Ask Language Log: The Dry / Solitary Tree

From Adrienne Mayor:

I am writing about The Dry Tree or Solitary Tree, associated with Alexander the Great in medieval Alexander Romance and in Marco Polo, who located it in Khorasan.

Later, the Bavarian explorer Johannes Schiltberger trekked across Khorasan in about 1405-25 and reported that the Muslims called the tree “Kurrutherek” or “Sirpe,” meanings unknown.

Do the words ring any bells for you?

Could they be transliterated from Persian, Arabic, Turkic, perhaps phonetically?

In the melting pot of Central Asia, it is often difficult to tell which way the loans are flowing.  Who borrowed from whom?

 

Selected readings

• "Farsi shekar ast" (4/10/15)
• "'Kurban' in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkic, and Greek" (2/20/20)