40 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XIII. 



Nlshapur is found a stone similar to turquois from which chess-men are 

 made, but that its color soon disappears. Thus, also the backgammon 

 men of Khosrau, if at all the report may lay claim to historical authen- 

 ticity, which is doubtful, may have been worked from this stone material 

 which merely had an outward resemblance to turquois.^ We move on 

 safer ground in coming down to the Arabic authors of the middle ages ; 

 they indeed are the first to bring to our notice the mining of turquois 

 in Nlshapur.^ Al-Kindi, who lived in the latter part of the ninth cen- 

 tury, as quoted by Ibn al-Baitar,^ briefly mentions the turquois without 

 alluding to Persia, nor does the oldest source for Arabic mineralogy, 

 the lapidarium, wrongly connected with the name of Aristotle,'' which 

 according to Ruska was composed before the middle of the ninth 

 century. The fact that Persia is not alluded to by these two authors 

 is not decisive ; on the contrary, it is highly probable that they had the 

 Persian turquois in their minds, for they designate it by the older 

 Persian iorvafiruzag, and as pointed out by Ruska,^ it is noticeable that 

 in the text translated by him Persia, Khorasan, India and China are 

 most frequently cited among the localities for the minerals described 

 in it. 



The earliest allusion to the turquois-mines of Nishapur which I am 

 able to find is made by Ibn Haukal (978 a. d.), who based his account 

 on Istakhri (951). He reports as follows: ^ 



"The villages and the towns in the plain around Nishapur are numerous and 

 well populated. In the mountains of Nishapur and Tus are mines, in which are 

 found brass, iron, turquoises, santalum, and the precious stone called malachite; 

 they are said to contain also gold and beryl." 



Al-Beruni (973-1048) seems to be the second weighty authority 

 with a distinct reference to Nishapur by stating that the turquois is 

 brought from the mountain Ansar, one of the mountains of Riwand near 



1 J. DE Morgan (Mission scientifique en Perse, Vol. IV, p. 320, Paris, 1897) 

 figures a bas-relief of Takht-i Bostan representing Khosrau II Parwez (591H528) in 

 full armor on horseback and interprets the medial row of stones inlaid in the sheath 

 of the sword as turquoises. There is no color displayed on this stone bas-relief, and 

 this view seems wholly arbitrary; it is rejected as fantastic by F. Sarre and S. 

 Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, p. 203 (Berlin, 1910). 



^ Name of a city and province in northern Khorasan. The city was founded by 

 Shapur II (309-379) whose name forms the second element in the name of the city. 

 The Old Persian name is New-Shapur, the word new meaning good. The New 

 Persian form is Neshdpur, at present Nishapur, Arabic Naisdbur (compare Noldeke, 

 Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, pp. 59, 67; an interesting 

 sketch of the history of the city is given by A. V. W. Jackson, From Constantinople 

 to the Home of Omar Khayyam, pp. 246-260, New York, 191 1). 



^ L. Leclerc, /. c, Vol. Ill, p. 51. 



* J. Ruska, Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 151. 

 ^L. c, p. 43. 



* A. V. W. Jackson, /. c, p. 254. 



