Chapter MOBED to MOGUL of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

repos, je ne suis pas étonné si vous prenez parti dans l’affaire de Lazaro ci-devant courtier et Modeliar de la Compagnie.”—Norbert, Mémoires, i. 274.

1726.—“Modelyaar. This is the same as Captain.”—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 9.

1810.—“We…arrived at Barbareen about two o’clock, where we found that the provident Modeliar had erected a beautiful rest-house for us, and prepared an excellent collation.”—Maria Graham, 98.

MOFUSSIL, s., also used adjectively, “The provinces,”—the country stations and districts, as contra- distinguished from ‘the Presidency’; or, relatively, the rural localities of a district as contra-distinguished from the sudder or chief station, which is the residence of the district authorities. Thus if, in Calcutta, one talks of the Mofussil, he means anywhere in Bengal out of Calcutta; if one at Benares talks of going into the Mofussil, he means going anywhere in the Benares division or district (as the case might be) out of the city and station of Benares. And so over India. The word (Hind. from Ar.) mufassal means properly ‘separate, detailed, particular,’ and hence ‘provincial,’ as mufassal ’adalat, a ‘provincial court of justice.’ This indicates the way in which the word came to have the meaning attached to it.

About 1845 a clever, free-and-easy newspaper, under the name of The Mofussilite, was started at Meerut, by Mr. John Lang, author of Too Clever by Half, &c., and endured for many years:

1781.—“…a gentleman lately arrived from the Moussel” (plainly a misprint).—Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, March 31.

„ “A gentleman in the Mofussil, Mr. P., fell out of his chaise and broke his leg.…”—Ibid., June 30.

1810.—“Either in the Presidency or in the Mofussil.…”—Williamson, V. M. ii. 499.

1836.—“…the Mofussil newspapers which I have seen, though generally disposed to cavil at all the acts of the Government, have often spoken favourably of the measure.”—T. B. Macaulay, in Life, &c. i. 399.

MOGUL, n.p. This name should properly mean a person of the great nomad race of Mongols, called in Persia, &c., Mughals; but in India it has come, in connection with the nominally Mongol, though essentially rather Turk, family of Baber, to be applied to all foreign Mahommedans from the c ountries on the W. and N.W. of India, except the Pathans. In fact these people themselves make a sharp distinction between the Mughal Irana, of Pers. origin (who is a Shaah), and the M. Tarana of Turk origin (who is a Sunni). Beg is the characteristic affix of the Mughal’s name, as Khan is of the Pathan’s. Among the Mahommedans of S. India the Moguls or Mughals constitute a strongly marked caste. [They are also clearly distinguished in the Punjab and N.W.P.] In the quotation from Baber below, the name still retains its original application. The passage illustrates the tone in which Baber always speaks of his kindred of the Steppe, much as Lord Clyde used sometimes to speak of “confounded Scotchmen.”

In Port. writers Mogol or Mogor is often used for “Hindostan,” or the territory of the Great Mogul.

1247.—“Terra quaedam est in partibus orientis…quae Mongal nominatur. Haec terra quondam populos quatuor habuit: unus Yeka Mongal, id est magni Mongali.…”—Joannis de Plano Carpini, Hist. Mongalorum, 645.

1253.—“Dicit nobis supradictus Coiac. …‘Nolite dicere quod dominus noster sit christianus. Non est christianus, sed Moal’; quia enim nomen christianitatis videtur eis nomen cujusdem gentis…volentes nomen suum, hoc est Moal, exaltare super omne nomen, nec volunt vocari Tartari.”—Itin. Willielmi de Rubruk, 259.

1298.—“…Mungal, a name sometimes applied to the Tartars.”—Marco Polo, i. 276 (2nd ed.).

c. 1300.—“Ipsi verò dicunt se descendisse de Gog et Magog. Vnde ipsi dicuntur Mogoli, quasi corrupto vocabulo Magogoli.” —Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, in Per. Quatuor, p. 118.

c. 1308.—[Greek Text] “ ‘O O de NogaV . . . dV ama pleistaiV dunamesin ex omogenwn Tocarwn; ouV autoi MougouliouV legousi, exapostaleiV ek twn kata taV KaspiaV arcontwn tou genouV ouV KanioaV stomazousin.”—Georg. Pachymeres, de Mich. Palaeol., lib. v.

c. 1340.—“In the first place from Tana to Gintarchan may be 25 days with an ox- waggon, and from 10 to 12 days with a horse-waggon. On the road you will find plenty of Moccols, that is to say of armed troopers.”—Pegolotti, on the Land Route to Cathay, in Cathay, &c., ii. 287.

1404.—“And the territory of this empire of Samarkand is called the territory of Mogalia, and the language thereof is called Mugalia, and they don’t understand this language on this side of the River (the Oxus)…for the character which is used by those of Samarkand beyond the river is not understood or read by those on this side the river; and they call that character Mongali, and the Emperor keeps by him certain scribes who can read and write this Mogali character.”—Clavijo, § ciii. (Comp. Markham, 119–120.)

c. 1500.—“The Moghul troops, which had come to my assistance, did not attempt to fight, but instead of fighting,