Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.16017

c10.16017

ZIRBAD, n.p. Pers. *zīr-bād*, ‘below the wind,’ *i.e.* leeward. This is a phrase derived from nautical use, and applied to the countries eastward of India. It appears to be adopted with reference to the S.W. Monsoon. Thus by the extracts from the *Mohit* or ‘Ocean’ of Sidi ’Ali Kapudān (1554), translated by Joseph V. Hammer in the *Journ. As. Soc. Bengal*, we find that one chapter (unfortunately not given) treats “Of the Indian Islands above and below the wind.” The islands “above the wind” were probably Ceylon, the Maldives, Socotra, &c., but we find no extract with precise indication of them. We find however indicated as the “tracts situated below the wind” Malacca, Sumatra, Tenasserim, Bengal, Martaban, Pegu. The phrase is one which naturally acquires a specific meaning among sea-faring folk, of which we have an instance in the Windward and Leeward Islands of the W. Indies. But probably it was adopted from the Malays, who make use of the same nomenclature, as the quotations show.