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0314 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 314 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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PERSIAN TEXTILES

69. Brocades, that is, textiles interwoven with gold or silver threads, were manufactured in Iran at an early date. Gold rugs are mentioned in the Avesta (zaranaéne upasterene, Yast xv, 2). Xerxes is said to have presented to citizens of Abdera a tiara interwoven with gold.' The historians of Alexander give frequent examples of such cloth in Persia.' Pliny,' speaking of gold textiles of the Romans, traces this art to the Attalic textures, and stamps it as an invention of the kings of Asia (Attalicis vero iam pridem intexitur, invento regum Asiae) .4 The accounts of the ancients are signally confirmed by the Chinese.

Persian brocades iP g fa are mentioned in the Annals of the Liang as having been sent as tribute in A.D. 520 to the Emperor Wu from the country Hwa 1 t.5 The king of Persia wore a cloak of brocade, and brocades were manufactured in the country.' Textiles woven with gold

threads   A are expressly mentioned;7 this term almost reads
like a translation of Persian zar-b~zf (literally, "gold weaving ") .8 Persian brocades, together with cotton stuffs from An-si (Parthia)

RE, are further mentioned at the time of the Emperor Si Tsuji

(A.D. 954-958) of the Hou Cou dynasty, among tribute-gifts sent from

Kwa 6ou   )1i in Kan-su.9 The Kirgiz received precious materials for

the dress of their women from An-si (Parthia), Pei-t`in 1I   (Bigbalik,

in Turkistan), and the Ta-Si k (Tadzik, the Arabs) . The Arabs made pieces of brocade of such size that the weight of each equalled that of twenty camel-loads. Accordingly these large pieces were cut up into

1 Herodotus, VIII, 120.

2 YATES, Textrinum Antiquorum, pp. 366-368. 3 XXXIII, 19, § 63.

4 At the Court of the Persian kings there was a special atelier for the weaving of silken, gold, and silver fabrics,—styled siâr baf xâne (E. KAEMPFER, Amoenitatum exoticarum fasciculi V, p. 128, Lemgoviae, 1712).

6 Lian su, Ch. 54, p. 13 b. Hwa is the name under which the Ephthalites first appear in Chinese history (CHAVANNES, Documents sur les Tou-kiue occidentaux, p. 222).

8 Kiu Tart Su, Ch. 198, p. io b (see also Lian Su, Ch. 54, p. 14 b; and Sui Su Ch. 83, p. 7 b). Hüan Tsai' refers to brocade in his account of Persia (Ta ran si ki, Ch. II, p. 17 b, ed. of ..ou San ko ts`un Su).

    ,

7 Sui su, 1. c.; ,~   j g- ea Iv in Lian Su, 1. c.
8 Cf. Loan-Words in Tibetan, No. 118.

9 Wu tai Si, Ch. 74, p. 3 b; Kiu Wu Tai Si, Ch. 138, p. i b.

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