The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c25.15

c25.15

*Damāghah*. When Sindh was taken by us, we found “Karāchī surrounded by a tall wall, tipped with fancy crenelles and perpendicularly striped with what the Persians call *Damāgheh*, or nostril holes, down which the besieged could pour hot oil or boiling water” (“Life of Capt. Sir R. F. Burton”, i, 126). Possibly the derivation might be from *damāghah* (Steingass, 534), the crest of a falcon or similar bird. We have an instance of the use of boiling oil at Akbar’s siege of Asīrgarh (Von Noer, French trans., ii, 336, Horn, 128).