IRANO-SINICA MAMIRAN, RHUBARB 547 



the drug mamirani tchini for eye-diseases, being yellowish like Curcuma. 



Bernier mentions mamiran as one of the products brought by the 

 caravans from Tibet. Also according to a modern Mohammedan source, 

 mamiran and rhubarb are exported from Tibet. 1 



Mamlra is a reputed drug for eye-diseases, applied to bitter roots 

 of kindred properties but of different origin. By some it is regarded as 

 the rhizome of Coptis teeta (tlta being the name of the drug in the Mishmi 

 country); by others, from Tkalictrum foliosum, a tall plant common 

 throughout the temperate Himalaya and in the Kasia Hills. 2 In another 

 passage, however, YULE S suggests that this root might be the ginseng 

 of the Chinese, which is highly improbable. 



It is most likely that by mamira is understood in general the root of 

 Coptis teeta. This is a ranunculaceous plant, and the root has some- 

 times the appearance of a bird's claw. It is shipped in large quantities 

 from China (Chinese hwan-Uen H 31) ma Singapore to India. The 

 Chinese regard it as a panacea for a great many ills; among others, for 

 clearing inflamed eyes. 



9. Abu Mansur discriminates between two kinds of rhubarb, the 

 Chinese (riwand-i slm) and that of Khorasan, adding that the former 

 is most employed. 4 Accordingly a species of rhubarb (probably Rheum 

 ribes) must have been indigenous to Persia. Yaqut says that the finest 

 kind grew in the soil of Nisapur. 5 According to E. BoissiER, 6 Rheum 

 ribes occurs near Van and in Agerowdagh in Armenia, on Mount Pir 

 Omar Gudrun in Kurdistan, in the Daena Mountain of eastern Persia, 

 near Persepolis, in the province Aderbeijan in northern Persia, and in 

 the mountains of Baluchistan. There is a general Iranian name for 

 "rhubarb": Middle Persian rewds, New Persian rewds, rewand, riwand 

 (hence Armenian erevant), Kurd riwds, rlbds; Baluci rava$; Afghan 

 rawdL 1 The Persian name has penetrated in the same form into Arabic 



1 CH. SCHEFER, Histoire de 1'Asie centrale par Mir Abdoul Kerim Boukhary, 

 p. 239. Cf. also R. DOZY, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, Vol. II, p. 565. 



2 YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 548. 



3 Cathay, Vol. I, p. 292. 



4 AcHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 74. Chinese rhubarb is also called simply Uni 

 ("Chinese") in Persian, fini in Arabic. 



5 BARBIER DE MEYNARD, Diet. g6ogr. de la Perse, p. 579. 



6 Flora Orientalis, Vol. IV, p. 1004. Rheum ribes does not occur in China or 

 Central Asia. 



7 The Afghan word in particular refers to Rheum spiciforme, which grows wild 

 and abundantly in many parts of Afghanistan. When green, the leaf-stalks are 

 called rawas; and when blanched by heaping up stones and gravel around them, 

 lukri; when fresh, they are eaten either raw or cooked (WATT, Dictionary, Vol.VI, 

 p. 487). The species under notice occurs also in Kan-su, China: FORBES and 



