Mughal Administration c14.s5.t2.4

c14.s5.t2.4

24. *Kir-kirāqi-khanah*. At first explained by Blochmann (*Ain.* i. 87*n*) as evidently meaning a wardrobe; but in his addenda (616) he derived it from the Turki words *Kurk* and *Yaraq*, meaning "the fur of the supplex". Beveridge (*Tuzuk*, i. 45*n*) accepts this meaning. In Shaikh Suleiman Efendi’s *Chagatai-Osmanli Worterbuch* (ed. by Kunos), *Kirqu* is translated as sparrow-hawk. Forbes (*Hindustani Dic.*, 544) explains *qirqirā* as the damoiselle crane, *Ardea virgo*. But the author of *Mirat-i-Ahmadi* with his lifelong experience as a Mughal provincial diwan clearly explains *Kirkirāq* as "whatever is ordered by the Emperor for his dress &c., such as *chikan-dozi*, *naqqashi* &c." (ii. 184.) We must therefore accept this last meaning.