Surah Ya-Sin Verse 80

4026 Even older and more primitive than the method of striking fire against steel and flint is the method of using twigs of trees for the purpose. In the E.B., 14th edition, 9:262, will be found a picture of British Guyana boys making a fire by rotating a stick in a round hole in a piece of wood lying on the ground. The Arab methord was to use a woodden instument called the Zinad. It consisted of two pieces to be rubbed together. The upper was called the 'Ajar or Zand, and the lower the Markh. The Markh is a twig from a kind of spreading tree, the Cynanchuin viminale, of which the branches are bare, without leaves or thorns. When they are tangled together, and a wind blows, they get ignited and strike fire (Lane's Arabic Lexicon). In modern Arabic Zand is by analogy applied to the flint piece used for striking fire with steel.