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0345 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 345 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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IRANIAN PRECIOUS STONES-EMERALD, TURQUOIS   519

Co ken lu, written in 1366.1 The Dictionary in Four Languages' writes

this word tsie-mu-lu   4ftt a. This is a transcription of Persian

zumurrud.

The word itself is of Semitic origin. In Assyrian it has been traced in the form barraktu in a Babylonian text dated in the thirty-fifth year of Artaxerxes I (464-424 B.c.).3 In Hebrew it is bdreket or bârkat, in Syriac borko, in Arabic zummurud, in Armenian zemruxt; in Russian izumrud. The Greek maragdos or smaragdos is borrowed from Semitic; and Sanskrit marakata is derived from Greek, Tibetan mar-gad from Sanskrit.4 The Arabic-Persian zummurud appears to be based directly on the Greek form with initial sibilant.

87. In regard to turquois I shall be brief. The Persian turquois, both that of Nisâppur and Kirman, is first mentioned under the name

tien-tse iJ   in the Co ken lu of 1366. This does not mean that the
Chinese were not acquainted with the Persian turquois at a somewhat earlier date. It is even possible that the Kitan were already acquainted

with turquois.5 I do not believe that pi-lu   TA represents a transcrip-
tion of Persian firûza ("turquois"), as proposed by WATTERS6 without indicating any source for the alleged Chinese word, which, if it exists, may be restricted to the modern colloquial language. I have not yet traced it in literature.' As early as 1290 turquoises were mined in Huiètwan, Yün-nan.8 The Geography of the Ming dynasty indicates a

turquois-mine in Nan-nil). 6ou   N in the prefecture of Yün-nan,

1 Ch. 7, p. 5 b; Wu li siao . i, Ch. 7, p. 14. The author of this work cites the writing of the Yûan work as the correct one, adding tsu-mu-lü, which he says is at present in vogue, as an erroneous form. It is due to an adjustment suggested by popular etymology, the character lü ("green") referring to the green color of the

stone, whose common designation is lü pao Si a A   ("green precious stone");

see GEERTS, Produits, p. 481.,

s Ch. 22, p. 66.

C. FOSSEY, Etudes assyriennes (Journal asiatique, 1917, I, p. 473).

' Cf. Notes on Turquois, p. 55; T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 465. MUSS-ARNOLT (Transactions Am. Phil. Assoc., Vol. XXIII, 1892, p. 139) states erroneously that both the Greek and the Semitic words are independently derived from Sanskrit. In the attempt to trace the history of loan-words it is first of all necessary to ascertain the history of the objects. .

As intimated by me in American Anthropologist, 1916, p. 589. Tien-tse as the product of Pan-ta-li are mentioned in the Tao i ci lio, written in 1349 by Wan Tayüan (ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 464).

s Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 352.

In the Pen ts`ao lean mu (Ch. 8, p. 17 b) is mentioned a stone p'iao pi lü

, explained as a precious stone (pao Si) of pi j color. This is possibly the foundation of Watters' statement.

8 Yuan Si, Ch. 16, p. io b. See, further, Notes on Turquois, pp. 58-59.