M.

Málik = in Afghanistán the headman of a village or tribe.

Má'uzbílláh = a Muhammadan exclamation on hearing bad news or a calamity: "May God protect us!"

Muharram = a yearly Muhammadan feast held on the 10th of the month of Muharram.

Mullah = a Muhammadan preacher.

Munshi = a clerk or preceptor.

P.

Pagari = the Eastern head-dress or turban.

Patwári = a village bailiff, who keeps the accounts of the village lands.

Patwarkhána = the office of the bailiff.

Parda = the Eastern custom of secluding women from the public gaze.

Puláo = a popular dish in Afghanistán, consisting of meat cooked with rice, with spices, nuts, raisins, and sweetenings.

Q.

Qurbán = lit., sacrifice; also used as an expression of devotion by an inferior to a superior.

Qismet = fate, destiny; an ever-present idea in the Muhammadan mind.

R.

Rebáb = an Afghán stringed instrument, resembling a guitar.

S.

Sáhib = lit., gentleman; the term of respect usually applied to Englishmen.

Samádh = the posture assumed by an ascetic for contemplation of the Deity. There are a great variety of these, each possessing its own peculiar merit.

Sangar = an entrenchment. In the mountain warfare of Afghanistán these are made of short walls of stones on the hillside.

Sanyási = the fourth stage in the life of a devout Hindu, when he retires from the world, and gives himself up entirely to religious meditation.

Sardár = a chief, an Afghán nobleman.

Sarkár = the usual term for the British Government.

Sharm = shame. The Afghán idea underlying this word is a complex, in which shame, public disgrace, modesty, delicacy, sense of honour, all share in varying degree. He is always talking of it.

Sháster = a religious book of the Hindus.

Shesham = a common tree on the frontier that yields an excellent hard wood for various articles of household use--Dalbergia sisso.

Sowár = a horseman.

Sura = a chapter of the Qurán.

T.

Tahsíl = the subdivision of an administrative district; the centre for the collection of the revenue.

Tálib = a Muhammadan religious student; a pupil in a mosque.

Tap-jap = a recitation of religious formulæ by a Hindu.

Tauba = lit., repentance; an exclamation denoting abhorrence or contrition.

U.

Ustád = a master or preceptor; a religious teacher (among Muhammadans).

W.

Wiláyati = belonging to Europe; especially applied to merchandise of European origin.

Y.

Yogsadhan = a system of contemplation, combined with religious exercises, whereby occult power is acquired.

Yunáni = pertaining to Greece. This is the word usually applied to that system of native medicine which was derived from the Greeks; in Europe it is spoken of in connection with the name of Hippocrates, who formulated it. The other, or Hindu system, is the Vedic; those who practise the former are called hakíms, the latter baids.

Z.

Zamindár = a farmer, a landowner.

Zyárat = a shrine; the grave of a holy man; a place of pilgrimage.

NOTES

[1] More probably from the Greek kofinos.--J. C.

[2] In a booklet published by the Church Missionary Society, entitled "Delawar Khan."

[3] S. E. Stokes in The East and the West for April, 1908.

[4] "Across our Indian Frontier," by Colonel G. Wingate, C.I.E.