This Seems To Me Excellent Evidence, And To Give The True Clue To
The Meaning Of Ondanique.
I have retained the latter form because it
points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real word, viz.
Hundwaniy, "Indian Steel."[1] (See Johnson's Pers.
Dict. and De
Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe, II. 148.) In the Vocabulista Arabico, of
about A.D. 1200 (Florence, 1871, p. 211), Hunduwan is explained by
Ensis. Vuellers explains Hundwan as "anything peculiar to India,
especially swords," and quotes from Firdusi, "Khanjar-i-Hundwan," a
hanger of Indian steel.
The like expression appears in the quotation from Edrisi below as
Hindiah, and found its way into Spanish in the shapes of Alhinde,
Alfinde, Alinde, first with the meaning of steel, then assuming, that
of steel mirror, and finally that of metallic foil of a glass mirror.
(See Dozy and Engelmann, 2d ed. pp. 144-145.) Hint or Al-hint is
used in Berber also for steel. (See J. R. A. S. IX. 255.)
The sword-blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian
steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into
Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times.
Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from
the king of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the ferrum candidum of
which the Malli and Oxydracae sent a 100 talents weight as a present to
Alexander.[2] Indian Iron and Steel ([Greek: sidaeros Indikos kai
stomoma]) are mentioned in the Periplus as imports into the Abyssinian
ports. Ferrum Indicum appears (at least according to one reading) among
the Oriental species subject to duty in the Law of Marcus Aurelius and
Commodus on that matter. Salmasius notes that among surviving Greek
chemical treatises there was one [Greek: peri baphaes Indikou sidaerou],
"On the Tempering of Indian Steel." Edrisi says on this subject: "The
Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparation of those
ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of soft Iron
which is usually styled Indian Steel (HINDIAH).[3] They also have
workshops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world.... It is
impossible to find anything to surpass the edge that you get from Indian
Steel (al-hadid al-Hindi)."
Allusions to the famous sword-blades of India would seem to be frequent in
Arabic literature. Several will be found in Hamasa's collection of ancient
Arabic poems translated by Freytag. The old commentator on one of these
passages says: "Ut optimos gladios significet ... Indicos esse dixit,"
and here the word used in the original is Hundwaniyah. In Manger's
version of Arabshah's Life of Timur are several allusions of the same
kind; one, a quotation from Antar, recalls the ferrum candidum of
Curtius:
"Albi (gladii) Indici meo in sanguine abluuntur."
In the histories, even of the Mahomedan conquest of India, the Hindu
infidels are sent to Jihannam with "the well-watered blade of the Hindi
sword"; or the sword is personified as "a Hindu of good family." Coming
down to later days, Chardin says of the steel of Persia: "They combine it
with Indian steel, which is more tractable ... and is much more esteemed."
Dupre, at the beginning of this century, tells us: "I used to believe ...
that the steel for the famous Persian sabres came from certain mines in
Khorasan. But according to all the information I have obtained, I can
assert that no mine of steel exists in that province. What is used for
these blades comes in the shape of disks from Lahore." Pottinger names
steel among the imports into Kerman from India. Elphinstone the
Accurate, in his Caubul, confirms Dupre: "Indian Steel [in Afghanistan]
is most prized for the material; but the best swords are made in Persia
and in Syria;" and in his History of India, he repeats: "The steel of
India was in request with the ancients; it is celebrated in the oldest
Persian poem, and is still the material of the scimitars of Khorasan and
Damascus."[4]
Klaproth, in his Asia Polyglotta, gives Andun as the Ossetish and
Andan as the Wotiak, for Steel. Possibly these are essentially the same
with Hundwaniy and Alhinde, pointing to India as the original source
of supply. [In the Sikandar Nama, e Bara (or "Book of Alexander the
Great," written A.D. 1200, by Abu Muhammad bin Yusuf bin Mu,
Ayyid-i-Nizamu-'d-Din), translated by Captain H. Wilberforce Clarke
(Lond., 1881, large 8vo), steel is frequently mentioned: Canto xix. 257,
p. 202; xx. 12, p. 211; xlv. 38, p. 567; lviii. 32, pp. 695, 42, pp. 697,
62, 66, pp. 699; lix. 28, p. 703. - H. C.]
Avicenna, in his fifth book De Anima, according to Roger Bacon,
distinguishes three very different species of iron: "1st. Iron which is
good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by hammer
and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and anvils are made,
and this is what we commonly call Iron simply. 2nd. That which is purer,
has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take an edge and to form
cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. Steel. And the 3rd is that
which is called ANDENA. This is less known among the Latin nations. Its
special character is that like silver it is malleable and ductile under a
very low degree of heat. In other properties it is intermediate between
iron and steel." (Fr. R. Baconis Opera Inedita, 1859, pp. 382-383.) The
same passage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais,
but with considerable differences. (See Speculum Naturale, VII. ch. lii.
lx., and Specul. Doctrinale, XV. ch. lxiii.) The latter author writes
Alidena, and I have not been able to refer to Avicenna, so that I am
doubtful whether his Andena is the same term with the Andaine of
Pauthier and our Ondanique.
The popular view, at least in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded
Steel as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily
different ore, from iron; and some such view is, I suspect, still common
in the East.
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