Chapter ADIGAR to AG-GARI of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ear, and even Af’gann, which is a still more excruciating solecism. [The common local pronunciation of the name is Aoghan, which accounts for some of the forms below. Bellew insists on the distinction between the Afghan and the Pathan (PUTTAN). “The Afghan is a Pathan merely because he inhabits a Pathan country, and has to a great extent mixed with its people and adopted their language” (Races of Af., p. 25). The name represents Skt. asvaka in the sense of a ‘cavalier,’ and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander.]

c. 1020.—“… Afgháns and Khiljis …” —Utbi in Elliot, ii. 24; see also 50, 114.

c. 1265.—“He also repaired the fort of Jalálí, which he garrisoned with Afgháns.” —Táríkh-i-Fírozsháhí in do. iii. 106.

14th cent.—The Afghans are named by the continuator of Rashiduddin among the tribes in the vicinity of Herat (see N. & E. xiv. 494).

1504.—“The Afghans, when they are reduced to extremities in war, come into the presence of their enemy with grass between their teeth; being as much as to say, ‘I am your ox.’ ”¹—Baber, 159.

c. 1556.—“He was afraid of the Afgháns.” —Sidi ’ Ali, in J. As., 1st S., ix. 201.

1609.—“Agwans and Potans.”—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 521.

c. 1665.—“Such are those petty Sovereigns, who are seated on the Frontiers of Persia, who almost never pay him anything, no more than they do to the King of Persia. As also the Balouches and Augans, and other Mountaineers, of whom the greatest part pay him but a small matter, and even care but little for him: witness the Affront they did him, when they stopped his whole Army by cutting off the Water .… when he passed from Atek on the River Indus to Caboul to lay siege to Kandahar .…”—Bernier, E. T. 64 [ed. Constable, 205].

1676.—“The people called Augans who inhabit from Candahar to Caboul .. a sturdy sort of people, and great robbers in the night-time.”—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 44; [ed. Ball, i. 92].

1767.—“Our final sentiments are that we have no occasion to take any measures against the Afghans’ King if it should appear he comes only to raise contributions, but if he proceeds to the eastward of Delhi to make an attack on your allies, or threatens the peace of Bengal, you will concert such measures with Sujah Dowla as may appear best adapted for your mutual defence.” —Court’s Letter, Nov. 20. In Long, 486; also see ROHILLA.

1838.—“Professor Dorn .… discusses severally the theories that have been maintained of the descent of the Afghauns: 1st, from the Copts; 2nd, the Jews; 3rd, the Georgians; 4th, the Toorks; 5th, the Moguls; 6th, the Armenians: and he mentions more cursorily the opinion that they are descended from the Indo-Scythians, Medians, Sogdians, Persians, and Indians: on considering all which, he comes to the rational conclusion, that they cannot be traced to any tribe or country beyond their present seats and the adjoining mountains.”—Elphinstone’s Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 209.

AFRICO, n.p. A negro slave.

1682.—“Here we met with y^e Barbadoes Merchant.… James Cock, Master, laden with Salt, Mules, and Africos.”—Hedges, Diary, Feb. 27. [Hak. Soc. i. 16.]

[AGAM, adj. A term applied to certain cloths dyed in some particular way. It is the Ar. ’ajam (lit. “one who has an impediment or difficulty in speaking Arabic”), a foreigner, and in particular, a Persian. The adj. ’ajami thus means “foreign” or “Persian,” and is equivalent to the Greek barbaros and the Hind. mlecha. Sir G. Birdwood (Rep. on Old Rec., p. 145) quotes from Hieronimo di Santo Stefano (1494- 99), “in company with some Armenian and Azami merchants”: and (ibid.) from Varthema: “It is a country of very great traffic in merchandise, and particularly with the Persians and Azamini, who come so far as there.”]

[1614.—“Kerseys, Agam colours.”—Foster, Letters, ii. 237.

1614.—“Persia will vent five hundred cloths and one thousand kerseys, Agam colours, per annum.”—Ibid. ii. 237.]

AGAR-AGAR, s. The Malay name of a kind of sea-weed (Spherococcus lichenoides). It is succulent when boiled to a jelly; and is used by the Chinese with birdsnest (q.v.) in soup. They also employ it as a glue, and apply it to silk and paper intended to be transparent. It grows on the shores of the Malay Islands, and is much exported to China.—(See Crawfurd, Dict. Ind. Arch., and Milburn, ii. 304).