Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12852

c10.12852

**SABAIO, ÇABAIO**, &c., n.p. The name generally given by the Portuguese writers to the Mahommedan prince who was in possession of Goa when they arrived in India, and who had lived much there. He was in fact that one of the captains of the Bāhmanī kingdom of the Deccan who, in the division that took place on the decay of the dynasty towards the end of the 15th century, became the founder of the 'Adil Shāhī family which reigned in Bijapur from 1489 to the end of the following century (see IDALCAN). His real name was Abdul Muzaffar Yūsuf, with the surname *Sabai* or *Savāi*. There does not seem any ground for rejecting the intelligent statement of De Barros (II. v. 2) that he had this name from being a native of *Sāvā* in Persia [see *Bombay Gazetteer*, xxiii. 404]. Garcia de Orta does not seem to have been aware of this history, and he derives the name from *Sāhib* (see below), apparently a mere guess, though not an unnatural one. Mr. Birch's surmise (*Alboquerque*, ii. 82), with these two old and obvious sources of suggestion before him, that "the word may possibly be connected with *sipāhī*, Arabic, a soldier," is quite inadmissible (nor is *sipāhī* Arabic). [On this word Mr. Whiteway writes: "In his explanation of this word Sir H. Yule has been misled by Barros. Couto (Dec. iv. Bk. 10 ch. 4) is conclusive, where he says: 'This Çufo extended the limits of his rule as far as he could till he went in person to conquer the island of Goa, which was a valuable possession for its income, and was in possession of a lord of Canara, called *Savay*, a vassal of the King of Canara, who then had his headquarters at what we call Old Goa. . . . As there was much jungle here, *Savay*, the lord of Goa, had certain houses where he stayed for hunting. . . . These houses still preserve the memory of the Hindu *Savay*, as they are called the *Savayo's* house, where for many years the Governors of India lived. As our João de Barros could not get true information of these things, he confounded the name of the Hindu *Savay* with that of Çufo (? Yūsuf) Adil Shāh, saying in the 5th Book of his 2nd Decade that when we went to India a Moor called *Soay* was lord of Goa, that we ordinarily called him *Sabayo*, and that he was a vassal of the King of the Deccan, a Persian, and native of the city of *Sawa*. At this his sons laughed heartily when we read it to them, saying that their father was anything but a Turk, and his name anything but Çufo.' This passage makes it clear that the origin of the word is the Hindu title *Siwāi*, Hind. *Sawāi*, 'having the excess of a fourth,' 'a quarter better than other people,' which is one of the titles of the Mahārājā of Jaypur. To show that it was more or less well known, I may point to the little State of Sunda, which lay close to Goa on the S.E.; of which the Rāja was of the Vijayanagar family. This little State became independent after the destruction of Vijayanagar, and remained in existence till absorbed by Tippoo Sultan. In this State *Siwāi* was a common honorific of the ruling family. At the same time Barros was not alone in calling Adil Shāh the *Sabaio* (see *Alboquerque, Cartas*, p. 24), where the name occurs. The mistake having been made, everyone accepted it."]