Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10: A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Terms and Phrases of Analogous Origin
Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10
- Language
- English
A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Terms and Phrases of Analogous Origin
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ABADA
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ABADA, s. A word used by old Spanish and Portuguese writers for a 'rhinoceros,' and adopted by some of the older English narrators. The origin is a little doubtful. If it were certain that the word did not occur earlier than c. 1530-40, it would most probably be an adoption from the Malay *badak*, 'a rhinoceros.' The word is not used by Barros where he would probably have used it if he knew it (see quotation under GANDA); and we have found no proof of its earlier existence in the language of the Peninsula; if this should be established we should have to seek an Arabic origin in such a word as *abadat*, *ābid*, fem. *ābida*, of which one meaning is (*v. Lane*) 'a wild animal.' The usual form *abada* is certainly somewhat in favour of such an origin. [Prof. Skeat believes that the *a* in *abada* and similar Malay words represents the Arabic article, which was commonly used in Spanish and Portuguese prefixed to Arabic and other native words.] It will be observed that more than one authority makes it the female rhinoceros, and in the dictionaries the word is feminine. But so Barros makes *Ganda*. [Mr W. W. Skeat suggests that the female was the more dangerous animal, or the one most frequently met with, as is certainly the case with the crocodile.]
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1541.—"Mynes of Silver, Copper, Tin, and Lead, from whence great quantities thereof were continually drawn, which the Merchants carried away with Troops of Elephants and Rhinoceroses (*em cafilas de elefantes e badas*) for to transport into the Kingdoms of Sornau, by us called Siam, Passiloco, Sarady, (*Savady* in orig.), Tangu, Prom, Calaminham and other Provinces . . . "—*Pinto* (orig. cap. xli.) in *Cogan*, p. 49. The kingdoms named here are Siam (see under SARNAU); Pitchalok and Sawatti (now two provinces of Siam); Taungu and Prome in B. Burma; Calaminham, in the interior of Indo-China, more or less fabulous.
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1544.—"Now the King of Tartary was fallen upon the city of Pequin with so great an army as the like had never been seen since Adam's time; in this army . . . were seven and twenty Kings, under whom marched 1,800,000 men . . . with four score thousand Rhinoceroses (*donde partirão com oitenta mil badas*).—*Ibid.* (orig. cap. cvii.) in *Cogan*, p. 149.
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[1560.—See quotation under LAOS.]
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1585.—"It is a very fertile country, with great stoare of prouisioun; there are elephants in great number and *abadas*, which is a kind of beast so big as two great buls, and hath vppon his snowt a little horne."—*Mendoza*, ii. 311.
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1592.—"We sent commodities to their king to barter for Amber-greese, and for the hornes of Abath, whereof the Kinge onely hath the traffique in his hands. Now this Abath is a beast that hath one horne only in her forehead, and is thought to be the female Vnicorne, and is highly esteemed of all the Moores in those parts as a most soueraigne remedie against poyson."—*Barker* in *Hakl.* ii. 591.
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1598.—"The *Abada*, or Rhinoceros, is not in India,* but onely in Bengala and *Patane*."—*Linschoten*, 88. [Hak. Soc. ii. 8.]
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"Also in Bengala we found great numbers of the beasts which in Latin are called Rhinoceroses, and of the Portingalles *Abadas*."—*Ibid.* [Hak. Soc. i. 96.]
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c. 1606.—". . . ove portano le loro mercanzie per venderle a' Cinesi, particolarmente . . . molti corni della Bada, detto Rinoceronte . . . "—*Carletti*, p. 199.
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1611.—"Bada, a very fierce animal, called by another more common name Rhinoceros. In our days they brought to the King Philip II., now in glory, a Bada which was long at Madrid, having his horn sawn off, and being blinded, for fear he should hurt anybody. . . The name of Bada is one imposed by the Indians themselves; but assuming that there is no language but had its origin from the Hebrew in the confusion of tongues . . . it will not be out of the way to observe that Bada is an Hebrew word, from Badad, ‘solus, solitarius,’ for this animal is produced in desert and very solitary places.” — *Cobarruvias*, s. v.
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∗ *i.e.*, not on the W. coast of the Peninsula, called *India* especially by the Portuguese. See under INDIA.
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1613.—“And the woods give great timber, and in them are produced elephants, badas . . .”—*Godinho de Eredia*, 10 v.
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1618.—“A China brought me a present of a cup of abado (or black unecorns horne) with sugar cakes.”—*Cocks’s Diary*, ii. 56.
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1626.—On the margin of Pigafetta’s *Congo*, as given by Purchas (ii. 1001), we find: “Rhinoceros or Abadas.”
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1631.—“Lib. v. cap. 1. De Abada seu Rhinocerote.”—*Bontii Hist. Nat. et Med.*
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1726.—“Abada, s. f. La hembra del Rhinocerote.”—*Dicc. de la Lengua Castellana.*
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**ABCÁREE, ABKÁRY.** H. from P. *āb-kārī*, the business of distilling or selling (strong) waters, and hence elliptically the excise upon such business. This last is the sense in which it is used by Anglo-Indians. In every district of India the privilege of selling spirits is farmed to contractors, who manage the sale through retail shopkeepers. This is what is called the ‘Abkary System.’ The system has often been attacked as promoting tippling, and there are strong opinions on both sides. We subjoin an extract from a note on the subject, too long for insertion in integrity, by one of much experience in Bengal—Sir G. U. Yule.
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June, 1879.—“Natives who have expressed their views are, I believe, unanimous in ascribing the increase of drinking to our Abkaree system. I don’t say that this is putting the cart before the horse, but they are certainly too forgetful of the increased means in the country, which, if not the sole cause of the increased consumption, has been at least a very large factor in that result. I myself believe that more people drink now than formerly; but I knew one gentleman of very long and intimate knowledge of Bengal, who held that there was as much drinking in 1820 as in 1860.”
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In any case exaggeration is abundant. All Sanskrit literature shows that tippling is no absolute novelty in India. [See the article on “Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India,” by Rajendralala Mitra, *Indo-Aryans*, i. 389 *seqq.*]
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1790.—“In respect to Abkarry, or Tax on Spirituous Liquors, which is reserved for Taxation . . . it is evident that we cannot establish a general rate, since the quantity of consumption and expense of manufacture, etc., depends upon the vicinity of principal stations. For the amount leviable upon different Stills we must rely upon officers’ local knowledge. The public, indeed, cannot suffer, since, if a few stills are suppressed by over-taxation, drunkenness is diminished.”—*In a Letter from Board of Revenue (Bengal) to Government*, 12th July. MS. in *India Office*.
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1797.—“The stamps are to have the words ‘Abcaree licenses’ inscribed in the Persian and Hindu languages and character.”—*Bengal Regulations*, x. 33.
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**ABIHÓWA.** Properly P. *āb-o-hawā*, ‘water and air.’ The usual Hindustani expression for ‘climate.’
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1786.—“What you write concerning the death of 500 Koorgs from small-pox is understood . . . they must be kept where the climate [āb-o-hawā] may best agree with them.”—*Tippoo’s Letters*, 269.
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**ABYSSINIA**, n.p. This geographical name is a 16-century Latinisation of the Arabic *Habash*, through the Portuguese *Abex*, bearing much the same pronunciation, minus the aspirate. [See HUBSHEE.]
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1598.—“The countrey of the Abexynes, at Prester John’s land.”—*Linschoten*, Hak. Soc. i. 38.
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1617.—“He sent mee to buy three Abassines.”—*Sir T. Roe, Travels*, Hak. Soc. ii. 445.
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**A. C.** (*i.e.* ‘after compliments’). In official versions of native letters these letters stand for the omitted formalities of native compliments.
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**ACHÁNOCK**, n.p. H. *Chānak* and *Achānak*. The name by which the station of Barrackpore is commonly known to Sepoys and other natives. Some have connected the name with that of Job Charnock, or, as A. Hamilton calls him, Channock, the founder of Calcutta, and the quotations render this probable. Formerly the Cantonment of Secrole at Benares was also known, by a transfer no doubt, as Chhotā (or ‘Little’) Achānak. Two additional remarks may be relevantly made: (1) Job’s name was certainly Charnock, and not Channock. It is distinctly signed “Job Charnock,” in a MS. letter from the factory at “Chutta,” *i.e.* Chuttanuttee (or Calcutta) in the India Office records, which I have seen. (2) The map in Valentijn which shows the village of Tsjannock, though published in 1726, was apparently compiled by Van der Broecke in 1662. Hence it is not probable that it took its name from Job Charnock, who seems to have entered the Company's service in 1658. When he went to Bengal we have not been able to ascertain. [See Diary of Hedges, edited by Sir H. Yule, ii., xcix. In some “Documentary Memoirs of Job Charnock,” which form part of vol. lxxv. (1888) of the Hakluyt Soc., Job is said to have “arrived in India in 1655 or 1656.”]
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1677.—“The ship Falcone to go up the river to Hughly, or at least to Channock.”—Court’s Letter to Ft. St. Geo. of 12th December. In Notes and Extracts, Madras, 1871, No. 1, p. 21; see also p. 23.
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1711.—“Chanock-Reach hath two shoals, the upper one in Chanock, and the lower one on the opposite side . . . you must from below Degon as aforesaid, keep the starboard shore aboard until you come up with a Lime-Tree . . . and then steer over with Chanock Trees and house between the two shoals, until you come mid-river, but no nearer the house.”—The English Pilot, 55.
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1726.—“’t stedeken Tsjannock.”—Valentijn, v. 153. In Val.’s map of Bengal also, we find opposite to Oegli (Hoogly), Tsjannock, and then Collecatte, and Calcula.
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1758.—“Notwithstanding these solemn assurances from the Dutch it was judged . . . expedient to send a detachment of troops . . . to take possession of Tanna Fort and Charnoc’s Battery opposite to it.”—Narrative of Dutch attempt in the Hoogly, in Malcolm’s Life of Clive, ii. 76.
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1810.—“The old village of Achanock stood on the ground which the post of Barrackpore now occupies.”—M. Graham, 142.
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1848.—“From an oral tradition still prevalent among the natives at Barrackpore . . . we learn that Mr. Charnock built a bungalow there, and a flourishing bazar arose under his patronage, before the settlement of Calcutta had been determined. Barrackpore is at this day best known to the natives by the name of Chanock.”—The Bengal Obituary, Calc. p. 2.
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ACHÁR, s. P. āchār, Malay áchār, adopted in nearly all the vernaculars of India for acid and salt relishes. By Europeans it is used as the equivalent of ‘pickles,’ and is applied to all the stores of Crosse and Blackwell in that kind. We have adopted the word through the Portuguese; but it is not impossible that Western Asiatics got it originally from the Latin acetaria.—(See Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 19).
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1563.—“And they prepare a conserve of it (Anacardium) with salt, and when it is green (and this they call Achar), and this is sold in the market just as olives are with us.”—Garcia, f. 17.
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1596.—Linschoten in the Dutch gives the word correctly, but in the English version (Hak. Soc. ii. 26) it is printed Machar.
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1612.—“Achar none to be had except one jar.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 230.
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1616.—“Our jurebasso’s (Juribasso) wife came and brought me a small jarr of Achar for a present, desyring me to exskews her husband in that he abcented hymselfe to take phisik.”—Cocks, i. 135.
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1623.—“And all these preserved in a way that is really very good, which they call acciao.”—P. della Valle, ii. 708. [Hak. Soc. ii. 327.]
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1653.—“Achar est vn nom Indistanni, ou Indien, que signifie des mangues, ou autres fruits confis avec de la moutarde, de l’ail, du sel, et du vinaigre à l’Indienne.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 531.
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1687.—“Achar I presume signifies sauce. They make in the East Indies, especially at Siam and Pegu, several sorts of Achar, as of the young tops of Bamboes, &c. Bambo-Achar and Mango-Achar are most used.”—Dampier, i. 391.
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1727.—“And the Soldiery, Fishers, Peasants, and Handicrafts (of Goa) feed on a little Rice boiled in Water, with a little bit of Salt Fish, or Atchaar, which is pickled Fruits or Roots.”—A. Hamilton, i. 252. [And see under KEDGEREE.]
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1783.—We learn from Forrest that limes, salted for sea-use against scurvy, were used by the Chulias (Choolia), and were called atchar (Voyage to Mergui, 40). Thus the word passed to Java, as in next quotation:
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1768-71.—“When green it (the mango) is made into attjar; for this the kernel is taken out, and the space filled in with ginger, pimento, and other spicy ingredients, after which it is pickled in vinegar.”—Stavorinus, i. 237.
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ACHEEN, n.p. (P. Āchīn [Tam. Attai, Malay Acheh, Achih] ‘a woodleech’). The name applied by us to the State and town at the N.W. angle of Sumatra, which was long, and especially during the 16th and 17th centuries, the greatest native power on that Island. The proper Malay name of the place is Acheh. The Portuguese generally called it Achem (or frequently by the adhesion of the genitive preposition, Dachem, so that Sir F. Greville below makes two kingdoms), but our Acheen seems to have been derived from mariners of the P. Gulf or W. India, for we find the name so given (Āchīn) in the Āīn-i-Akbarī, and in the Geog. Tables of Ṣādiḳ Isfahānī. This form may have been suggested by a jingling analogy, such as Orientals love, with Māchīn (Macheen). See also under LOOTY.
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1549.—"Piratarum Acenorum nec periculum nec suspicio fuit."—S. Fr. Xav. Epistt. 337.
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1552.—"But after Malacca was founded, and especially at the time of our entry into India, the Kingdom of Pacem began to increase in power, and that of Pedir to diminish. And that neighbouring one of Achem, which was then insignificant, is now the greatest of all."—Barros, III. v. 8.
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1563.— "Occupado tenhais na guerra infesta Ou do sanguinolento, Taprobanico* Achem, que ho mar molesta Ou do Cambaico occulto imiguo nosso." Camões, Ode prefixed to Garcia de Orta.
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c. 1569.—"Upon the headland towards the West is the Kingdom of Assi, governed by a Moore King."—Cæsar Frederike, tr. in Hakluyt, ii. 355.
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c. 1590.—"The zabád (civet), which is brought from the harbour-town of Sumatra, from the territory of Achín, goes by the name of Sumatra-zabád, and is by far the best."—Āīn, i. 79.
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1597.—". . . . . do Pegu como do Dachem."—King's Letter, in Arch. Port. Or. fasc. 3, 669.
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1599.—"The iland of Sumatra, or Taprobuna, is possessed by many Kynges, enemies to the Portugals; the cheif is the Kinge of Dachem, who besieged them in Malacca. . . The Kinges of Acheyn and Tor (read Jor for Johore) are in lyke sort enemies to the Portugals."—Sir Fulke Greville to Sir F. Walsingham (in Bruce, i. 125).
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1615.—"It so proved that both Ponleema and Governor of Tecoo was come hither for Achein."—Foster, Letters, iv. 3.
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1623.—"Acem which is Sumatra."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 287.
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c. 1635.—"Achín (a name equivalent in rhyme and metre to 'Máchín') is a well-known island in the Chinese Sea, near to the equinoctial line."—Ṣādiḳ Iṣfahānī (Or. Tr. F.), p. 2.
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1780.—"Archin." See quotation under BOMBAY MARINE.
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1820.—"In former days a great many junks used to frequent Achin. This trade is now entirely at an end."—Crawfurd, H. Ind. Arch. iii. 182.
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**ADAM'S APPLE.** This name (*Pomo d'Adamo*) is given at Goa to the fruit of the *Mimusops Elengi*, Linn. (*Bird-wood*); and in the 1635 ed. of Gerarde's Herball it is applied to the Plantain. But in earlier days it was applied to a fruit of the Citron kind.—(See Marco Polo, 2nd ed., i. 101), and the following:
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c. 1580.—"In his hortis (of Cairo) ex arboribus virescunt mala citria, aurantia, limonia sylvestria et domestica poma Adami vocata."—Prosp. Alpinus, i. 16.
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c. 1712.—"It is a kind of lime or citron tree . . . it is called Pomum Adami, because it has on its rind the appearance of two bites, which the simplicity of the ancients imagined to be the vestiges of the impression which our forefather made upon the forbidden fruit. . ." Bluteau, quoted by Tr. of Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. i. 100. The fruit has nothing to do with *zamboa*, with which Bluteau and Mr. Birch connect it. See JAMBOO.
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**ADATI**, s. A kind of piece-goods exported from Bengal. We do not know the proper form or etymology. It may have been of half-width (from H. *ādhā*, 'half'). [It may have been half the ordinary length, as the Salampore (Salempoory) was half the length of the cloth known in Madras as Punjum. (Madras Man. of Ad. iii. 799). Also see Yule's note in Hedges' Diary, ii. ccxl.]
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1726.—"Casseri (probably Kasiári in Midnapur Dist.) supplies many Taffatshelas (Alleja, Shalee), Ginggangs, Allegias, and Adathays, which are mostly made there."—Valentijn, v. 159.
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1813.—Among piece-goods of Bengal: "Addaties, Pieces 700" (i.e. pieces to the ton).—Milburn, ii. 221.
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**ADAWLUT**, s. Ar.—H.—'adālat, 'a Court of Justice,' from 'adl, 'doing justice.' Under the Mohammedan government there were 3 such courts, viz., *Nizāmat 'Adālat*, *Dīwānī Adālat*, and *Faujdārī 'Adālat*, so-called from the respective titles of the officials who nominally presided over them. The first was the chief Criminal Court, the second a Civil Court, the third a kind of Police Court. In 1793 regular Courts were established under the British Government, and then the Sudder Adawlut (Sadr 'Adālat) became the chief Court of Appeal for each Presidency, and its work was done by several European (Civilian) Judges. That Court was, on the criminal side, termed *Nizamut Adawlat*, and on the civil side *Dewanny Ad*. At Madras and Bombay, *Foujdarry* was the style adopted in lieu of *Nizamut*. This system ended in 1863, on the introduction of the Penal Code, and the institution of the High Courts on their present footing. (On the original history and constitution of the Courts see Fifth Report, 1812, p. 6.)
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∗ This alludes to the mistaken notion, as old as N. Conti (c. 1440), that Sumatra = Taprobane.
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What follows applies only to the Bengal Presidency, and to the administration of justice under the Company's Courts beyond the limits of the Presidency town. Brief particulars regarding the history of the Supreme Courts and those Courts which preceded them will be found under SUPREME COURT.
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The grant, by Shāh 'Ālam, in 1765, of the Dewanny of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa to the Company, transferred all power, civil and military, in those provinces, to that body. But no immediate attempt was made to undertake the direct detailed administration of either revenue or justice by the agency of the European servants of the Company. Such superintendence, indeed, of the administration was maintained in the prior acquisitions of the Company—viz., in the Zemindary of Calcutta, in the Twenty-four Pergunnas, and in the Chucklas (Chucklah) or districts of Burdwan, Midnapoor, and Chittagong, which had been transferred by the Nawab, Kāsim 'Ali Khān, in 1760; but in the rest of the territory it was confined to the agency of a Resident at the Moorshedabad Durbar, and a 'Chief' at Patna. Justice was administered by the Mohammedan courts under the native officials of the Dewanny.
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In 1770, European officers were appointed in the districts, under the name of Supervisors, with powers of control over the natives employed in the collection of the Revenue and the administration of justice, whilst local councils, with superior authority in all branches, were established at Moorshedabad and Patna. It was not till two years later that, under express orders from the Court of Directors, the effective administration of the provinces was undertaken by the agency of the Company's covenanted servants. At this time (1772) Courts of Civil Justice (Mofussil Dewanny Adawlut) were established in each of the Districts then recognised. There were also District Criminal Courts (Foujdary Adawlut) held by Cazee or Mufty under the superintendence, like the Civil Court, of the Collectors, as the Supervisors were now styled; whilst Superior Courts (Sudder Dewanny, Sudder Nizamut Adawlut) were established at the Presidency, to be under the superintendence of three or four members of the Council of Fort William.
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In 1774 the Collectors were recalled, and native 'Amils (Aumil) appointed in their stead. Provincial Councils were set up for the divisions of Calcutta, Burdwan, Dacca, Moorshedabad, Dinagepore, and Patna, in whose hands the superintendence, both of revenue collection and of the administration of civil justice, was vested, but exercised by the members in rotation.
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The state of things that existed under this system was discreditable. As Courts of Justice the provincial Councils were only "colourable imitations of courts, which had abdicated their functions in favour of their own subordinate (native) officers, and though their decisions were nominally subject to the Governor-General in Council, the Appellate Court was even a more shadowy body than the Courts of first instance. The Court never sat at all, though there are some traces of its having at one time decided appeals on the report of the head of the Khalsa, or native exchequer, just as the Provincial Council decided them on the report of the Cazis and Muftis."*
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In 1770 the Government resolved that Civil Courts, independent of the Provincial Councils, should be established in the six divisions named above,† each under a civilian judge with the title of Superintendent of the Dewanny Adawlut; whilst to the Councils should still pertain the trial of causes relating to the public revenue, to the demands of zemindars upon their tenants, and to boundary questions. The appeal from the District Courts still lay to the Governor-General and his Council, as forming the Court of Sudder Dewanny; but that this might be real, a judge was appointed its head in the person of Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, an appointment which became famous. For it was represented as a transaction intended to compromise the acute dissensions.
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∗ Sir James Stephen, in Nuncomar and Impey, ii. 221.
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† These six were increased in 1781 to eighteen.
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sensions which had been going on between that Court and the Bengal Government, and in fact as a bribe to Impey. It led, by an address from the House of Commons, to the recall of Impey, and constituted one of the charges in the abortive impeachment of that personage. Hence his charge of the Sudder Dewanny ceased in November, 1782, and it was resumed in form by the Governor-General and Council.
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In 1787, the first year of Lord Cornwallis's government, in consequence of instructions from the Court of Directors, it was resolved that, with an exception as to the Courts at Moorshedabad, Patna, and Dacca, which were to be maintained independently, the office of judge in the Mofussil Courts was to be attached to that of the collection of the revenue; in fact, the offices of Judge and Collector, which had been divorced since 1774, were to be reunited. The duties of Magistrate and Judge became mere appendages to that of Collector; the administration of justice became a subordinate function; and in fact all Regulations respecting that administration were passed in the Revenue Department of the Government.
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Up to 1790 the criminal judiciary had remained in the hands of the native courts. But this was now altered; four Courts of Circuit were created, each to be supervised by two civil servants as judges; the Sudder Nizamut Adawlut at the Presidency being presided over by the Governor-General and the members of Council.
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In 1793 the constant succession of revolutions in the judicial system came to something like a pause, with the entire reformation which was enacted by the Regulations of that year. The Collection of Revenue was now entirely separated from the administration of justice; Zillah Courts under European judges were established (Reg. iii.) in each of 23 Districts and 3 cities, in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa; whilst Provincial Courts of Appeal, each consisting of three judges (Reg. v.), were established at Moorshedabad, Patna, Dacca, and Calcutta. From these Courts, under certain conditions, further appeal lay to the Sudder Dewanny Adawluts at the Presidency.
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As regarded criminal jurisdiction, the judges of the Provincial Courts were also (Reg. ix., 1793) constituted Circuit Courts, liable to review by the Sudder Nizamut. Strange to say, the impracticable idea of placing the duties of both of the higher Courts, civil and criminal, on the shoulders of the executive Government was still maintained, and the Governor-General and his Council were the constituted heads of the Sudder Dewanny and Sudder Nizamut. This of course continued as unworkable as it had been; and in Lord Wellesley's time, eight years later, the two Sudder Adawluts were reconstituted, with three regular judges to each, though it was still ruled (Reg. ii., 1801) that the chief judge in each Court was to be a member of the Supreme Council, not being either the Governor-General or the Commander-in-Chief. This rule was rescinded by Reg. x. of 1805.
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The number of Provincial and Zillah Courts was augmented in after years with the extension of territory, and additional Sudder Courts, for the service of the Upper Provinces, were established at Allahabad in 1831 (Reg. vi.), a step which may be regarded as the inception of the separation of the N.W. Provinces into a distinct Lieutenant-Governorship, carried out five years later. But no change that can be considered at all organic occurred again in the judiciary system till 1862; for we can hardly consider as such the abolition of the Courts of Circuit in 1829 (Reg. i.), and that of the Provincial Courts of Appeal initiated by a section in Reg. v. of 1831, and completed in 1833.
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1822.—"This refers to a traditional story which Mr. Elphinstone used to relate . . . During the progress of our conquests in the North-West many of the inhabitants were encountered flying from the newly-occupied territory. 'Is Lord Lake coming?' was the enquiry. 'No,' was the reply, 'the Adawlut is coming.'"—*Life of Elphinstone*, ii. 131.
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1826.—"The adawlut or Court-house was close by."—*Pandurang Hari*, 271 [ed. 1873, ii. 90].
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ADIGAR, s. Properly *adhikār*, from Skt. *adhikārin*, one possessing authority; Tam. *adhikāri*, or *-kāren*. The title was formerly in use in South India, and perhaps still in the native States of Malabar, for a rural headman. [See quot. from Logan below.] It was also in Ceylon (*adikārama*, *adikār*) the title of chief minister of the Candyan Kings. See PATEL.
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1544.—"Fac te comem et humanum cum isti Genti praebeas, tum praesertim magistratibus eorum et Praefectis Pagorum, quos Adigares vocant."—*S. Fr. Xav. Epistt.* 113.
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1583.—"Mentre che noi erauamo in questa città, l'assalirono sù la mezza notte all' improuiso, mettendoui il fuoco. Erano questi d'una città uicina, lontana da S. Thomè, doue stanno i Portoghesi, un miglio, sotto la scorta d'un loro Capitano, che risiede in detta città . . . et questo Capitano è da loro chiamato Adicario."—*Balbi*, f. 87.
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1681.—"There are two who are the greatest and highest officers in the land. They are called Adigars; I may term them Chief Judges."—*Knox*, 48.
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1726.—"Adigaar. This is as it were the second of the Dessave."—*Valentijn* (Ceylon), *Names of Officers, &c.*, 9.
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1796.—"In Malabar esiste oggidi l'uffizio . . . molti Kàriakàrer o ministri; molti Adhigári o ministri d'un distretto . . ."—*Fra Paolino*, 237.
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1803.—"The highest officers of State are the Adigars or Prime Ministers. They are two in number."—*Percival's Ceylon*, 256.
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1810-17.—"Announcing in letters . . . his determination to exercise the office of Serv Adikar."—*Wilks, Mysoor*, i. 264.
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1887.—"Each *amsam* or parish has now besides the Adhikāri or man of authority, headman, an accountant."—*Logan, Man. of Malabar*, i. 90.
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**ADJUTANT**, *s.* A bird so called (no doubt) from its comical resemblance to a human figure in a stiff dress pacing slowly on a parade-ground. It is the *H. hargīlā*, or gigantic crane, and popular scavenger of Bengal, the *Leptoptilus argala* of Linnæus. The *H.* name is by some dictionaries derived from a supposed Skt. word *hadda-gila*, 'bone-swallower.' The compound, however appropriate, is not to be found in Böhtlingk and Roth's great Dictionary. The bird is very well described by Aelian, under the name of Kήλα, which is perhaps a relic of the still preserved vernacular one. It is described by another name, as one of the peculiarities of India, by Sultan Baber. See PELICAN.
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"The feathers known as Marabou or Comercolly feathers, and sold in Calcutta, are the tail-coverts of this, and the *Lept. Javanica*, another and smaller species" (*Jerdon*). The name *marabout* (from the Ar. *murābit*, 'quiet,' and thence 'a hermit,' through the Port. *marabuto*) seems to have been given to the bird in Africa on like reason to that of adjutant in India. [Comercolly, properly Kumārkhāli, is a town in the Nadiya District, Bengal. See *Balfour, Cycl.* i. 1082.]
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c. A.D. 250.—"And I hear that there is in India a bird Kēla, which is 3 times as big as a bustard; it has a mouth of a frightful size, and long legs, and it carries a huge crop which looks like a leather bag; it has a most dissonant voice, and whilst the rest of the plumage is ash-coloured, the tail-feathers are of a pale (or greenish) colour."—*Aelian, de Nat. Anim.* xvi. 4.
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c. 1530.—"One of these (fowls) is the ding, which is a large bird. Each of its wings is the length of a man; on its head and neck there is no hair. Something like a bag hangs from its neck; its back is black, its breast white; it frequently visits Kābul. One year they caught and brought me a ding, which became very tame. The flesh which they threw it, it never failed to catch in its beak, and swallowed without ceremony. On one occasion it swallowed a shoe well shod with iron; on another occasion it swallowed a good-sized fowl right down, with its wings and feathers."—*Baber*, 321.
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1754.—"In the evening excursions . . . we had often observed an extraordinary species of birds, called by the natives *Argill* or *Hargill*, a native of Bengal. They would majestically stalk along before us, and at first we took them for Indians naked . . . The following are the exact marks and dimensions. . . . The wings extended 14 feet and 10 inches. From the tip of the bill to the extremity of the claw it measured 7 feet 6 inches. . . . In the craw was a Terapin or land-tortoise, 10 inches long; and a large black male cat was found entire in its stomach."—*Ives*, 183-4.
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1798.—"The next is the great Heron, the Argali or Adjutant, or Gigantic Crane of Latham. . . . It is found also in Guinea."—*Pennant's View of Hindostan*, ii. 156.
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1810.—"Every bird saving the vulture, the Adjutant (or *argeelah*) and kite, retires to some shady spot."—*Williamson, V. M.* ii. 3.
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1880.—*Ball (Jungle Life*, 82) describes the "snake-stone" said to be found in the head of the bird.
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**AFGHÁN**, *n.p.* P.—H.—*Afghān*. The most general name of the predominant portion of the congeries of tribes beyond the N.W. frontier of India, whose country is called from them *Afghānistān*. In England one often hears the country called *Afgunist-un*, which is a mispronunciation painful to an Anglo-Indian ear, and even *Afgann*, which is a still more excruciating solecism. [The common local pronunciation of the name is *Aoghān*, which accounts for some of the forms below. Bellew insists on the distinction between the Afghān and the Pathān (PUTTAN). “The Afghan is a Pathan merely because he inhabits a Pathan country, and has to a great extent mixed with its people and adopted their language” (*Races of Af.*, p. 25). The name represents Skt. *asvaka* in the sense of a ‘cavalier,’ and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander.]
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c. 1020.—“... Afgháns and Khiljis...” -*Utbi in Elliot, ii. 24; see also 50, 114.*
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c. 1265.—“He also repaired the fort of Jalál, which he garrisoned with Afgháns.” -*Táríkh-i-Firozsháhí in do. iii. 106.*
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14th cent.—The Afghans are named by the continuator of Rashiduddin among the tribes in the vicinity of Herat (see *N. & E.* xiv. 494).
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1504.—“The Afghans, when they are reduced to extremities in war, come into the presence of their enemy with grass between their teeth; being as much as to say, ‘I am your ox.’”* -*Baber, 159.*
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c. 1556.—“He was afraid of the Afgháns.” -*Sidi ‘Ali, in J. As., 1st S., ix. 201.*
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1609.—“Agwans and Potans.” -*W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 521.*
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c. 1665.—“Such are those petty Sovereigns, who are seated on the Frontiers of Persia, who almost never pay him anything, no more than they do to the King of Persia. As also the Balouches and Augans, and other Mountaineers, of whom the greatest part pay him but a small matter, and even care but little for him: witness the Affront they did him, when they stopped his whole Army by cutting off the Water .... when he passed from Atek on the River Indus to Caboul to lay siege to Kandahar....” -*Bernier, E. T. 64 [ed. Constable, 205].*
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1676.—“The people called Augans who inhabit from Candahar to Caboul .. a sturdy sort of people, and great robbers in the night-time.” -*Tavernier, E. T. ii. 44; [ed. Ball, i. 92].*
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1767.—“Our final sentiments are that we have no occasion to take any measures against the Afghans’ King if it should appear he comes only to raise contributions, but if he proceeds to the eastward of Delhi to make an attack on your allies, or threatens the peace of Bengal, you will concert such measures with Sujah Dowla as may appear best adapted for your mutual defence.” -*Court’s Letter, Nov. 20. In Long, 486; also see ROHILLA.*
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1838.—“Professor Dorn .... discusses severally the theories that have been maintained of the descent of the Afghaus: 1st, from the Copts; 2nd, the Jews; 3rd, the Georgians; 4th, the Toorks; 5th, the Moguls; 6th, the Armenians: and he mentions more cursorily the opinion that they are descended from the Indo-Scythians, Medians, Sogdians, Persians, and Indians: on considering all which, he comes to the rational conclusion, that they cannot be traced to any tribe or country beyond their present seats and the adjoining mountains.” -*Elphinstone’s Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 209.*
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AFRICO, n.p. A negro slave.
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1682.—“Here we met with ye Barbadoes Merchant.... James Cock, Master, laden with Salt, Mules, and Africos.” -*Hedges, Diary, Feb. 27. [Hak. Soc. i. 16.]*
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AGAM, adj. A term applied to certain cloths dyed in some particular way. It is the Ar. *‘ajam* (lit. “one who has an impediment or difficulty in speaking Arabic”), a foreigner, and in particular, a Persian. The adj. *‘ajamī* thus means “foreign” or “Persian,” and is equivalent to the Greek *βάρβαρος* and the Hind. *mleććha*. Sir G. Birdwood (*Rep. on Old Rec.*, p. 145) quotes from Hieronimo di Santo Stefano (1494-99), “in company with some Armenian and Azami merchants”: and (*ibid.*) from Varthema: “It is a country of very great traffic in merchandise, and particularly with the Persians and Azamini, who come so far as there.”]
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1614.—“Kerseys, Agam colours.” -*Foster, Letters, ii. 237.*
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1614.—“Persia will vent five hundred cloths and one thousand kerseys, Agam colours, per annum.” -*Ibid. ii. 237.*
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AGAR-AGAR, s. The Malay name of a kind of sea-weed (*Spherococcus lichenoides*). It is succulent when boiled to a jelly; and is used by the Chinese with birdsnest (*q.v.*) in soup. They also employ it as a glue, and apply it to silk and paper intended to be transparent. It grows on the shores of the Malay Islands, and is much exported to China. -(*See Crawfurd, Dict. Ind. Arch., and Milburn, ii. 304*).
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AGDAUN, s. A hybrid H. word from H. *āg* and P. *dān*, made in imitation of *pik-dān, kalam-dān, shama-dān* (‘spittoon, pencase, candlestick’). It means a small vessel for holding fire to light a cheroot.
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ĀG-GĀRI, s. H. ‘Fire carriage.’ In native use for a railway train.
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∗ This symbolical action was common among beldars (Bildar), or native navvies, employed on the Ganges Canal many years ago, when they came before the engineer to make a petition. But besides grass in mouth, the beldar stood on one leg, with hands joined before him.
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**AGUN-BOAT**, s. A hybrid word for a steamer, from H. *agan*, ‘fire,’ and Eng. *boat*. In Bombay *Ag-bōt* is used. 1853.—“ . . . *Agin boat*.”—*Oakfield*, i. 84.
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**AJNĀS**, s. Ar. plur. of *jins*, ‘goods, merchandise, crops,’ etc. Among the Moguls it was used in the special sense of pay in kind, not in cash.] [c. 1665.—“It (their pay) is, however, of a different kind, and not thought so honourable, but the *Rouzindars* are not subject, like the *Mansebdars* (*Munsubdar*) to the *Agenas*; that is to say, are not bound to take, at a valuation, carpets, and other pieces of furniture, that have been used in the King’s palace, and on which an unreasonable value is sometimes set.”—*Bernier* (ed. Constable), 215-6.]
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**AK**, s. H. *āk* and *ark*, in Sindi *āk*; the prevalent name of the *madār* (MUDDAR) in Central and Western India. It is said to be a popular belief (of course erroneous) in Sind, that Akbar was so called after the *āk*, from his birth in the desert. [Ives (488) calls it *Ogg*.] The word appears in the following popular rhyme quoted by Tod (*Rajasthan*, i. 669):—
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*Ak-rā jhoprā,*
*Phok-rā bār,*
*Bajra-rā roti,*
*Mot’h-rā dāl:*
*Dekho Rājā teri Mārwār.*
(For houses hurdles of *madār*,
For hedges heaps of withered thorn,
Millet for bread, horse-peas for pulse:
Such is thy kingdom, Raja of Mārwār!)
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**AKALEE**, or *Nihang* (‘the naked one’), s. A member of a body of zealots among the Sikhs, who take this name ‘from being worshippers of Him who is without time, eternal’ (*Wilson*). Skt. *a* privative, and *kāl*, ‘time.’ The Akālis may be regarded as the Wahābis of Sikhism. They claim their body to have been instituted by Guru Govind himself, but this is very doubtful. Cunningham’s view of the order is that it was the outcome of the struggle to reconcile warlike activity with the abandonment of the world; the founders of the Sikh doctrine rejecting the inert asceticism of the Hindu sects. The Akālis threw off all subjection to the earthly government, and acted as the censors of the Sikh community in every rank. Runjeet Singh found them very difficult to control. Since the annexation of the Panjab, however, they have ceased to give trouble. The *Akalee* is distinguished by blue clothing and steel armlets. Many of them also used to carry several steel *chakras* (CHUCKER) encircling their turbans. [See *Ibbetson, Panjab Ethnog.*, 286; *Maclagan, in Panjab Census Rep.*, 1891, i. 166.] 1832.—“We received a message from the Acali who had set fire to the village. . . . These fanatics of the Seik creed acknowledge no superior, and the ruler of the country can only moderate their frenzy by intrigues and bribery. They go about everywhere with naked swords, and lavish their abuse on the nobles as well as the peaceable subjects. . . . They have on several occasions attempted the life of Runjeet Singh.”—*Burnes, Travels*, ii. 10-11. 1840.—“The *Akalis* being summoned to surrender, requested a conference with one of the attacking party. The young Khan bravely went forward, and was straightway shot through the head.”—*Mrs Mackenzie, Storms and Sunshine*, i. 115.
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**AKYÁB**, n.p. The European name of the seat of administration of the British province of Arakan, which is also a port exporting rice largely to Europe. The name is never used by the natives of Arakan (of the Burmese race), who call the town *Tsit-htwé*, ‘Crowd (in consequence of) War.’ This indicates how the settlement came to be formed in 1825, by the fact of the British force encamping on the plain there, which was found to be healthier than the site of the ancient capital of the kingdom of Arakan, up the valley of the Arakan or Kaladyne R. The name Akyáb had been applied, probably by the Portuguese, to a neighbouring village, where there stands, about 1½ miles from the present town, a pagoda covering an alleged relique of Gautama (a piece of the lower jaw, or an induration of the throat), the name of which pagoda, taken from the description of relique, is *Au-kyait-dau*, and of this Akyáb was probably a corruption. The present town and cantonment occupy dry land of very recent formation, and the high ground on which the pagoda stands must have stood on the shore at no distant date, as appears from the finding of a small anchor there about 1835. The village adjoining the pagoda must then have stood at the mouth of the Arakan R., which was much frequented by the Portuguese and the Chittagong people in the 16th and 17th centuries, and thus probably became known to them by a name taken from the Pagoda.—(From a note by Sir Arthur Phayre.) [Col. Temple writes—“The only derivation which strikes me as plausible, is from the Agyattaw Phaya, near which, on the island of Sittwé, a Cantonment was formed after the first Burmese war, on the abandonment of Mrohaung or Arakan town in 1825, on account of sickness among the troops stationed there. The word Agyattaw is spelt Akhyap-taw, whence probably the modern name.”]
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1826.—“It (the despatch) at length arrived this day (3rd Dec. 1826), having taken two months in all to reach us, of which forty-five days were spent in the route from Akyab in Aracan.”—Crawfurd, Ava, 289.
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**ALA-BLAZE PAN**, s. This name is given in the Bombay Presidency to a tinned-copper stew-pan, having a cover, and staples for straps, which is carried on the march by European soldiers, for the purpose of cooking in, and eating out of. Out on picnics a larger kind is frequently used, and kept continually going, as a kind of *pot-au-feu*. [It has been suggested that the word may be a corr. of some French or Port. term—Fr. *braiser*; Port. *brazeiro*, ‘a fire-pan,’ *braza*, ‘hot coals.’]
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**ALBACORE**, s. A kind of rather large sea-fish, of the Tunny genus (*Thynnus albacora*, Lowe, perhaps the same as *Thynnus macropterus*, Day); from the Port. *albacor* or *albecora*. The quotations from Ovington and Grose below refer it to *albo*, but the word is, from its form, almost certainly Arabic, though Dozy says he has not found the word in this sense in Arabic dictionaries, which are very defective in the names of fishes (p. 61). The word *albacora* in Sp. is applied to a large early kind of fig, from Ar. *al-bākūr*, ‘praecox’ (Dozy), Heb. *bikkūra*, in Micah vii. 1.—See *Cobarruvias*, s. v. *Albacora*. [The *N.E.D.* derives it from Ar. *al-bukr*, ‘a young camel, a heifer,’ whence Port. *bacoro*, ‘a young pig.’ Also see Gray’s note on *Pyrard*, i. 9.]
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1579.—“These (flying fish) have two enemies, the one in the sea, the other in the aire. In the sea the fish which is called Albocore, as big as a salmon.”—*Letter from Goa, by T. Stevens*, in *Hakl.* ii. 583.
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1592.—“In our passage over from S. Laurence to the maine, we had exceeding great store of Bonitos and Albocores.”—*Barker*, in *Hakl.* ii. 592.
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1696.—“We met likewise with shoals of Albicores (so call’d from a piece of white Flesh that sticks to their Heart) and with multitudes of Bonettoes, which are named from their Goodness and Excellence for eating; so that sometimes for more than twenty Days the whole Ship’s Company have feasted on these curious fish.”—*Ovington*, p. 48.
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c. 1760.—“The Albacore is another fish of much the same kind as the Bonito . . from 60 to 90 pounds weight and upward. The name of this fish too is taken from the Portuguese, importing its white colour.”—*Grose*, i. 5.
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**ALBATROSS**, s. The great sea-bird (*Diomedea exulans*, L.), from the Port. *alcatraz*, to which the forms used by Hawkins and Dampier, and by Flacourt (according to Marcel Devic) closely approach. [Alcatras ‘in this sense altered to *albi-*, *albe-*, *albatross* (perhaps with etymological reference to *albus*, “white,” the albatross being white, while the *alcatras* was black.’) *N.E.D.* s.v.] The Port. word properly means ‘a pelican.’ A reference to the latter word in our Glossary will show another curious misapplication. Devic states that *alcatruz* in Port. means ‘the bucket of a Persian wheel,’* representing the Ar. *al-kādūs*, which is again from *κάδος*. He supposes that the pelican may have got this name in the same way that it is called in ordinary Ar. *sakka*, ‘a water-carrier.’ It has been pointed out by Dr Murray, that the *alcatruz* of some of the earlier voyagers, *e.g.*, of Davis below, is not the *Diomedea*, but the Man-of-War (or Frigate) Bird (*Fregatus aquilus*). Hawkins, at p. 187 of the work quoted, describes, without naming, a bird which is evidently the modern albatross. In the quotation from Mocquet again, *alcatruz* is applied to some smaller sea-bird. The passage from Shelvocke is that which suggested to Coleridge “The Ancient Mariner.”
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1564.—“The 8th December we ankered by a small Island called Alcatrarsa, wherein at our going a shoare, we found nothing but sea-birds, as we call them Ganets, but by the Portugals called Alcatrarses, who for that cause gave the said Island the same name.”—*Hawkins (Hak. Soc.)*, 15.
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∗ Also see Dozy, s. v. *alcaduz*. *Alcaduz*, according to Cobarruvias, is in Sp. one of the earthen pots of the noria or Persian wheel.
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1593.—"The dolphins and bonitoes are the houndes, and the alcatrarces the hawkes, and the flying fishes the game."—*Ibid.* 152.
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1604.—"The other foule called Alcatrarzi is a kind of Hawke that liueth by fishing. For when the Bonitos or Dolphines doe chase the flying fish vnder the water . . . this Alcatrarzi flyeth after them like a Hawke after a Partridge."—*Davis (Hak. Soc.),* 158.
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c. 1608-10.—"Alcatraz sont petis oiseaux ainsi comme estourneaux."—*Mocquet, Voyages,* 226.
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1672.—"We met with those feathered Harbingers of the Cape . . . Albetrosses . . . they haue great Bodies, yet not proportionate to their Wings, which mete out twice their length."—*Fryer,* 12.
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1690.—"They have several other Signs, whereby to know when they are near it, as by the Sea Fowl they meet at Sea, especially the Algatrosses, a very large long-winged Bird."—*Dampier, i.* 531.
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1719.—"We had not had the sight of one fish of any kind, since we were come Southward of the Streights of Le Mair, nor one sea-bird, except a disconsolate black Albitross, who accompanied us for several days, hovering about us as if he had lost himself, till Hatley (my second Captain) observing, in one of his melancholy fits, that this bird was always hovering near us, imagin'd from his colour, that it might be some ill omen. . . . But be that as it would, he after some fruitless attempts, at length shot the Albitross, not doubting (perhaps) that we should have a fair wind after it . . . "—*Shelvocke's Voyage,* 72, 73.
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1740.—". . . a vast variety of sea-fowl, amongst which the most remarkable are the Penguins; they are in size and shape like a goose, but instead of wings they have short stumps like fins . . . their bills are narrow like those of an Albitross, and they stand and walk in an erect posture. From this and their white bellies, Sir John Narborough has whimsically likened them to little children standing up in white aprons."—*Anson's Voyage,* 9th ed. (1756), p. 68.
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1754.—"An albatrose, a sea-fowl, was shot off the Cape of Good Hope, which measured 17½ feet from wing to wing."—*Ives,* 5.
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"At length did cross an Albatross;
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul
We hailed it in God's name."
*The Ancient Mariner.*
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c. 1861.—
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"Souvent pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers."
*Baudelaire, L'Albatros.*
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ALCATIF, s. This word for 'a carpet' was much used in India in the 16th century, and is treated by some travellers as an Indian word. It is not however of Indian origin, but is an Arabic word (*katif*, 'a carpet with long pile') introduced into Portugal through the Moors.
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c. 1540.—"There came aboard of Antonio de Faria more than 60 *batels*, and balloons, and *manchuas* (q. q. v.) with awnings and flags of silk, and rich alcatifas."—*Pinto,* ch. lxviii. (orig.).
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1560.—"The whole tent was cut in a variety of arabesques, inlaid with coloured silk, and was carpeted with rich alcatifas."—*Tenreiro, Itin.,* c. xvii.
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1578.—"The windows of the streets by which the Viceroy passes shall be hung with carpets (alcatifadas), and the doors decorated with branches, and the whole adorned as richly as possible."—*Archiv. Port. Orient.,* fasc. ii. 225.
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1598.—"Great store of rich Tapestrie, which are called alcatiffas."—*Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i.* 47.
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1608-10.—"Quand elles vont à l'Eglise on les porte en palanquin . . . le dedans est d'vn grand tapis de Perse, qu'ils appellent Alcatif . . . "—*Pyrard, ii.* 62; *Hak. Soc. ii.* 102.
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1648.—". . . many silk stuffs, such as satin, contenijs (Cuttanee) attelap (read attelas), alegie . . . ornijs [*H. orhni*, 'A woman's sheet'] of gold and silk for women's wear, gold alacatijven . . . "—*Van Twist,* 50.
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1726.—"They know nought of chairs or tables. The small folks eat on a mat, and the rich on an Alcatief, or carpet, sitting with their feet under them, like our Tailors."—*Valentijn, v. Chorom,* 55.
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ALCORANAS, s. What word does Herbert aim at in the following? [The Stanf. Dict. regards this as quite distinct from *Alcorān*, the Korān, or sacred book of Mohammedans (for which see N.E.D. s.v.), and suggests *Al-qorūn*, 'the horns,' or *al-qirān*, 'the vertices.']
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1665.—"Some (mosques) have their Alcorana's high, slender, round steeples or towers, most of which are terrassed near the top, like the Standard in Cheapside, but twice the height."—*Herbert, Travels,* 3rd ed. 164.
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ALCOVE, s. This English word comes to us through the Span. *alcova* and Fr. *alcove* (old Fr. *aucube*), from Ar. *al-kubbah*, applied first to a kind of tent (so in Hebr. Numbers xxv. 8) and then to a vaulted building or recess. An edifice of Saracenic c—
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struction at Palermo is still known as *La Cuba*; and another, a domed tomb, as *La Cubola*. Whatever be the true formation of the last word, it seems to have given us, through the Italian, *Cupola*. [*Not so in N.E.D.*]
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1738.—"Cubba, commonly used for the vaulted tomb of marab-butts" [*Adjutant.*]—*Shaw's Travels*, ed. 1757, p. 40.
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**ALDEA**, s. A village; also a villa. Port. from the Ar. *al-da'a*, 'a farm or villa.' Bluteau explains it as 'Povoção menor que lugar.' Lane gives among other and varied meanings of the Ar. word: 'An estate consisting of land or of land and a house, . . . land yielding a revenue.' The word forms part of the name of many towns and villages in Spain and Portugal.
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Linked texts (6)
- Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin
- تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic
- בְּמִדְבַּר — Hebrew
- Pāṭaliputra
- Beyt
- Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf