356 the middle east
In the 8th month (Aug./Sep.) of 759, Persia presented regional
objects (Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei p.5031).
In the 5th (May/June) and 9th month (Sep./Oct.) of 762, Persia
offered gifts (Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei p.5031).
In the 9th month (Oct./Nov.) of 771, envoys from Persia pre-
sented real pearls and amber (Chiu T’ang shu 198:15b; Ts’e-fu yüan-
kuei p.5031).
On Sep.27, 824, an envoy from Persia offered gharu wood (Tzu-
chih t’ung-chien p.7839).
After the 640’s, the various Persian pretenders did not have the
resources to send missions to China by ship. Consequently, they
travelled by land. Even if ships had been available, the rhinoceros,
elephant, and perhaps leopards could hardly have been transported
over such a large distance by sea. It is even possible that at least the
leopards were purchased en route in West Turkestan.
The prefered time for the arrival of Persian missions in Ch’ang-an
was the fall, followed by the spring.
While the threat from the Arabs must have been a subject discussed
by the Persian envoys, the chief purpose of the missions, at least on
the Chinese side, must have been the exchange of goods.
The Arabs
The Chinese name for the Arabs was Ta-shih, which transliterates
the Persian T§zÊk. It is a frustrating and ambiguous term. Usually it
refers to the real Arabs. But it can in some contexts mean Muslims
outside the caliphate.^9 When the sources say “the Arab State”, this
normally although not always means the caliphate. But the envoys
described as Arabs could have come from Baghdad, the conquered
parts of Persia, from West Turkestan, conquered by 715 and recon-
quered in 751, and even from East Turkestan.
The first mission from the Arab State was received at the T’ang
(^9) Wittfogel, Liao, pp.51, and 357, note 54, concludes that in the Liao shih the
term Ta-shih probably refers to the caliphate in Baghdad in 924 and to the Muslim
Qar§-khanid dynasty in East Turkestan in 1020 and 1021. This could, of course, be
a lack of exactitude restricted to the Liao shih.