July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 41 



that city.^ His contemporary al-Ta'alibi (961-1038) expands likewise 

 on the turquois of Nlshapur.^ Then we have the testimony of Tifashl 

 whose work on precious stones was written toward the middle of the 

 thirteenth century (the author died in 1253) who says anent the turquois 

 that it originates from a mine situated in a mountain of Nishapur 

 whence it is exported into all cotmtries.' This seems to be the first 

 clear statement of the fact that the Persian turquois of Nishapur had 

 entered into the commerce of the world. Can it be mere chance now 

 that we find the first record of the turquois of this place in China in 

 1366 (p. 56), and that the Persian turquois makes its d^but in India 

 only during the Mohammedan epoch? Finally we come to the Persian 

 mineralogy of Muhammed Ibn Mansur above referred to which ac- 

 cording to ScHiNDLER was written about 1300, according to Ruska * in 

 the thirteenth century; still later is al-Akfani who died in 1347-48, and 

 who in his treatise on precious stones deals also with the turquois.^ 

 There is also the evidence furnished by Marco Polo ^ who passed 



1 E. Wiedemann, Der Islam, Vol. II, 1911, p. 352. 



^ WiEDEM.\NN, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 242 (Erlangen, 1912). 



' L. Leclerq, /. c. 



* L. c, p. 31. J. V. H.\MMER has translated an extract from this work in Fund- 

 gruhen des Orients, Vol. VI, pp. 126-142. Wien, 1818; the text has not yet been edited. 

 Compare Wiedemann, /. c, p. 208. 



* Edited by P. L. Cheikho (Al-Machriq, Vol. XI, 1908, pp. 751-765). Com- 

 pare Wiedemann, Mitt. d. deutschen Ges. fur Geschichte d. Med. und Nat., Vol. VIII, 

 pp. 509-511. Translation by Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 225 (Er- 

 langen, 1912). Bretschneider (China Review, Vol. V, 1876, p. 124) identifies the 

 Persian vase "reflecting what is going on in the world" (mentioned in the Annals of 

 the Ming Dynasty) with the vase of Djemshid frequently spoken of by the Persian 

 poets and said by Rashid-eddin (1247-13 18) to have been made of turquois. This 

 identification can hardly be correct, if the tradition holds good that the Persian vase 

 had "the property of reflecting light in such a way that all affairs of the world could 

 be seen." Turquois is dense, opaque, not at all transparent (in composition a hy- 

 drous phosphate of aluminum containing water, 20.6 per cent, alumina, 46.8 per cent, 

 and phosphorous oxide, 32.6 per cent), and thus in composition as well as opacity, 

 differs from most other gems (O. C. Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals, p. 170, 

 Chicago, 1903). 



* Yule and Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. I, p. 90. Marco Polo's 

 itinerary in southern Persia has been elucidated by Gen. A. Houtum Schindler 

 {Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 1881, pp. 1-8, and 1898, pp. 43-46), further by G. 

 Le Strange (The Cities of Kirman, ibid., 1901, pp. 281-290). On p. 2 of the first 

 of these papers, Schindler has devoted a note to the turquois-mines of the province 

 of Kerman, stating the various localities where they are found; at a place, twelve 

 miles from Shehr-i-Babek, are seven old shafts, now for a long period not worked, 

 the stones of these mines being of a very pale blue, and having no great value. The 

 inferiority of the Kerman turquois is emphasized also by the Chinese author T'ao 

 Tsung-i in 1366 (see p. 57). And then, one will make us believe that the turquois 

 should be recognized in Pliny's callais "the best sort of which occurs in Carmania," 

 as if there were no other stones to be found in the big country Carmania, and as if it 

 had been proved that turquois was mined there in the first century. But Marco 

 Polo evidently is the first authority with such a report, and from Pliny to Marco Polo 

 there is a far cry. The Arabic author al-Ta 'alibi (961-1038) expressly states that . 

 turquois is found only near NishapQr (Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 242). 

 Major P. M. Sykes (Historical Notes on South-East Persia, Journal Royal Asiatic 



