Irano-Sinica (Sino-Iranica)
[545]
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 Hirth7 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 khalanjan, while in fact it is khulanjan {xulandZan), Persian xawalinjdn. The fact that Ibn Khordadzbeh, who wrote about a.d. 844-848, mentions khulanjan 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-Baitar 10 states expressly that khulanjan comes from India; and, as was recognized long ago, the Arabic word is derived from Sanskrit kulanja,11 which denotes Alpinia galanga. The European forms with ng (galangan, galgan, etc.) were suggested by the older Arabic pronunciation khulangan.12 In Middle Greek we have 1 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 76. 2 Persian Dictionary, p. 113. I Concerning ginger among the Arabs, cf. Leclerc, Traite* des simples, Vol. II, p. 217; and regarding its preparation, see G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs a 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. 6 The curious word for "ginger" in Kuca or Tokharian B, tvankaro (S. Levi, Journal asiatique, 191 1, 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 a l'Extr6me-Orient, p. 31. 10 Ibid., p. 259. Cf. also Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 60. II Roediger and Pott, Z. K. d. Morgenl., Vol. VII, 1850, p. 128. n E. Wiedemann (Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. Erl., Vol. XLV, 1913, p. 44) gives as Arabic forms also xaulangdd and xalangan.
