Rice 373 



ana. From these data Hehn 1 infers that under the rule of the Persians, 

 and possibly inconsequence of their rule, rice-cultivation advanced from 

 the Indus to the Euphrates, and that from there came also the Greek 

 name 5pv£ a. This rice-cultivation, however, can have been but sporadic 

 and along the outskirts of Iran; it did not affect Persia as a whole. The 

 Chinese verdict of "no rice" in Sasanian Persia appears to me con- 

 clusive, and it further seems to me that only from the Arabic period 

 did the cultivation of rice become more general in Persia. This con- 

 clusion is in harmony with the account of Hwi Cao sal M., a traveller 

 in the beginning of the eighth century, who reports in regard to the 

 people of Mohammedan Persia that they subsist only on pastry and 

 meat, but have also rice, which is ground and made into cakes. 2 This 

 conveys the impression that rice then was not a staple food, but merely 

 a side-issue of minor importance. Yaqut mentions rice for the prov- 

 inces Khuzistan and Sabur. 3 Abu Mansur, whose work is largely based 

 on Arabic sources, is the first Persian author to discuss fully the subject 

 of rice. 4 Solely a New-Persian word for "rice" is known, namely birinj 

 or gurinj (Armenian and Ossetic brinj), which is usually regarded as a 

 loan-word from Sanskrit vrlhi; Afghan vriie (with Greek 5puf o, (}pl£ a) 

 is still nearer to the latter. In view of the historical situation, the 

 reconstruction of an Avestan *verenja 5 or an Iranian *vrinji, 6 and the 

 theory of an originally Aryan word for "rice," seem to me inadmissible. 



1 Kulturpflanzen, p. 505. 



* Hirth, Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXXIII, 1913, pp. 202, 204, 207. 



* B. de Meynard, Dictionnaire g£ographique de la Perse, pp. 217, 294. 



* Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 5. J. Schiltberger (1396-1427), in his Bondage 

 and Travels (p. 44, ed. of Hakluyt Society, 1879) speaks of the "rich country called 

 Gilan, where rice and cotton alone is grown." 



6 P. Horn, Neupersische Etymologie, No. 208. 

 6 H. HtJBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, p. 27. 



