Chapter ZOUAVE to ZUMBOORUCK of Z by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ZOUAVE to ZUMBOORUCK

ZOUAVE, s. This modern French term is applied to certain regiments of light infantry in a quasi-Oriental costume, recruited originally in Algeria, and from various races, but now only consisting of Frenchmen. The name Zuawa, Zouaoua was, according to Littré, that of a Kabyle tribe of the Jurjura which furnished the first soldiers so called.

[ZUBT, ZUBTEE, adj. and s. of which the corrupted forms are JUBTEE, JUPTEE. Ar. zabt, lit. ‘keeping, guarding,’ but more generally in India, in the sense of ‘seizure, confiscation.’ In the Ain it is used in the sense which is still in use in the N.W.P., ‘cash rents on the more valuable crops, such as sugar- cane, tobacco, etc., in those districts where rents in kind are generally paid.’

[c. 1590.—“Of these Parganahs, 138 pay revenue in cash from crops charged at special rates (in orig. zabti).”—Ain, ed. Jarret, ii. 153.

[1813.—“Zebt … restraint, confiscation, sequestration. Zebty. Relating to restraint or confiscation; what has been confiscated. … Lands resumed by Jaffier Khan which had been appropriated in Jaghire (see JAGHEER).”—Glossary to Fifth Report.

[1851.—“You put down one hundred rupees. If the water of your land does not come … then my money shall be confiscated to the Sahib. If it does then your money shall be zupt (confiscated).”—Edwardes, A Year on the Punjab Frontier, i. 278.]

ZUMBOORUCK, s. Ar. Turk. Pers. zamburak (spelt zanburak), a small gun or swivel usually carried on a camel, and mounted on a saddle;— a falconet. [See a drawing in R. Kipling’s Beast and Man in India, 255.] It was, however, before the use of gunpowder came in, the name applied sometimes to a cross-bow, and sometimes to the quarrel or bolt shot from such a weapon. The word is in form a Turkish diminutive from Ar. zambur, ‘a hornet’; much as ‘musket’ comes from mosquetta. Quatremère thinks the name was given from the twang of the cross-bow at the moment of discharge (see H. des Mongols, 285–6; see also Dozy, Suppt. s.v.). This older meaning is the subject of our first quotation:

1848.—“Les écrivains arabes qui ont traité des guerres des croisades, donnent à l’arbalête, telle que l’employait les chrétiens, le nom de zenbourek. La première fois qu’ils en font mention, c’est en parlant du siège de Tyr par Saladin en 1187. … Suivant l’historien des patriarches d’Alexandrie, le zenbourek était une flêche de l’épaisseur du pouce, de la longueur d’une coudée, qui avait quatre faces … il traversait quelque fois au même coup deux hommes placés l’un derrière l’autre. … Les musulmans paraissent n’avoir fait usage qu’assez tard du zenbourek. Djèmal - Eddin est, à ma connaissance, le premier écrivain arabe qui, sous la date 643 (1245 de J.C.), cite cette arme comme servant aux guerriers de l’Islamisme; c’est à propos du siège d’Ascalon par le sultan d’Egypte. … Mais bientôt l’usage du zenbourek devint commun en Orient, et dans la suite des Turks ottomans entretinrent dans leurs armées un corps de soldats appelés zenbourekdjis. Maintenant … ce mot a tout à fait changé d’acception, et l’on donne en Perse le nom de zenbourek à une petite pièce d’artillerie légère.”—Reinaud, De l’Art Militaire chez les Arabes au moyen age. Journ. As., Ser. IV., tom. xii. 211–213.

1707.—“Prince Bedár Bakht … was killed by a cannon-ball, and many of his followers also fell. … His younger brother Wálájáh was killed by a ball from a zambúrak.”—Khafi Khan, in Elliot, vii. 398.

c. 1764.—“Mirza Nedjef Qhan, who was preceded by some Zemberecs, ordered that kind of artillery to stand in the middle of the water and to fire on the eminence.”—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 250.

1825.—“The reign of Futeh Allee Shah has been far from remarkable for its military splendour. … He has rarely been exposed to danger in action, but, early in his reign … he appeared in the field, … till at last one or two shots from zumboorucks dropping among them, he fell from his horse in a swoon of terror. …”—J. B. Fraser, Journey into Khorasan in 1821–22, pp. 197–8.

[1829.—“He had no cannon; but was furnished with a description of ordnance, or swivels, called zumbooruk, which were mounted on camels; and which, though useful in action, could make no impression on the slightest walls. …”—Malcolm, H. of Persia, i. 419.]

1846.—“So hot was the fire of cannon, musquetry, and zambooraks, kept up by the Khalsa troops, that it seemed for some moments impossible that the entrenchments could be won under it.”—Sir Hugh Gough’s desp. on the Battle of Sobraon, dd. Feb 13.

„ “The flank in question (at Subraon) was mainly guarded by a line of two hundred ‘zumbooruks,’ or falconets; but it derived some support from a salient battery, and from the heavy guns retained on the opposite bank of the river.”—Cunningham’s H. of the Sikhs, 322.