Difference between revisions of "Irano-Sinica (Sino-Iranica)"

Revision as of 19:17, 16 December 2015

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Steingass as "zedoary, a Chinese root." Further, we read under māhparwār or parwîn, "zedoary, a Chinese root like ginger, but perfumed."

7. Abu Mansur distinguishes under the Arabic name zanjabīl three kinds of ginger (product of Amomum zingiber, or Zingiber officinale),— Chinese, Zanzibar, and Melinawi or Zurunbāj, the best being the Chinese.^[1] According to Steingass,^[2] Persian anqala denotes "a kind of China ginger."^[3] The Persian word (likewise in Arabic) demonstrates that the product was received from India : compare Prakrit singabēra, Sanskrit çṛṅgavera (of recent origin),^[4] Old Arabic zangabīl, Pahlavi šangavīr, New Persian šankalīl, Arabic-Persian zanjabīl, Armenian sṅrvēl or snkrvil (from *singivēl), Greek ζιγγίβερις, Latin zingiberi ; Madagasy šakavīru (Indian loan-word).^[5]

The word galangal, denoting the aromatic rhizome of Alpinia galanga, is not of Chinese origin, as first supposed by D. Hanbury,^[6] and after him by Hirth^[7] and Giles.^[8] The error was mainly provoked by the fact that the Arabic word from which the European name is derived was wrongly written by Hanbury khalanjān, while in fact it is khūlanjān (xūlandžān), Persian xāwalinjān. The fact that Ibn Khordādzbeh, who wrote about A.D. 844-848, mentions khūlanjān as one of the products of China,^[9] does not prove that the Arabs received this word from China ; for this rhizome is not a product peculiar to China, but is intensively grown in India, and there the Arabs made the first acquaintance of it. Ibn al-Baiṭār ^[10] states expressly that khūlanjān comes from India ; and, as was recognized long ago, the Arabic word is derived from Sanskrit kulañja,^[11] which denotes Alpinia galanga. The European forms with ng (galangan, galgan, etc.) were suggested by the older Arabic pronunciation khūlangān.^[12] In Middle Greek we have

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1. ↑ Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 76.
2. ↑ Persian Dictionary, p. 113.
3. ↑ Concerning ginger among the Arabs, cf. Leclerc, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 217 ; and regarding its preparation, see G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs à l'Extreme-Orient, p. 609.
4. ↑ Cf. the discussion of E. Hultzsch and F. W. Thomas in Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1912, pp. 475, 1093. See also Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 374.
5. ↑ The curious word for "ginger" in Kuča or Tokharian B, tváṅkaro (S. Lévi, Journal asiatique, 1911, II, pp. 124, 137), is not yet explained.
6. ↑ Science Papers, p. 373.
7. ↑ Chinesische Studien, p. 219.
8. ↑ Glossary of Reference, p. 102.
9. ↑ G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs à l'Extrême-Orient, p. 31.
10. ↑ Ibid., p. 259. Cf. also Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 60.
11. ↑ Roediger and Pott, Z. K. d. Morgenl., Vol. VII, 1850, p. 128.
12. ↑ Wiedemann (Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. Erl., Vol. XLV, 1913, p. 44) gives as Arabic forms also xaulangād and xalangān.

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κολούτζια, χαυλιζέν, and γαλαγγά ; in Russian, kalgán. The whole group has nothing to do with Chinese kao-liaṅ-kiaṅ.^[1] Moreover, the latter refers to a different species, Alpinia officinarum ; while Alpinia galanga does not occur in China, but is a native of Bengal, Assam, Burma, Ceylon, and the Konkan. Garcia da Orta was already well posted on the differences between the two.^[2]

8. Abu Mansur mentions the medical properties of mdmirdn.3Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content According to Achundow,4Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content a rhizome originating from China, and called in Turkistan momiran, is described by Dragendorff, and is regarded by him as identical with the so-called mishmee (from Coptis teeta Wall.), which is said to be styled mamiraUn in the Caucasus. He further correlates the same drug with Ranunculus ficaria {x&'&bviov to fxiKpov), subsequently described by the Arabs under the name mamirun. Al-Janki is quoted by Ibn al-Baitar as saying that the mdmirdn comes from China, and that its properties come near to those of Curcuma;5Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content these roots, however, are also a product of Spain, the Berber country, and Greece.6Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content The Sheikh Daud says that the best which comes from India is blackish, while that of China is yellowish. Ibn Batuta7Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content mentions the importation of mdmirdn from China, saying that it has the same properties as kurkum. Hajji Mahomed, in his account of Cathay (ca. 1550), speaks of a little root growing in the mountains of Succuir (Su-cou in Kan-su), where the rhubarb grows, and which they call Mambroni Cini (mdmlrdn-i Clnl, "mamiran of China"). "This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ailments, but especially where the eyes are affected. They grind it on a stone with rose-water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is wonderfully beneficial."8Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content In 1583 Leonhart Rauwolf9Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content mentions

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1. ↑ Needless to say that the vivisections of Hirth, who did not know the Sanskrit term, lack philological method.
2. ↑ Markham, Colloquies, p. 208. Garcia gives lavandou as the name used in China ; this is apparently a corrupted Malayan form (cf. Javanese laos). In Java, he says, there is another larger kind, called lancuaz ; in India both are styled lancuaz. This is Malayan leṅkūwas, Makasar laṅkuwasa, Čam lakuah or lakuak, Tagalog laṅkuas. The Arabic names are written by Garcia calvegiam, chamligiam, and galungem ; the author's Portuguese spelling, of course, must be taken into consideration.

1

2

3 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 138.

4 Ibid., p. 268.

5 Leclerc, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 441. Dioscorides remarks that the sap of this plant has the color of saffron.

6 In Byzantine Greek it is μαμηρέ or μεμηρέν, derived from the Persian-Arabic word.

7 Ed. of Defrémery and Sanguinetti, Vol. II, p. 186.

8 Yule, Cathay, new ed., Vol. I, p. 292.

9 Beschreibung der Raiss inn die Morgenländer, p. 126.

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