Iranian Precious Stones — Emerald, Turquois 519 



Co ken lu, written in 1366. l The Dictionary in Four Languages 2 writes 

 this word Isie-mu-lu M !• Hsk. 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 bdrkat, 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 Nlsapur and Kirman, is first mentioned under the name 

 tien-tse ^} -? 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 ;§! 5ifc represents a transcrip- 

 tion of Persian firuza ("turquois"), as proposed by Waiters 6 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. 7 As early as 1290 turquoises were mined in Hui- 

 S'wan, Yun-nan. 8 The Geography of the Ming dynasty indicates a 

 turquois-mine in Nan-nin cou :£: ^ ^H in the prefecture of Yun-nan, 



1 Ch. 7, p. 5 b; Wu li siao Si, Ch. 7, p. 14. The author of this work cites the 

 writing of the Yuan work as the correct one, adding tsu-mu-lii, which he says is at 

 present in vogue, as an erroneous form. It is due to an adjustment suggested by 

 popular etymology, the character lu ("green") referring to the green color of the 

 stone, whose common designation is lii pao Si jSjsjfc |!£ ^j ("green precious stone"); 

 see Geerts, Produits, p. 481. 



1 Ch. 22, p. 66. 



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



4 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 ascer- 

 tain the history of the objects. 



8 As intimated by me in American Anthropologist, 1916, p. 589. Tien-tse as the 

 product of Pan-ta-li are mentioned in the Too i li lio, written in 1349 by Wan Ta- 

 yuan (Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 464). 



6 Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 352. 



7 In the Pen ts'ao kan mu (Ch. 8, p. 17 b) is mentioned a stone P'iao pi lii ^ 

 §| jj^, explained as a precious stone (pao Si) of pi ^ color. This is possibly the 

 foundation of Watters' statement. 



8 Yuan Si, Ch. 16, p. 10 b. See, further, Notes on Turquois, pp. 58-59. 



