Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12906

c10.12906

a. An English sailor's corruption, which for a long time maintained its place in our maps. It is the Sindān of the old Arab Geographers, and was the first durable settling-place of the Parsee refugees on their emigration to India in the 8th century. [Dosabhai Framji, Hist. of the Parsis, i. 30.] The proper name of the place, which is in lat. 20° 12' and lies 88 m. north of Bombay, is apparently Sajām (see Hist. of Cambay, in Bo. Govt. Selections, No. xxvi., N.S., p. 52), but it is commonly called Sanjān. E. B. Eastwick in J. Bo. As. Soc. R. i. 167, gives a Translation from the Persian of the "Kiṣṣah-i-Sanjān, or History of the arrival and settlement of the Parsees in India." Sanjān is about 3 m. from the little river-mouth port of Umbargām. "Evidence of the greatness of Sanjān is found, for miles around, in old foundations and bricks. The bricks are of very superior quality."—Bomb. Gazetteer, vol. xiv. 302, [and for medieval references to the place, ibid. I. Pt. i. 262, 520 seq.]