Chapter TOBRA to TOMAUN of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

(Khorasani), though he was a man of letters and a great scribe and official, was always nodding or sleeping.”—Garcia, f. 155b.

1610.—“A Tole is a rupee challany of silver, and ten of these Toles are the value of one of gold.”—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 217.

1615–16.—“Two tole and a half being an ounce.”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 545; [Hak. Soc. i. 183].

1676.—“Over all the Empire of the Great Mogul, all the Gold and Silver is weigh’d with Weights, which they call Tolla, which amounts to 9 deniers and eight grains of our weight.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 18; [ed. Ball, i. 14].

TOMAUN, s. A Mongol word, signifying 10,000, and constantly used in the histories of the Mongol dynasties for a division of an army theoretically consisting of that number. But its modern application is to a Persian money, at the present time worth about 7s. 6d. [In 1899 the exchange was about 53 crans to the £1; 10 Crans=1 tuman.] Till recently it was only a money of account, representing 10,000 dinars; the latter also having been in Persia for centuries only a money of account, constantly degenerating in value. The tomaun in Fryer’s time (1677) is reckoned by him as equal to £3, 6s. 8d. P. della Valle’s estimate 60 years earlier would give about £4, 10s. 0d., and is perhaps loose and too high. Sir T. Herbert’s valuation (5 x 13s. 8d.) is the same as Fryer’s. In the first and third of the following quotations we have the word in the Tartar military sense, for a division of 10,000 men:

1298.—“You see when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he takes with him, say, 100,000 horse … they call the corps of 100,000 men a Tuc; that of 10,000 they call a Toman.”—Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. 54.

c. 1340.—“Ces deux portions réunies formaient un total de 800 toumans, dont chacun vaut 10,000 dinars courants, et le dinar 6 dirhems.”—Shihabuddin, Masalak-al Absar, in Not. et Exts. xiii. 194.

c. 1347.—“I was informed … that when the Kan assembled his troops, and called the array of his forces together, there were with him 100 divisions of horse, each composed of 10,000 men, the chief of whom was called Amir Tuman, or lord of 10,000.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 299–300.

A form of the Tartar word seems to have passed into Russian:

c. 1559.—“One thousand in the language of the people is called Tissutze: likewise ten thousand in a single word Tma: twenty thousand Duuetma: thirty thousand Titma.”—Herberstein, Della Moscovia, Ramusio, iii. 159.

[c. 1590.—In the Sarkar of Kandahár “eighteen dinárs make a tumán, and each tumán is equivalent to 800 dáms. The tumán of Khurasán is equal in value to 30 rupees and the tumán of Irák to 40.”—Ain, edition Jarrett, ii. 393–94.]

1619.—“L’ambasciadore Indiano … ordinò che donasse a tutti un tomano, cioè diece zecchini per uno.”—P. della Valle, ii. 22.

c. 1630.—“But how miserable so ere it seems to others, the Persian King makes many happy harvests; filling every yeere his insatiate coffers with above 350,000 Tomans (a Toman is five markes sterlin).”—Sir T. Herbert, page 225.

[c. 1665.—In Persia “the abási is worth 4 sháhis, and the tomán 50 abásis or 200 sháhis.”—Tavernier, edition Ball, i. 24.]

1677.—“ … Receipt of Custom (at Gombroon) for which he pays the King yearly Twenty-two thousand Thomands, every Thomand making Three pound and a Noble in our Accompt, Half which we have a Right to.”—Fryer, 222.

1711.—“Camels, Houses, &c., are generally sold by the Tomand, which is 200 Shahees or 50 Abassees; and they usually reckon their Estates that way; such a man is worth so many Tomands, as we reckon by Pounds in England.”—Lockyer, 229.

[1858.—“Girwur Singh, Tomandar, came up with a detachment of the special police.”—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, ii. 17.]