396 Sino-Iranica 



espinaca, Portuguese espinafre or espinacio, Italian spinace or spinaccio, 

 Provencal espinarc, Old French espinoche or epinoche, French epinard. 1 

 The Persian word was further adopted into Armenian spanax or 

 asbanax, Turkish spandk or ispandk, Comanian yspanac, Middle 

 Greek spinakion, Neo-Greek spanaki{pn) or spanakia (plural). 

 There are various spellings in older English, like spynnage, 

 spenege, spinnage, spinage, etc. In English literature it is not men- 

 tioned earlier than the sixteenth century. W. Turner, in his 

 "Herball" of 1568, speaks of "spinage or spinech as an herbe lately 

 found and not long in use." 



However, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, spinach was 

 well known and generally eaten in England. D. Rembert Dodoens 2 

 describes it as a perfectly known subject, and so does John Gerarde, 3 

 who does not even intimate that it came but recently into use. The 

 names employed by them are Spanachea, Spinachia, Spinacheum olus, 

 Hispanicum olus, English spinage and spinach. John Parkinson 4 

 likewise gives a full description and recipes for the preparation of the 

 vegetable. 



The earliest Persian mention of the spinach, as far as I know, is 

 made in the pharmacopoeia of Abu Mansur. 5 The oldest source cited 

 by Ibn al-Baitar (1197-1248) 6 on the subject is the "Book of Nabathaean 

 Agriculture" (Falaha nabatiya), which pretends to be the Arabic trans- 

 lation of an ancient Nabathasan source, and is believed to be a forgery 

 of the tenth century. This book speaks of the spinach as a known 

 vegetable and as the most harmless of all vegetables; but the most 

 interesting remark is that there is a wild species resembling the culti- 

 vated one, save that it is more slender and thinner, that the leaves are 



specific reference. It is a gratuitous theory of his that the spinach must have been 

 brought to Europe by the Crusaders; the Arabic importation into Spain has escaped 

 him entirely. 



1 The former derivation of the word from "Spain" or from spina ("thorn"), in 

 allusion to the prickly seeds, moves on the same high level as the performance of the 

 Min $u. Littre" cites M£nagier of the sixteenth century to the effect, "Les espinars 

 sont ainsi appell6s a cause de leur graine qui est espineuse, bien qu'il y en ait de ronde 

 sans piqueron." In the Supplement, Littr6 points out the oriental origin of the word, 

 as established by Devic. 



2 A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plants, translated by H. Lyte, p. 556 (Lon- 

 don, 1578). 



* The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, p. 260 (London, 1597). 



* Paradisus in sole paradisus terrestris, p. 496 (London, 1629). 

 5 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 6. 



8 L. Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. I, p. 60. 



