IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
PEPPER
27. The pepper-plant (hu tsiao, Japanese ko. ö, M 4, Piper nigrum) deserves mention in this connection only inasmuch as it is listed among the products of Sasanian Persia.' Ibn Haukal says that pepper, sandal, and various kinds of drugs, were shipped from Siraf in Persia to all quarters of the world.' Pepper must have been introduced into Persia from India, which is the home of the shrub.' It is already enumerated among the plants of India in the Annals of the Han Dynasty.4 The Yu yan tsa tsu5 refers it more specifically to Magadha,6 pointing out its Sanskrit name marica or marica in the transcriptions
li-ei.7 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-6en9 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 lsiao. It is interesting to note that the authors of the various Pen tsiao 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 Gun, 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; Z`ou su, Ch. 5o, 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 exportation of any kind.
W. OUSELEY, Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal, p. 133. Regarding the former importance of Siraf, 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 Fars, pp. 41-43.
3 In New Persian, pepper is called pupil (Arabicized filfil, fulful), from the Sanskrit pippal'.
4 Hou Han su, Ch. 118, p. 5 b. 6 Ch. 18, p. II.
6 Cf. Sanskrit mägadha as an epithet of pepper.
7 In fact, this form presupposes a vernacular type *meri6i.
8 Hu tsiao certainly does not mean " Western Barbarians (Tartar) pepper," as conceived by WATTERS (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 mure.
9 Pen ts`ao lean mu, Ch. 32, p. 3 b.
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