iRANO-SiNiCA PAPER 559 



indeed, has always been more common. Hirth's supposition of a former 

 pronunciation kok cannot be accepted; but, even did this alleged kok 

 exist, I should continue to disbelieve in the proposed etymology of the 

 Persian-Arabic word. There is no reason to assume that, because 

 paper was adopted by the Arabs and Persians from the Chinese, their 

 designation of it should hail from the same quarter. I do not know 

 of a foreign language that was willing to adopt from the Chinese 

 any designation for paper. Our word comes from the Greek-Latin 

 papyrus; Russian bumaga originally means " cotton," being ultimately 

 traceable to Middle Persian pambak. 1 The Tibetans learned the tech- 

 nique of paper-making from the Chinese, but have a word of their own 

 to designate paper (sog-bu). So have the Japanese (kami) and the 

 Koreans (muntsi). The Mongols call paper tsagasun (Buryat tsaraso, 

 sdrahan), a purely Mongol word, meaning "the white one." Among 

 the Golde on the Amur I recorded the word ocausal. The Lolo have 

 f o-i, the Annamese bia, the Cam baa, baar, or biar, the Khmer credas, 

 which, like Malayan kertas, is borrowed from Arabic kirtas (Greek 

 xaprr?s). 2 As stated, the Persian- Arabic word is borrowed from a 

 Turkish language: Uigur kagat or kagas; Tuba, Lebed, Kumandu, 

 Comanian kagat; Kirgiz, Karakirgiz, Taranci, and Kazan kagaz. The 

 origin of this word can be explained from Turkish; for in Lebed, Ku- 

 mandu, and Sor, we have kaga$ with the significance " tree-bark. " 



I need not repeat here the oft-told story of how the manufacture of 

 paper was introduced into Samarkand by Chinese captives in A.D. 751. 

 Prior to this date, as has been established by Karabacek, Chinese 

 paper was imported to Samarkand as early as 6501, again in 707. 3 

 Under the Sasanians, Chinese paper was known in Persia ; but it was a 

 very rare article, and reserved for royal state documents. 4 



25. Another form in which paper reached the Persians was paper 

 money. It is well known that the Chinese were the originators of 



1 See above, p. 490. 



2 S. FRAENKEL, Die aramaischen Fremdworter im Arabischen, p. 245. 



3 Cf. HOERNLE, Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1903, p. 670. I regret being unable to 

 accept his general result that the Arabs or Samarkandis should be credited with the 

 invention of pure rag-paper (p. 674). This had already been accomplished in China, 

 and indeed was the work of Ts'ai Lun. I expect to come back to this problem on 

 another occasion. With all respect for the researches of Karabacek, Wiesner, and 

 Hoernle, I am not convinced that the far-reaching conclusions of these scholars are 

 all justified. We are in need of more investigations (and less theorizing), especially 

 of ancient papers made in China. There are numerous accounts of many sorts of 

 paper, hitherto unnoticed, in Chinese records, which should be closely studied. 



4 According to Masudi (B. DE MEYNARD, Les Prairies d'or, Vol. II, p. 202); 

 see also E. DROUIN, Me"moire sur les Huns Ephthalites, p. 53 (reprint from Le 

 Museon, 1895). 



