Alfalfa 209 



sativa has been found wild, with every appearance of an indigenous 

 plant, in several provinces of Anatolia, to the south of the Caucasus, 

 in several parts of Persia, in Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and in Kashmir. 1 

 Hence the Greeks, he concludes, may have introduced the plant from 

 Asia Minor as well as from India, which extended from the north of 

 Persia. This theory seems to me inadmissible and superfluous, for 

 the Greeks allude solely to Media in this connection, not to India. 

 Moreover, the cultivation of the plant is not ancient in India, but is 

 of recent date, and hardly plays any r61e in Indian agriculture and 

 economy. 



In ancient Iran, alfalfa was a highly important crop closely associated 

 with the breeding of superior races of horses. Pahlavi aspast or aspist 

 New Persian aspust, uspust, aspist, ispist, or isfist (Pu§tu or Afghan spastu, 

 SpeZta), is traceable to an Avestan or Old-Iranian *aspo-asti (from the 

 root ad, "to eat"), and literally means "horse-fodder." 2 This word has 

 penetrated into Syriac in the form aspesta or pespestd (the latter in the 

 Geoponica). Khosrau I (a.d. 531-578) of the Sasanian dynasty included 

 alfalfa in his new organization of the land-tax: 3 the tax laid on alfalfa 

 was seven times as high as that on wheat and barley, which gives an 

 idea of the high valuation of that forage-plant. It was also employed 

 in the pharmacopoeia, being dealt with by Abu Mansur in his book 

 on pharmacology. 4 The seeds are still used medicinally. 5 The Arabs 

 derived from the Persians the word isfist, Arabicized into fisfisa; Arabic 

 designations being ratba and qatt, the former for the plant in its natural 

 state, the latter for the dried plant. 6 



The mere fact that the Greeks received Medicago from the Persians, 

 and christened it "Medic grass," by no means signifies or proves at the 

 outset that Medicago represents a genuinely Iranian cultivation. It is 

 well known how fallacious such names are: the Greeks also had the 

 peach under the name "Persian apple," and the apricot as "Armenian 

 apple;" yet peach and apricot are not originally Persian or Armenian, 

 but Chinese cultivations: Iranians and Armenians in this case merely 



1 As to Kashmir, it will be seen, we receive a confirmation from an ancient 

 Chinese document. See also G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of 

 India, Vol. V, pp. 199-203. 



2 Neldeke, ZDMG, Vol. XXXII, 1878, p. 408. Regarding some analogous 

 plant-names, see R. v. Stackelberg, ibid., Vol. LIV, 1900, pp. 108, 109. 



8 Noldeke, Tabari, p. 244. 



4 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 73 (cf. above, p. 194). 



6 Schlimmer, Terminologie, p. 365. He gives yond£e as the Persian name, which, 

 however, is of Turkish origin (from yont, "horse"). In Asia Minor there is a place 

 Yonjali ("rich in alfalfa"). 



6 Leclerc, Traite" des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 35. 



