Chapter MALUM to MAMIRAN of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MALUM to MAMIRAN

MALUM, s. In a ship with English officers and native crew, the mate is called malum sahib. The word is Ar. mu’allim, literally ‘the Instructor,’ and is properly applied to the pilot or sailing-master. The word may be compared, thus used, with our ‘master’ in the Navy. In regard to the first quotation we may observe that Nakhuda (see NACODA) is, rather than Mu’allim, ‘the captain’; though its proper meaning is the owner of the ship; the two capacities of owner and skipper being doubtless often combined. The distinction of Mu’allim from Nakhuda accounts for the former title being assigned to the mate.

1497.—“And he sent 20 cruzados in gold, and 20 testoons in silver for the Malemos, who were the pilots, for of these coins he would give each month whatever he (the Sheikh) should direct.”—Correa, i. 38 (E.T. by Ld. Stanley of Alderley, 88). On this passage the Translator says: ‘The word is perhaps the Arabic for an instructor, a word in general use all over Africa.” It is curious that his varied experience should have failed to recognise the habitual marine use of the term.

1541.—“Meanwhile he sent three caturs (q.v.) to the Port of the Malems (Porto dos Malemos) in order to get some pilot.… In this Port of the Bandel of the Malems the ships of the Moors take pilots when they enter the Straits, and when they return they leave them here again.”¹— Correa, iv. 168.

1553.—“… among whom (at Melinda) came a Moor, a Guzarate by nation, called Malem Cana, who, as much for the satisfaction he had in conversing with our people, as to please the King, who was inquiring for a pilot to give them, agreed to accompany them.”—Barros, I. iv. 6.

c. 1590.—“Mu’allim or Captain. He must be acquainted with the depths and shallow places of the Ocean, and must know astronomy. It is he who guides the ship to her destination, and prevents her falling into dangers.”—Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 280.

[1887.—“The second class, or Malumis, are sailors.”—Logan, Malabar, ii. ccxcv.]

MAMIRAN, MAMIRA, s. A medicine from old times of much repute in the East, especially for eye-diseases, and imported from Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions. It is a popular native drug in the Punjab bazars, where it is still known as mamira, also as piliari. It seems probable that the name is applied to bitter roots of kindred properties but of more than one specific origin. Hanbury and Flückiger describe it as the rhizome of Coptis Teeta, Wallich, tita being the name of the drug in the Mishmi country at the head of the Assam Valley, from which it is imported into Bengal. But Stewart states explicitly that the mamira of the Punjab bazars is now “known to be” mostly, if not entirely, derived from Thalictrum foliosum D.C., a tall plant which is c ommon throughout the temperate Himalaya (5000 to 8000 feet) and on the Kasia Hills, and is exported from Kumaun under the name of Momiri. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. iv. 42 seq.] “The Mamira of the old Arab writers was identified with [Greek Text] Xelidonion mega, by which, however, Löw (Aram. Pflanzennamen, p. 220) says they understood curcuma longa.” W.R.S.

c. A.D. 600–700. — [Greek Text] “MamiraV, oion rizion ti poaV estin econ wsper kondulouV puknouV, opoV oulaV te kai leukwmata leptunein pepisteuetai, dhlonoti ruptikhV uparcon dunamewV. —Pauli Aeginetae Medici, Libri vii., Basileae 1538. Lib. vii. cap. iii. sect. 12 (p. 246).

c. 1020.—“Memirem quid est? Est lignum sicut nodi declinans ad nigredinem … mundificat albuginem in oculis, et acuit visum: quum ex eo fit collyrium et abstergit humiditatem grossam.…” &c.—Avicennae Opera, Venet. 1564, p. 345 (lib. ii. tractat. ii.).

The glossary of Arabic terms by Andreas de Alpago of Belluno, attached to various early editions of Avicenna, gives the following interpretation: “Memirem est radix nodosa, non multum grossa, citrini coloris, sicut curcuma; minor tamen est et subtilior, et asportatur ex Indiâ, et apud physicos orientales est valde nota, et usitatur in passionibus oculi.”

c. 1100.—“Memiram Arabibus, [Greek Text] celidonion mega Graecis,” &c.—Io. Serapionis de Simpl. Medicam. Historia, Lib. iv. cap. lxxvi. (ed. Ven. 1552, f. 106).

c. 1200.—“Some maintain that this plant (‘uruk al-sábaghin) is the small kurkum (turmeric), and others that it is mamiran. … The kurkum is brought to us from India. … The mamiran is imported from China, and has the same properties as kurkum.”— Ibn Baithar, ii. 186-188.

c. 1550.—“But they have a much greater appreciation of another little root which grows in the mountains of Succuir (i.e. Suchau in Shensi), where the rhubarb grows, and which they call Mambroni-Chini (i.e. Mamiran-i-Chini). This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ailments, but especially when the eyes are affected. They grind it on a stone with rose water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is wonderfully beneficial.”—Hajji Mahommed’s Account of Cathay, in Ramusio, ii. f. 15v.

c. 1573.—(At Aleppo). “Mamiranitchini,