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Borrowed from Aramaicצפר with unattested-ān ending, compare زَعْتَر(zaʕtar, “wild thyme”) and juxtapose عُصْفُر(ʕuṣfur) for a native form from أَصْفَر(ʔaṣfar, “yellow”) of the root ص ف ر(ṣ-f-r).
A Middle Iranian borrowing is also maintained, which invites comparison with Persianجعفری(ja'fari, “parsley”).
Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 145, where Middle Iranian*zar-parān(“gold-wings”)
“ṣpr6”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
“zˁprn”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
Meyer, Gustav (1893) “Türkische Studien. I. Die griechischen und romanischen Bestandtheile im Wortschatze des Osmanisch-Türkischen”, in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (in German), volume 128, Wien: In Commission bei F. Tempsky, page 9, makes the claim that صفران(safran) is a Europeanized variant, but the variation is native Turkish; see Azerbaijanizəngin.
Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “safran”, in Nişanyan Sözlük, phantasizes the variation with ص(ṣ) to have been present in Arabic, citing Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, which is known as unseriös (Ullmann, Manfred (1997) Zur Geschichte des Wortes barīd „Post“ [About the history of the word barīd ‘post’] (Beiträge zur Lexikographie des Klassischen Arabisch; 13) (in German), München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Kommission bei der C.H.Beck’schen Verlagsbuchhandlung, →ISBN, page 9).