Chapter MA-BAP to MACAREO of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MA-BAP to MACAREO

MA-BAP, s. ‘Ap ma-bap hai khudawand!’ ‘You, my Lord, are my mother and father!’ This is an address from a native, seeking assistance, or begging release from a penalty, or reluctant to obey an order, which the young sahib hears at first with astonishment, but soon as a matter of course.

MABAR, n.p. The name given in the Middle Ages by the Arabs to that coast of India which we call Coromandel. The word is Ar. ma’bar, ‘the ferry or crossing-place.’ It is not clear how the name came to be applied, whether because the Arab vessels habitually touched at its ports, or because it was the place of crossing to Ceylon, or lastly whether it was not an attempt to give meaning to some native name. [The Madras Gloss. says it was so called because it was the place of crossing from Madura to Ceylon; also see Logan, Malabar, i. 280.] We know no occurrence of the term earlier than that which we give from Abdallatif.

c. 1203.—“I saw in the hands of an Indian trader very beautiful mats, finely woven and painted on both sides with most pleasing colours. … The merchant told me … that these mats were woven of the Indian plantain … and that they sold in Mabar for two dinars apiece.”—Abd-Allatif, Relation de l’Egypte, p. 31.

1279- 86.—In M. Pauthier’s notes on Marco Polo very curious notices are extracted from Chinese official annals regarding the communications, in the time of Kublai Kaan, between that Emperor and Indian States, including Ma-pa-’rh.—(See pp. 600–605.)

c. 1292.—“When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward about 60 miles, you come to the great province of Maabar, which is styled India the Greater: it is the best of all the Indies, and is on the mainland.”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 16.

c. 1300.—“The merchants export from Ma’bar silken stuffs, aromatic roots; large pearls are brought from the sea. The productions of this country are carried to ’Irák, Khorásán, Syria, Russia and Europe.”—Rashiduddin, in Elliot, i. 69.

1303.—“In the beginning of this year (703 H.), the Maliki-’Azam, Takiú-d-dín … departed from the country of Hind to the passage (ma’bar) of corruption. The King of Ma’bar was anxious to obtain his property and wealth, but Malik Mu’azzam Siráju-d-dín, son of the deceased, having secured his goodwill, by the payment of 200,000 dínárs; not only obtained the wealth, but rank also of his father.”—Wassáf, in Elliot, iii. 45.

1310.—“The country of Ma’bar, which is so distant from Dehli that a man travelling with all expedition could only reach it after a journey of 12 months, there the arrow of any holy warrior had not yet reached.”—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, iii. 85.

c. 1330.—“The third part (of India) is Ma’bar, which begins some three or four days journey to the eastward of Kaulam; this territory lies to the east of Malabar. … It is stated that the territory Ma’bar begins at the Cape Kumhari, a name which applies both to a mountain and a city. … Biyyardawal is the residence of the Prince of Ma’bar, for whom horses are imported from foreign countries.”—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, p. 185. We regret to see that M. Guyard, in his welcome completion of Reinaud’s translation of Abulfeda, absolutely, in some places, substitutes “Coromandel” for “Ma’bar.” It is French fashion, but a bad one.

c. 1498.—“Zo deser stat Kangera anlenden alle Kouffschyff die in den landen zo doyn hauen, ind lijcht in eyner provincie Moabar genant.”—Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff (a fiction-monger), p. 140.

1753.—“Selon cet autorité le pays du continent qui fait face à l’île de Ceilan est Maabar, ou le grande Inde: et cette interpretation de Marc-Pol est autant plus juste, que maha est un terme Indien, et propre même à quelques langues Scythiques ou Tartares, pour signifier grand. Ainsi, Maabar signifie la grande region.”—D’Anville, p. 105. The great Geographer is wrong!

MACAO, n.p.

a. The name applied by the Portuguese to the small peninsula and the city built on it, near the mouth of Canton River, which they have occupied since 1557. The place is called by the Chinese Ngao-maan (Ngao, ‘bay or inlet,’ Man, ‘gate’). The Portuguese name is alleged to be taken from A- ma-ngao, ‘the Bay of Ama,’ i.e. of the Mother, the so-called ‘Queen of Heaven,’ a patroness of seamen. And indeed Amacao is an old form often met with.

c. 1567.—“Hanno i Portoghesi fatta vna picciola cittáde in vna Isola vicina a’ i liti della China chiamato Machao … ma i datii sono del Rè della China, e vanno a pagarli a Canton, bellissima cittáde, e di grande importanza, distante da Machao due giorni e mezzo.”—Cesare de’ Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391.

c. 1570.—“On the fifth day of our voyage it pleased God that we arrived at … Lampacau, where at that time the Portugals exercised their commerce with the Chineses, which continued till the year 1557, when the Mandarins of Canton, at the request of the Merchants of that Country, gave us the port of Macao, where the trade now is; of which place (that was but a desart Iland before) our countrymen made a very goodly plantation, wherein there were houses worth three or four thousand Duckats, together with a