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TITLES OF THE SASANIAN GOVERNMENT   533

the crown on the king's head. Another family presides over military affairs, another superintends civil affairs, another settles the litigations of those who have a dispute and desire an arbiter. The fifth family commands the cavalry, the sixth collects the taxes and supervises the royal treasures, and the seventh takes care of armament and military equipment." Artabides ('ApraßLSns), as observed by NÖLDEKE,l should be read Argabides ('ApyaßLSns), the equivalent of ArgabeS. There is also a form tipya74rns in correspondence with Pahlavi arkpat. This title originally designated the commandant of a castle (arg, "citadel "), and subsequently a very high military rank.2 In later Hebrew we find this title in the forms arkafta, arkafta, or arkabta.3 The above transcription is apparently based on the form *Argade ('Apyaôn) =ArgabeS.

Io1. ft OJ sie-po-yo, *sit-pwa-bwi3. Officials of Persia in charge of the army (infantry and cavalry, pâ,iyan and aswâxân), of the four quarters, the four patkôs (pat, "province" ; kôs, "guarding ")

i1 ;   : Wei ht, Ch. IO2, p. 6. The Cou u (Ch. 50, p. 5b)
has k `sat, sar, in the place of the first character. The word corresponds to Middle Persian s pahbets ("general") ; Pahlavi pat, New Persian -bad, -bud ("master ") . . ranspâ,hbe6 was the title of the generalissimo of the army of the Sasanian empire up to the time of Khusrau I. The Pahlavi form is given as s pah pat; 4 the Chinese transcription, however, corresponds better to New Persian sipahbaô, so that also a Middle-Persian form *spâ.hbaS (-bets or -buts) may be inferred.

102. a ,.,A nu-se-ta, *u-se-dab, used in the Chinese inscription dated 1489 of the Jews of K'ai-fon fu in Ho-nan, in connection with the preceding name

Lie-wei (Levi) .5 As justly recognized by G. DEVÉRIA, this transcription represents Persian ustdd,` which means "teacher, master."' The Persian Jews availed themselves of this term for the rendering of the Hebrew title Rab (Rabbi), although in Persian the name follows the title. The Chinese Jews simply adopted the Chinese mode of expression, in which the family-name precedes the title, Ustad Lie-wei meaning as much as "Rabbi Levi." The transcription itself appears to be of much older date than the Ming, and was doubtless recorded at a time when the final consonant of to was still articulated. In a former article I have shown from the data of the Jewish inscriptions that the Chinese Jews emigrated from Persia and appeared in China not earlier than in the era of the Sung. This historical proof is signally confirmed by a piece of linguistic evidence. In the Annals of the Yûan Dynasty (Yuan Si, Ch. 33, p. 7 b; 43, p. II b) the Jews are styled Su-hu (Ju-hud)

' Tabari, p. 5.

2 CHRISTENSEN, Op. cit., p. 27; NÖLDEKE, 017. Cit., P. 437; HÜBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, pp. 239, 240.

3 M. JASTROw, Dictionary of the Targumim, p. 73.

4 HÜBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 240.

J. TOBAR, Inscriptions juives de K'ai-fong-fou, P. 44.

s Regarding this word, see chiefly H. HÜBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, p. 14.