Roc (mythology)
Roc (mythology)
The roc is a legendary bird of prey which featured in popular mythology of the Middle East, consistently depicted with an enormous size, allowing it to dispatch elephants with minimal effort. Ibn Battuta tells of a "mountain" hovering in the air over the "China Seas", which was the roc.
Roc (mythology)
The roc appears in Arab geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors' folklore. The roc features in the story collection One Thousand and One Nights, which includes the bird in two tales; "Abd al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh" and "Sinbad the Sailor".
Etymology
The English form roc originates via Antoine Galland's French from Arabic ruḵḵ (Arabic: الرُخّ, romanized: ar-ruḫḫ) and that from Persian ruḵ (Dari pronunciation: [/rux/]). In both languages, Arabic and Persian, the word is written in the Arabic script as رخ. Common romanizations are ruḵḵ for the Arabic form and ruḵ, rokh or rukh for the Persian form.
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