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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE POMEGRANATE 277
area; and Hehn is quite right in dating its cultivation on the part of the Greeks to a time after the Homeric epoch, and deriving it from Asia Minor.
G. BUSCHAN' holds that Europe is out of the question as to the indigenous occurrence of the pomegranate, and with regard to Punica protopunica, discovered by Balfour on the Island of Socotra, proposes Arabia felix as the home of the tree; but he fails to explain the diffusion of the tree from this alleged centre. He opposes Loret's conclusions with reference to Egypt, where he believes that the tree was naturalized from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty; but he overlooks the principal point made by Loret, namely, that the Egyptian name is a Semitic loan-word.' Buschan's theory conflicts with all historical facts, and has not been accepted by any one.
The pomegranate-tree is supposed to be mentioned in the Avesta under the name haôanaépata,3 the wood serving as fuel, and the juice being employed in sacrificial libations; but this interpretation is solely given by the present Parsi of India and Yezd, and is not certain. The fruit, however, is mentioned in Pahlavi literature (above, p. 193).
There are numerous allusions to the pomegranate of Persia on the part of Mohammedan authors and European travellers, and it would be of little avail to cite all these testimonies on a subject which is perfectly well known. Suffice it to refer to the Fars Namah4 and to give the following extract from A. OLEARIUS.5-
"Pomegranate-trees, almond-trees, and fig-trees grow there without any ordering or cultivation, especially in the Province of Kilan, where you have whole forests of them. The wild pomegranates, which you find almost every where, especially at Karabag, are sharp or sowrith.
1 Vorgeschichtliche Botanik, p. 159•
2 This fact was simultaneously and independently found by an American Egyptologist, CH. E. MOLDENKE (Über die in altägyptischen Texten erwähnten Bäume, p. 115, doctor dissertation of Strassburg, Leipzig, 1887); so that LORET (Flore pharaonique, p. 76) said, " Moldenke est arrivé presque en même temps que moi, et par des moyens différents, ce qui donne une entière certitude à notre découverte commune, à la détermination du nom égyptien de la grenade." See also C. JORET, Plantes dans l'antiquité, Vol. I, p. 117. Buschan's book appeared in 1895; nevertheless he used Loret's work in the first edition of 1887, instead of the second of 1892, which is thoroughly revised and enlarged.
3 For instance, Yasna, 62, 9; 68, I. Cf. also A. V. W. JACKSON, Persia Past and Present, p. 369.
4 G. LE STRANGE, Description of the Province of Fars in Persia, p. 38 (London, 1912). See also D'HERBELOT, Bibliothèque orientale, Vol. III, p. 188; and F. SPIEGEL, Eranische Altertumskunde, Vol. I, p. 252.
6 Voyages of the Ambassadors to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia (1633-39), p. 232 (London, 1669).
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