Sino-Iranica - The Search For Mecca

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
Mamira 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 (ttta being the name of the drug in the Mishmi
country) ; by others, from Thalictrum joliosum, a tall plant common
throughout the temperate Himalaya and in the Kasia Hills. 2 In another
passage, however, Yule3 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 sometimes
the appearance of a bird's claw. It is shipped in large quantities
from China (Chinese hwan-lien !ic *H) via 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 (rlwand-i stni) 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 Nlsapur. 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 rewas, New Persian rewas, rewand, riwand
(hence Armenian erevant), Kurd riwas, rlbas; Baluci ravaS; Afghan
7
rawa!!;., The Persian name has penetrated in the same form into Arabic
1 Ch. Schefer, Histoire de l'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.
* Cathay, Vol. I, p. 292.
4 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 74. Chinese rhubarb is also called simply lini
("Chinese") in Persian, sini in Arabic.
8 Barbier de Meynard, Diet. geogr. de la Perse, p. 579.
• 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 rawds; 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