متن کامل نگلیسی ساینو-ایرانیکا اثر جاوید برتولت لوفر

2 Cf. PELLIOT, T'oung Pao, 1912, pp. 457-461.

3 The Malabar cinnamon is mentioned by Marco Polo (YULE'S ed., Vol. II,
p. 389) and others.



544 SlNO-lRANICA

or the attribution of certain products to China, is not always to be
understood literally. Sometimes it merely refers to a far-eastern
product, sometimes even to an Indian product, 1 and sometimes to
products handled and traded by the Chinese, regardless of their pro-
venience. Such cases, however, are exceptions. As a rule, these Persian-
Arabic terms apply to actual products of China.

ScHLiMMER 2 mentions under the name Killingea monocephala the
zedoary of China: according to Piddington's Index Plantarum, it should
be the plant furnishing the famous root known in Persia as jadivdre
ocitdi (" Chinese jadvar"); genuine specimens are regarded as a divine
panacea, and often paid at the fourfold price of fine gold. The identifica-
tion, however, is hardly correct, for K. monocephala is kin niu ts'ao
& ^ ~tJL in Chinese, 3 which hardly holds an important place in the
Chinese pharmacopoeia. The plant which Schlimmer had in mind
doubtless is Curcuma zedoaria, a native of Bengal and perhaps of China
and various other parts of Asia. 4 It is called in Sanskrit nirvisd ("poison-
less") or sida, in Kua or Tokharian B viralom or wiralom, 5 Persian jad-
vdr, Arabic zadvdr (hence our zedoary, French zedoaire). Abu Mansur
describes it as zarvdr, calling it an Indian remedy similar to Costus and
a good antidote. 6 In the middle ages it was a much-desired article of
trade bought by European merchants in the Levant, where it was sold
as a product of the farthest east. 7 Persian zarumbdd, Arabic zeronbdd,
designating an aromatic root similar to zedoary, resulted in our zer-
umbet* While it is not certain that Curcuma zedoaria occurs in China
(a Chinese name is not known to me), it is noteworthy that the Persians,
as indicated above, ascribe to the root a Chinese origin: thus also
kazur (from Sanskrit karcura) is explained in the Persian Dictionary of

1 Such an example I have given in T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 319: bi, an edible
aconite, does not occur in China, as stated by Damlri, but in India. In regard to
cubebs, however, GARCIA DA ORTA (C. MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 169) was mis-
taken in denying that they were grown in China, and in asserting that they are
called kabab-cini only because they are brought by the Chinese. As I have
shown (ibid., pp. 282-288), cubebs were cultivated in China from the Sung period
onward.

2 Terminologie, p. 335.

3 Also this identification is doubtful (STUART, Chinese Materia Medica,
p. 228).

4 W. ROXBURGH, 'Flora Indica, p. 8; WATT, Commercial Products of India,
p. 444, and Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 669.

5 S. Lvi, Journal asiatique, 1911, II, pp. 123, 138.

6 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 79. See also LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. I,
P. 347-

7 W. HEYD, Histoire du commerce du levant, Vol. II, p. 676.

8 YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 979.