The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c12.s1.37

c12.s1.37

*Tīr*. This word, literally “arrow”, after acquiring the extended meaning of bullet, musket, or cannon ball (Steingass 340), was then converted into a word denoting the calibre of a gun. For instance, in the letters of Chhabīlah Rām, Nāgar, *ʿAjāib-ul-āfāq*, fol. 34*b*, we have, *Hamrāh-i-fidwīyat-irtisām sih top-i-kamtīr*, “with this loyal servant are three guns of small calibre”; and again a little farther, upon the same folio, *Wa yak zarb-i-top-i-kalān-tīr*, “and one cannon of large calibre”. With its meaning of “cannon ball” we find *tīr* in the expression *tīrah-band* for “loaded”, used by Rustam ʿAlī, Bijnorī, in his “History of the Rohelahs”, fol. 43*b*.