Sino-Iranica - The Search For Mecca

Fenugreek 447
is ianbaltd, Sanbaltle in Ispahan, and lamllz in Shiraz, which appears
in India as lamli. As is well known, the plant occurs wild in Kashmir,
the Panjab, and in the upper Gangetic plain, and is cultivated in many
parts of India, particularly in the higher inland provinces. The Sanskrit
term is meihl, meihika, or methini. 1 In Greek it is /Sowcepas ("ox-horn"), 2
Middle Greek xovXirev (from the Arabic), Neo-Greek ttjXu; Latin
joenum graecum. 3
According to A. de Candolle, 4 the species is wild
(besides the Panjab and Kashmir) in the deserts of Mesopotamia and
of Persia, and in Asia Minor. John Fryer 5 enumerates it among the
products
of Persia. 6
Another West-Asiatic plant introduced by the Arabs into China under the
Sung is ffl ^ jl[ ya-pu-lu, first mentioned by Cou Mi ffi $? (1230-1320) as a
poisonous plant growing several thousand li west from the countries of the Mohammedans
(Kwei sin tsa H, sii tsi A, p. 38, ed. of Pai hai; and Ci ya fan tsa I'ao, Ch. A,
p. 40 b, ed. of Yue ya fan ts'un Su). This name is based on Arabic yabruh or abruh
(Persian jabruh), the mandragora or mandrake. This subject has been discussed by
me in detail in a monograph "La Mandragore" (in French), T'oung Pao, 1917,
pp. 1-30.
des simples, Vol. I, p. 443. Schlimmer (Terminologie, p. 547) remarks, "L'infusion
de la semence est un remede favori des m^decins indigenes dans les blennorhagies
urethriques chroniques."
1 It occurs, for instance, as a condiment in an Indian tale of King Vikramaditya
(A. Weber, Abh. Berl. Akad., 1877, p. 67).
2
Hippocrates; Theophrastus, Hist, plant., IV. iv, 10; or t