564 Sino-Iranica 



spread to Central Asia (Tibetan deb-fer, Mongol debter, Manchu 

 debtelin)} 



The use of parchment on the part of the people of Parthia (An-si) has 

 already been noted by the mission of Can K'ien, who placed it on record 

 that "they make signs on leather, from side to side, by way of literary 

 records." It is accordingly certain that parchment was utilized in 

 Iran as early as the second century B.C. There are also later references 

 to this practice; for instance, in the Nan &, 2 where it is said that the 

 Hu (Iranians) uSe sheep-skin *p 2^ as paper. The Chinese have hardly 

 * ever made use of parchment for writing-purposes, but they prepare 

 parchment (from the skins of sheep, donkeys, or oxen) for the making 

 of shadow-play figures. The only parchment manuscripts ever found 

 in China were the Scriptures of the Jews of K'ai-foh, which are also 

 mentioned in their inscriptions. 3 



26. Most of the Chinese loan-words in Persian were imported by 

 the Mongol rulers in the thirteenth century (the so-called Il-Khans, 

 1 265-1335), being chiefly terms relative to official and administrative 

 institutions. The best known of these is pdizah, being a reproduction of 

 Chinese p'ai-tse #1 ■?, an official warrant or badge containing imperial 

 commands, letters of safe-conduct, permits of requisition, according to 

 the rank of the bearer, made of silver, brass, iron, etc. They were 

 taken over by the Mongols from the Liao and Kin, 4 and are mentioned 

 by Rubruck, Marco Polo, 6 and Rasid-eddin. 



27. Titles like wan :£ ("king, prince"), Vai wan J£ zE ("great 

 prince"), kao wan iti EE ("great general"), Vai huJ^Jn ("empress"), 

 fu Sen (Persian fucln) ;£ A (title for women of rank), and kun cu 

 fe ^ ("princess") were likewise adopted in Mongol Persia. 6 Persian 

 jinksdnak, title of a Mongol prefect or governor, transcribes Chinese 

 Ven sian 2& $[ ("minister of state ")A 



28. From Turkish tribes the Persians have adopted the word toy 



1 T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 481. 



2 Ch. 79, p. 7. 



3 Cf. J. Tobar, Inscriptions juives de K'ai-fong-fou, pp. 78, 86, 96 (note 2). 



4 Chavannes, Journal asiatique, 1898, I, p. 396. 



6 Yule's edition, Vol. I, p. 351, which consult for a history of the p'ai-tse; see, 

 further, Laufer, Keleti Szemle, 1907, pp. 195-196; Zamtsarano, Paiza among the 

 Mongols at the Present Time (Zapiski Oriental Section Russian Archceol. Soc, 

 Vol. XXII, 1914, pp. 155-159). 



6 E. Blochet, Introduction a l'histoire des Mongols de Rashid Ed-din, p. 183; 

 and Djami el-TeVarikh, p. 473. Regarding the title wan, see also J. J. Modi, Asiatic 

 Papers, p. 251. 



7 Cf. my notes in T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 528. 



