chinese 2j! $ or Si pi-po,
*pit-pat(pal), from Sanskrit pippall, is likewise attributed to Sasanian
Persia. 2 This pepper must have been also imported into Iran from
India, for it is a native of the hotter parts of India from Nepal east-
ward to Assam, the Khasia hills and Bengal, westward to Bombay,
and southward to Travancore, Ceylon, and Malacca. 3 It is therefore
surprising to read in the Pen ts'ao of the T'ang that pi-po grows in the
country Po-se: this cannot be Persia, but refers solely to the Malayan
Po-se. For the rest, the Chinese were very well aware of the Indian
origin of the plant, as particularly shown by the adoption of the San-
skrit name. It is first mentioned in the Nan fan ts'ao mu cwan, unless
it be there one of the interpolations in which this work abounds, but
it is mixed up with the betel-pepper (Chavica betel).
1 Chinese Names of Plants, No. 45.
2 Ccu su, Ch. 50, p. 6.
3 WATT, Commercial Products of India, p. 891.
SUGAR
28. The sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) is a typically Indian
or rather Southeast-Asiatic, and merely a secondary Iranian culti-
vation, but its history in Iran is of sufficient importance to devote here
a few lines to this subject. The Sui Annals 1 attribute hard sugar
(Si-mi ^ U, literally, " stone honey") and pan-mi 3* 3* ("half honey")
to Sasanian Persia and to Ts'ao (Jaguda). It is not known what kind
of sugar is to be understood by the latter term. 2 Before the advent
of sugar, honey was the universal ingredient for sweetening food-stuffs,
and thus the ancients conceived the sugar of India as a kind of honey
obtained from canes without the agency of bees. 3 The term Si-mi first
appears in the Nan fan ts'ao mu cwan* which contains the first de-
scription of the sugar-cane, and refers it to Kiao-
rhamnaceous tree (not an orange), Hovenia dulcis. "Change of an orange-tree into
a bramble" is nonsense in itself.
CUMMIN
34. Under the foreign term i^ SI &-lo, *2i-la, the Chinese have
not described the fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), as erroneously asserted
by WATTERS 1 and STUART, 2 but cummin (Cuminum cyminum) and
caraway (Carum carui). This is fundamentally proved by the prototype,
Middle Persian %ira or zira, Sanskrit jlra, of which U-lo (*zi-la) forms
the regular transcription. 3 In India, fira refers to both cummin and
caraway. 4 Although Cuminum is more or less cultivated in most prov-
inces of India, except Bengal and Assam, there is, according to WATT,
fairly conclusive evidence that it is nowhere indigenous; but in several
districts it would appear to be so far naturalized as to have been re-
garded as "wild," even by competent observers. No doubt, it was
transmitted to India from Iran. Cummin was known to the ancient
Persians, being mentioned in the inscription of Cyrus at Persepolis, 5
and at an early period penetrated from Iran to Egypt on the one hand,
and to India on the other. 6
Avicenna distinguishes four varieties of cummin (Arabic kammun), 7
that of Kirman, which is black; that of Persia, which is yellow and
more active than the others; that of Syria, and the Nabathaean. 8 Each
variety is both spontaneous and cultivated. Abu Mansur regards that
of Kirman as the best, and styles it zlre-i kirmdn* This name, accord-
ing to ScHLiMMER, 10 would refer to caraway, also called zlre-i siah, 11
while cummin is styled in Persian zlre-i sebze or sefid. Caraway (Carum
1 Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 440. He even adds "coriander," which
is hu swi (p. 297).
2 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 176. Fennel is hwi hian ]lj ^jf, while a synonyme
of cummin is siao hwi, hian ("small fennel").
3 In the same form, the word occurs in Tibetan, zi-ra (T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 475).
4 G. WATT, Commercial Products of India, p. 442.
5 JORET, Plantes dans I'antiquit6, Vol. II, p. 66.
6 Ibid., p. 258.
7 Hebrew kammon, Assyrian kamanu, resulting in Greek K&fjuvov, Latin cumt-
num, cyminum, or ciminum; Armenian caman; Persian kamun.
8 LECLERC, Trait6 des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 196.
9 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, pp. 112, 258.
10 Terminologie, p. 112.
11 In India, the Persian word siah refers to the black caraway (Carum bulbocasta-
num), which confirms Schlimmer's opinion. Also Avicenna's black cummin of
Kirman apparently represents this species. This plant is a native of Baluchistan,
Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Lahul, mainly occurring as a weed in cultivated land.
383
384 SlNO-lRANICA
carui), however, is commonly termed in Persian loh-zire ("cummin of
the Shah") or zire-i ruml ("Byzantine or Turkish cummin"). 1
While the philological evidence would speak in favor of a trans-
mission of cummin from Persia to China, this point is not clearly brought
out by our records. C'en Ts'an-k'i, who wrote in the first half of the
eighth century, states that $i-lo grows in Fu-si $? If (Bhoja, Sumatra).
Li Sun, in his Hai yao pen ts*ao, says after the Kwan Zou ki K ffl IS
that the plant grows in the country Po-se; 2 and Su Sun of the Sung
notes that in his time it occurred in Lin-nan (Kwan-tun) and adjoining
regions. Now, the Kwan Ion ki is said to have been written under the
Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-420) ; 3 and, as will be shown below in detail, the
Po-se of Li Sun almost invariably denotes, not Persia, but the Malayan
Po-se. Again, it is Li Sun who does not avail himself of the Iranian form
&-/0=ira, but of the Sanskrit form jiraka, possibly conveyed through
the medium of the Malayan Po-se.
Li Si-Sen has entered under U-lo another foreign word in the form
^ il: ft ts'e-mou-lo (*dz"i-mu-lak), which he derived from the K*ai
pao pen ts*ao, and which, in the same manner as $i-lo, he stamps as a
foreign word. This transcription has hitherto defied identification, 4
because it is incorrectly recorded. It is met with correctly in the Cen
lei pen ts*ao b in the form S ft ts*e-lo, *d2i-lak(rak), and this answers
to Sanskrit firaka. This form is handed down in the Hai yao pen ts'ao,
written by Li Sun in the eighth century. Thus we have, on the one
hand a Sanskrit form jiraka, conveyed by the Malayan Po-se to Kwan-
tun in the T'ang period, and on the other hand the Iranian type Si-
lo =Zira, which for phonetic reasons must likewise go back to the era
of the T'ang, and which we should suppose had migrated overland to
China. The latter point, for the time being, remains an hypothesis,
which will perhaps be elucidated by the documents of Turkistan.
1 Corresponding to Arabic kardwyd, the source of our word caraway.
2 The Gen lei pen teVo 'Oh. 13, p. 27 b) repeats this without citing a source.
3 Cf. below, p. 475.
4 STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 176.
6 Ch. 13, p. 17 b.
