Ah. A borrowing, present in many languages from Greece to Persia to India. OED’s etymology:
Etymon: Urdu qīma.
< Urdu qīma minced meat (frequently in compounds denoting specific dishes) < Persian qīma (now more frequently qayma), in the same sense < a Turkic language of Central Asia (compare e.g. Old Uyghur qıyma (adjective, of meat) cut in shreds, Uyghur qiyma (noun) minced meat), ultimately < an unattested verbal base with the sense ‘to cut obliquely in thin stripes, to cut in shreds’.
Notes
Compare also Arabic qīma minced meat < a Turkic language, probably via Persian.
Compare the following early example of the Persian word in an English context (outside India):
- 1856
[In Mecca] we dipped hands in ‘Biryani,’ a meat pillaw…; ‘Kimah,’ finely chopped meat.
