"Şehzadebaşı’nın eğlence ve zevk yerlerini sayarken Hafız Cemil Efendi’nin şekerci dükkânını unutmamak lazımdır. Her senenin ramazanına güzel reçeller, şurublar ve bayramına şekerler, şekerlemeler takdim ederek dil damak tadına düşkün olanları memnun eden Şekerci Cemil Efendi bu Ramazan-ı Şerifde de ziyadesiyle gayret sarf etmişdir." Servet-i Fünun magazine 8 March1894
Bâdem ezmesi: marzipan [2] EN i. Bâdemin yağı çıkıncaya kadar dövülüp ezildikten sonra ince şekerle yoğrulup şekil verilerek kurutulması sûretiyle yapılan makbul bir şekerleme: Selânik ve Edirne’nin bâdem ezmeleri… (Rûşen E. Ünaydın).
In Lebanon, marzipan (known as لوزینه lozina, lowzineh, or Marçabén (مرصبان) [Arabjc word derived from lawz = "almond") is flavoured with orange-flower water and shaped into roses and other delicate flowers before they are baked. Marzipan can also be made from oatmeal, farina, or semolina. For Jews in Iran, marzipan fruit is a traditional Passover treat, replacing biscuits and cakes.
[1] almond (n.) kernel of the fruit of the almond tree, c. 1300, from Old French almande, amande, earlier alemondle "almond," from Vulgar Latin *amendla, *amandula, from Latin amygdala (plural), from Greek amygdalos "an almond tree," a word of unknown origin, perhaps from Semitic. Late Old English had amygdales "almonds."
[2] marzipan (n.) 1901 (in modern use; earlier march payne, late 15c., from French or Dutch), from German Marzipan, from Italian marzapane "candy box," from Medieval Latin matapanus "small box," earlier, "coin bearing image of seated Christ," which is of uncertain origin, altered in Italian by folk etymology as though from Latin Marci panis "bread of Mark." One suggestion is that this is from Arabic mawthaban "king who sits still." Nobody seems to quite accept this, but nobody has a better idea. The Medieval Latin word also is the source of Spanish mazapán, French massepain.
The German name has largely ousted the original English name marchpane with the same apparent derivation: "March bread". (The word marchpane occurs in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5, Line 9.) Marzapane is documented earlier in Italian than in any other language, and the sense "bread" for pan is Romance. The origin could be from the Latin term "martius panis", which means bread of March. However, the ultimate etymology is unclear; for example, the Italian word derives from the Latin words "Massa" (itself from Greek Μάζα "Maza") meaning pastry and "Pan" meaning bread, this can be particularly seen in the Provençal massapan, the Portuguese maçapão (where 'ç' is an alternative form for the phoneme 'ss') and old Spanish mazapán – the change from 'ss' to 'z' in Latin words was common in old Spanish and the 'r' appeared later. It could also be derived from martis pan, bread of March. Among the other possible etymologies set forth in the Oxford English Dictionary, one theory proposes that the word "marzipan" may be a corruption of Martaban, a Burmese city famous for its jars.
The Real Academia Española suggests the idea of the Spanish word mazapán to be derived from the Hispanic Arabic بسمة pičmáṭ, which is derived from the Greek παξαμάδιον.
Another source could be from Arabic موثابان mawthābān "king who sits still". The Arabic, Latinised as matapanus, was used to describe a Venetian coin depicting an enthroned Christ the King. These coins were stored in ornate boxes. From about the fifteenth century, when the coins were no longer in circulation, the boxes became decorative containers for storing and serving luxury sweetmeats. One such luxury that crept into the box in the sixteenth century is the now-famous almond-flavoured marzipan, named (at least proximately) after the box in which it was stored.
However, if marzipan has its origin in Persia, it is not unlikely that the name may come from Marzban (in Persian: مرزبان, derived from the words Marz مرز meaning "border" or "boundary" and the suffix -bān بان meaning guardian), a class of margraves or military commanders in charge of border provinces of the Sassanid Empire of Persia (Iran) between the 3rd and 7th centuries.