July, 1913. Notes on Turquois, 43 



records we must never lose sight of the plain facts of archaeology, 

 history, and mineralogy. Taking a broader view of the subject we find 

 that ruby and lapis lazuli have been the most prominent jewels of Iran 

 since ancient times, and that both are well attested by the presence of 

 ancient authentic specimens ^ and traceable to a well defined locality. 

 The great jewel-producing district within equal proximity of Sogdiana, 

 Persia and Khotan was the region of Badakshan (in Chinese P'a-to- 

 shan), north of the Hindu Kush mountains, well known to the Chinese 

 during the T'ang period, and to every modern mineralogist as a center 

 for the production of two precious stones — lapis lazuli and the balas 

 ruby or spinel.^ The former stone entered the horizon of the Chinese 



^ Compare p. 38, note i. 



* Max Bauer, Precious Stones, pp. 278, ei seq. (German original, Edelsteinkunde, 

 2nd ed., p. 374) ; O. C. Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals, pp. 96, 202. T. Wada 

 (Beitrdge zur Mineralogie von Japan, No. i, p. 20, TokyO, 1905) describes spinels 

 originating from China, and R. Pumpelly (Geological Researches, p. 118, Smithsoni- 

 an Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. XV, Washington, 1867) seems to have encoun- 

 tered spinels in Yun-nan. Marco Polo (ed. Yule and Cordier, Vol. I, p. 157) has 

 described the ruby and the lapis lazuli mines. They are mentioned by the Arab 

 geographers I§takri and Ibn Haukal in the tenth century (O. M. Dalton, The 

 Treasure of the Oxus, p. 9, London, 1905). Ibn Haukal's passage has been translated 

 by Wiedemann (Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 236, Erlangen, 1912). The Arabic 

 geographer Yaqat.(i 179-1229) and the historian MaqrIzI (1365-1442) impart notes 

 on the balas ruby of Badakshan (Wiedemann, ibid., pp. 235-6); al-Ta "alibi (961- 

 1038) mentions it {ibid., p. 243). The ancients were familiar with the spinel as 

 evidenced by antique intaglios, but its designation in classical times is not known 

 according to H. BlUmner (Technologic und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Kunste 

 bei Griechen und Romern, Vol. Ill, p. 236, Leipzig, 1884); but H. O. Lenz (Minera- 

 logie der alten Griechen und Romer, p. 17, Gotha, 1861) includes the spinel under the 

 Greek word anthrax (likewise Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquit^s 

 grecs et romains. Vol. II, p. 1462, and Pauly's Realenzyklopadie, Vol. XIII, col. 

 1 108). Arabic and Armenian authors relate, a legendary tradition that at the time 

 of the dynasty of the'Abbassides a terrific earthquake shattered a mountain in 

 Badakshan, in which the spinels appeared (K. P. Patkanov, /. c, pp. 19-20). The 

 great antiquity of the mining operations in Badakshan is . illustrated by the wide 

 diffusion in early times of lapis lazuli. In the words of Marco Polo, that of Badak- 

 shan is the finest in the world; Yule (Vol. I, p. 162) comments that the mines of 

 Ldjwurd (whence VAzur and Lazuli) have been, like the ruby mines, celebrated for 

 ages. Max Bauer (Precious Stones, p. 442) states that the material which is not 

 sent to Bokhara (whence it is traded to Russia) goes, together with rubies of the same 

 region, to China and to Persia, and that the lapis lazuli said to occur in these countries, 

 as well as in Little Bokharia and Tibet, has probably been imported from Badakshan. 

 Moreover, according to this author, the material sold in other parts of Asia, for ex- 

 ample, in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and India, and stated by travelers to occur in 

 those regions, in all probability is imported from the locality in the proximity of the 

 Upper Oxus; the lapis lazuli from which the ancient Egyptian scarabs were cut, as 

 Bauer says, presumably came from Badakshan, as did also the material much used 

 elsewhere in ancient times. The early use of lapis lazuli in ancient Babylonia is well 

 attested by numerous finds (P. S. P. Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology, pp. 76, 

 102, 315, even for the earliest Sumerian period, p. 340) and the mineralogical analyses 

 of Heinrich Fischer (H. Fischer and A. Wiedemann, Ueber babylonische Talis- 

 mane, p. 4, Stuttgart, 1881). It is interesting to note among the beads of Sumerian 

 necklaces coral, lapis lazuli, mother-o'-pearl, and agate — all favorite objects of the 

 Tibetans, to the exclusion of turquois, which evidently belongs to a much more 

 recent stratum of culture in Asia. The origin of Babylonian lapis lazuli seems not 

 yet to have been satisfactorily established. Fischer suggested Bokharia; H. Blum- 



