Sino-Iranica - The Search For Mecca

THE PISTACHIO
3. Pistacia is a genus of trees or shrubs of the family Anacardiaceae,
containing some six species, natives of Iran and western Asia, and also
transplanted to the Mediterranean region. At least three species
(Pistacia vera, P. terebinthus, and P. acuminata) are natives of Persia,
and from ancient times have occupied a prominent place in the life of the
Iranians. Pistachio-nuts are still exported in large quantities from
Afghanistan to India, where they form a common article of food among
the well-to-do classes. The species found in Afghanistan and Baluchis-
tan do not cross the Indian frontier. 1 The pistachio (Pistacia vera) in
particular is indigenous to ancient Sogdiana and Khorasan, 2 and still
3
is a tree of great importance in Russian Turkistan.
When Alexander crossed the mountains into Bactriana, the road
was bare of vegetation save a few trees of the bushy terminthus or
terebinthus. 4 On the basis of the information furnished by Alexander's
scientific staff, the tree is mentioned by Theophrastus 5 as growing in
the country of the Bactrians; the nuts resembling almonds in size
and shape, but surpassing them in taste and sweetness, wherefore the
people of the country use them in preference to almonds. Nicandrus
of Colophon 6
(third century B.C.), who calls the fruit fiiaranov or ^lttolklov,
a word derived from an Iranian language (see below), says that it grows
in the valley of the Xoaspes in Susiana. Posidonius, Dioscorides, Pliny,
and Galenus know it also in Syria. Vitellius introduced the tree into
Italy; and Flaccus Pompeius, who served with him, introduced it at
the same time into Spain. 7
The youths of the Persians were taught to endure heat, cold, and
rain; to cross torrents and to keep their armor and clothes dry; to
pasture animals, to watch all night in the open air, and to subsist on
wild fruit, as terebinths (Pistacia terebinthus), acorns, and wild pears. 8
1
Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. VI, p. 268.
2 Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite\ Vol. II, pp. 47, 76.
3 S. Korzinski, Vegetation of Turkistan (in Russian), pp. 20, 21.
4 Strabo, XV. 11, 10.
Hist, plant., IV. iv, 7.
"Theriaka, 890.
7
Pliny, xv, 22, §91. A. de Candolle (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 316)
traces Pistacia vera only to Syria, without mentioning its occurrence in Persia.
8 Strabo, XV. hi, 18.
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