▪ Jeffery1938: In the
Qurʔān, the word »occurs only in a passage descriptive of the delights of Paradise, where the exegetes differ as to whether Zanǧabīl is the name of the well from which the drink of the Redeemed comes, or means the spice by which the drink is flavoured (vide Ṭab., Zam., and Baiḍ. on the passage and
LA, xiii, 332). – There was fairly general agreement among the early authorities that it was a Pers word. al-Ṯaʕālibī,
Fiqh, 318, and al-Ǧawālīqī,
Muʕarrab, 78, give it in their lists of Persian loan-words, and their authority is accepted by as-Suyūṭī,
Itq, 321;
Mutaw, 47; and al-Khafāǧī, 99. – The modPers word for ginger is
šankalīl (Vullers,
Lex, ii, 472; cf. also ii, 148) from Phlv
singaβēr,
1
which is the source of the Arm
sngrowēγ,
2
and the Syr
zangᵊbīlā; Aram זנגבילא.
3
The ultimate source seems to have been the Skr
śṛṅgaber,
4
/
5
Pali
singivēra, from which comes the Grk ζιγγίβερις.
6
There can be little doubt that the word passed into Ar from Syr and was thence borrowed back into Persian in Islamic times.
7
It occurs in the early poetry
8
and so was evidently an early borrowing«.