IIIF Color HighRes
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE POMEGRANATE 285
Iranian colonies outside of Iran proper, those of Sogdiana and Turkistan, played a prominent part. We know the Sogdian word for the pomegranate, which is written n'r'kh, and the reading of which has been reconstructed by R. GAUTHIOT1 in the form *narak(a), developed from *anar-aka. This we meet again in Persian andr, which was adopted in the same form by the Mongols, while the Uigur had it as nara. At all events, however, it becomes necessary to restore, on the basis of the Chinese transcription, an ancient *riu, *ru, of some Iranian dialect. This lost Iranian word, in my opinion, presents also the foundation of Greek /36a or boat, —the origin of which has been hitherto unexplained or incorrectly explained, 2—and the Semitic names, Hebrew rimm ôn, Arabic rummeln, Amharic ribnan, Syriac rûmônô, Aramaic rummdna, from which Egyptian arhmdni or anhmdni (Coptic erman or herman) is derived.'
(4) r o-liu, *zak (yak, n'iak)-liu (riu). This hybrid compound,
formed of elements contained in 2 and 3, is found in the dictionary
Kwaii ya , written by Can Yi about A.D. 265.4 It is also
employed by the poet Pan Yo of the fourth century, mentioned above." Eventually also this transcription might ultimately be traced to an Iranian prototype. Japanese zakuro is based on this Chinese forma
While the direct historical evidence is lacking, the Chinese names of the tree point clearly to Iranian languages. Moreover, the tree itself is looked upon by the Chinese as a foreign product, and its first introduction into China appears to have taken place in the latter part of the third century A.D.
In my opinion, the pomegranate-tree was transplanted to India,
1 Essai sur le vocalisme du sogdien, p. 49. Cf. also Armenian nrneni for the tree and nurn for the fruit.
2 The etymologies of the Greek word enumerated by SCHRADER (in Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, p. 247) are so inane and far-fetched that they do not merit discussion. It is not necessary, of course, to hold that an immediate transmission of the Persian word took place, but we must look to a gradual propagation and to missing links by way of Asia Minor. According to W. MUSS-ARNOLT (Transactions Am. Phil. Assoc., Vol. XXIII, 1892, p. no), the Cyprian form bvôla forbids all connection with the Hebrew. It is not proved, however, that this dialectic word has any connection with /Ma; it may very well be an independent local development.
3 V. LORET, Flore pharaonique, p. 76. Portuguese roma, romeira, from the Arabic; Anglo-Saxon read-ceppel.
4 This is the date given by WATTERS (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 38). BRETSCHNEIDER (Bot. Sin., pt. I, p. 164) fixes the date at about 227-240.
b rait lei han, Ch. 183, p. 9.
6 Written also in tril. E. KAEMPFER (Amoenitates exoticae, p. 80o) already mentions this term as dsjakurjo, vulgo sakuro, with the remark, "Rara est hoc coelo et fructu ingrato."
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