Irano-Sinica — Zedoary, Ginger 545 



Steingass as "zedoary, a Chinese root." Further, we read under tndh- 

 parwdr or parwtn, "zedoary, a Chinese root like ginger, but perfumed." 



7. Abu Mansur distinguishes under the Arabic name zanjabil three 

 kinds of ginger (product of Amomum zingiber, or Zingiber officinale), — 

 Chinese, Zanzibar, and Melinawi or Zurunbaj, 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 singabera, 

 Sanskrit qrhgavera (of recent origin), 4 Old Arabic zangabil, Pahlavi 

 langawr, New Persian tankalil, Arabic-Persian zanjabil, Armenian 

 snrvel or snkrvil (from *singivel), Greek {iyyifiepis, Latin zingiberi; 

 Madagasy iakaviru (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 khalanjan, while in fact it is 

 khulanjan {xulandZan), Persian xawalinjdn. The fact that Ibn Khor- 

 dadzbeh, 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. 



