Chapter SHOE-GOOSE to SHULWAURS of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

pl. of sarbala. Luther, however, renders this Mantel; as the A. V. also does by coats; [the R. V. hosen]. On this Prof. Robertson-Smith writes:

“It is not certain but that Luther and the A. V. are right. The word sarbalin means ‘cloak’ in the Gemara; and in Arabic sirbal is ‘a garment, a coat of mail.’ Perhaps quite an equal weight of scholarship would now lean (though with hesitation) towards the cloak or coat, and against the breeches theory.

“The Arabic word occurs in the Traditions of the Prophet (Bokhari, vii. 36).

“Of course it is certain that [Greek Text] sarabara comes from the Persian, but not through Arabic. The Bedouins did not wear trowsers in the time of Ammianus, and don’t do so now.

“The ordinary so-called LXX. editions of Daniel contain what is really the post-Christian version of Theodotion. The true LXX. text has [Greek Text] upodhmata.

“It may be added that Jerome says that both Aquila and Symmachus wrote saraballa.” [The Encycl. Biblica also prefers the rendering of the A. V. (i. 607), and see iii. 2934.]

The word is widely spread as well as old; it is found among the Tartars of W. Asia as jalbar, among the Siberians and Bashkirds as salbar, among the Kalmaks as shalbur, whilst it reached Russia as sharawari, Spain as zaraguelles, and Portugal as zarelos. A great many Low Latin variations of the word will be found in Ducange, serabula, serabulla, sarabella, sarabola, sarabura, and more! [And Crawfurd (Desc. Dict. 124) writes of Malay dress: “Trowsers are occasionally used under the sarung by the richer classes, and this portion of dress, like the imitation of the turban, seems to have been borrowed from the Arabs, as is implied by its Arabic name, sarual, corrupted saluwar.”]

In the second quotation from Isidore of Seville below it will be seen that the word had in some cases been interpreted as ‘turbans.’

A.D. (?).—“ [Greek Text] Kai eqewroun touV andraV oti ouk ekurieuse to pur tou swmatoV autwn kai h qrix thV kefalhV autwn ouk eflogisqh kai ta sarabara autwn ouk hlloiwqh, kai osmh puroV ouk hn en autoiV.”—Gr. Tr. of Dan. iii. 27.

c. A.D. 200.—“ ’ [Greek Text] En de toiV SkuqaiV ’ [Greek Text] AntifanhV efh Sarabara kai citwnaV pantaV endedukotaV.”—Julius Pollux, Onomast. vii. 13, sec. 59.

c. a.d. 500.—“ [Greek Text] Sarabara, ta peri taV knhmudaV (sic) [Greek Text] endumata.”—Hesychius, s. v.

c. 636.—“Sarabara sunt fluxa ac sinuosa vestimenta de quibus legitur in Daniele. … Et Publius: Vt quid ergo in ventre tuo Parthi Sarabara suspenderunt? Apud quosdam autem Sarabarae quaedã capitum tegmina nuncupantur qualia videmus in capite Magorum picta.”—Isidorus Hispalensis, Orig. et Etym., lib. xix., ed. 1601, pp. 263–4.

c. 1000 ?—“Sarabara,-esqhV IIersikh enioi de legousi brakia.”—Suidas, s. v.

which may be roughly rendered:

“A garb outlandish to the Greeks,
Which some call Shalwars, some call Breeks!”

c. 900.—“The deceased was unchanged, except in colour. They dressed him then with sarawil, overhose, boots, a kurtak and khaftan of gold-cloth, with golden buttons, and put on him a golden cap garnished with sable.”—Ibn Foszlan, in Fraehn, 15.

c. 1300.—“Disconsecratur altare eorum, et oportet reconciliari per episcopum … si intraret ad ipsum aliquis qui non esset Nestorius; si intraret eciam ad ipsum quicumque sine sorrabulis vel capite cooperto.”—Ricoldo of Monte Croce, in Peregrinatores Quatuor, 122.

1330.—“Haec autem mulieres vadunt discalceatae portantes sarabulas usque ad terram.”—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., App. iv.

c. 1495.—“The first who wore sarawil was Solomon. But in another tradition it is alleged that Abraham was the first.”—The ‘Beginnings,’ by Soyuti, quoted by Fraehn, 113.

1567.—“Portauano braghesse quasi alla turchesca, et anche saluari.”—C. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. f. 389.

1824.—“… tell me how much he will be contented with? Can I offer him five Tomauns, and a pair of crimson Shulwaurs?”—Hajji Baba, ed. 1835, p. 179.

1881.—“I used to wear a red shirt and velveteen sharovary, and lie on the sofa like a gentleman, and drink like a Swede.”—Ten Years of Penal Servitude in Siberia, by Fedor Dostoyeffski, E.T. by Maria v. Thilo, 191.

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