This refers to an Arab legend that Samarkand was founded in very remote times by Tobba'-al-Akbar, Himyarite King of Yemen, (see e.g. Edrisi, by Jaubert, ii. 198), and the following: "The author of the Treatise on the Figure of the Earth says on this subject: "This is what was told me by Abu-Bakr-Dimashkī—'I have seen over the great gate of Samarkand an iron tablet bearing an inscription, which, according to the people of the place, was engraved in Himyarite characters, and as an old tradition related, had been the work of "Tobba."'"—Shihābuddīn Dimashkī, in Not. et Ext. xiii. 254.
[Col. Temple notes that the pronunciation has always been twofold. At present in Burma it is usual to pronounce it like tickle, and in Siam like tacawl. He regards it as certain that it comes from takā through Talaing and Peguan t'ke.]
Sir H. Rawlinson gives tigra as old Persian for an arrow (see Herod. vol. iii. p. 552). Vüllers seems to consider it rather an induction than a known word for an arrow. He says: "Besides the name of that river (Tigris) Arvand, which often occurs in the Shāhnāma, and which properly signifies 'running' or 'swift'; another Medo-persic name Tigra is found in the cuneiform inscriptions, and is cognate with the Zend word tedjao, tedjerem, and Pehlvi tedjera, i.e. 'a running river,' which is entered in Anquetil's vocabulary. And these, along with the Persian tej 'an arrow,' tegh 'a sword,' tekh and teg 'sharp,' are to be referred to the Zend root tikhsh, Skt. tij, 'to sharpen.' The Persian word tīr, 'an arrow,' may be of the same origin, since its primitive form appears to be tīgra, from which it seems to come by elision of the g, as the Skt. tīr, 'arrow,' comes from tīvra for tīgra, where v seems to have taken the place of g. From the word tīgra ... seem also to be derived the usual names of the river Tigris, Pers. Dizhla, Ar. Dijlah" (Vüllers, s.v. tīr).
Some notice of Major Yule, whose valuable Oriental MSS. were presented to the British Museum after his death, will be found in Dr. Rieu's Preface to the Catalogue of Persian MSS. (vol. iii. p. xviii.).
St. Julien et P. Champion, Industries Anciennes et Modernes de l'Empire Chinois, 1869, p. 75. Wells Williams says: "The peh-tung argentan, or white copper of the Chinese, is an alloy of copper 40.4, zinc 25.4, nickel 31.6, and iron 2.6, and occasionally a little silver; and these proportions are nearly those of German silver."—Middle Kingdom, ed. 1883, ii. 19.