Chapter OMLAH to OOJYNE of O by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

OMLAH to OOJYNE

OMLAH, s. This is properly the Ar. pl. ’amalat, ‘amala, of ’amil (see AUMIL). It is applied on the Bengal side of India to the native officers, clerks, and other staff of a civil court or cutcherry (q.v.) collectively.

c. 1773.—“I was at this place met by the Omlah or officers belonging to the establishment, who hailed my arrival in a variety of boats dressed out for the occasion.”—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 167.

1866.—“At the worst we will hint to the Omlahs to discover a fast which it is necessary they shall keep with great solemnity.”—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 390.

The use of an English plural, omlahs, here is incorrect and unusual ; though omrahs is used (see next word).

1878.—“…the subordinate managers, young, inexperienced, and altogether in the hands of the Omlah.”—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 6.

OMRAH, s. This is properly, like the last word, an Ar. pl. (Umara, pl. of Amir—see AMEER), and should be applied collectively to the higher officials at a Mahommedan Court, especially that of the Great Mogul. But in old European narratives it is used as a singular for a lord or grandee of that Court ; and indeed in Hindustani the word was similarly used, for we have a Hind. plural umarayan, ‘omrahs.’ From the remarks and quotations of Blochmann, it would seem that Mansabdars (see MUNSUBDAR), from the commandant of 1000 upwards, were styled umara-i-kabar, or umara-i-’izam, ‘Great Amirs’ ; and these would be the Omrahs properly. Certain very high officials were styled Amir-ul-Umara (Ain, i. 239–240), a title used first at the Court of the Caliphs.

1616.—“Two Omrahs who are great Commanders.”—Sir T. Roe.

[ „ “The King lately sent out two Vmbras with horse to fetch him in.”—Ibid. Hak. Soc. ii. 417 ; in the same page he writes Vmreis, and in ii. 445, Vmraes.]

c. 1630.—“Howbeit, out of this prodigious rent, goes yearely many great payments : to his Leiftenants of Provinces, and Vmbrayes of Townes and Forts.”—Sir T. Herbert, p. 55.

1638.—“Et sous le commandement de plusieurs autres seigneurs de ceux qu’ils appellent Ommeraudes.”—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, p. 174.

1653.—“Il y a quantité d’elephans dans les Indes…les Omaras s’en seruent par grandeur.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 250.

c. 1664.—“It is not to be thought that the Omrahs, or Lords of the Mogul’s Court, are sons of great Families, as in France…these Omrahs then are commonly but Adventurers and Strangers of all sorts of Nations, some of them slaves ; most of them without instruction, which the Mogul thus raiseth to Dignities as he thinks good, and degrades them again, as he pleaseth.”—Bernier, E.T. 66 ; [ed. Constable, 211].

c. 1666.—“Les Omras sont les grand seigneurs du Roiaume, qui sont pour la plupart Persans ou fils de Persans.”—Thevenot, v. 307.

1673.—“The President…has a Noise of Trumpets…an Horse of State led before him, a Mirchal (see MORCHAL) (a Fan of Ostrich Feathers) to keep off the Sun, as the Ombrahs or Great Men have.”—Fryer, 86.

1676.—

“Their standard, planted on the battlement,
Despair and death among the soldiers sent ;
You the bold Omrah tumbled from the wall,
And shouts of victory pursued the fall.”

Dryden, Aurengzebe, ii. 1.

1710.—“Donna Juliana…let the Heer Ambassador know…that the Emperor had ordered the Ammaraws Enay Ullah Chan (&c.) to take care of our interests.”—Valentijn, iv. Suratte, 284.

1727.—“You made several complaints against former Governors, all of which I have here from several of my Umbras.”—Fir man of Aurangzib, in A. Hamilton, ii. 227 ; [ed. 1744, i. 231].

1791.—“…les Omrahs ou grands seigneurs Indiens.…”—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne, 32.

OMUM WATER, s. A common domestic medicine in S. India, made from the strong-smelling carminative seeds of an umbelliferous plant, Carum copticum, Benth. (Ptychotis coptica, and Ptych. Ajowan of Decand.), called in Tamil omam, [which comes from the Skt. yamani, yavani, in Hind. ajwan.] See Hanbury and Flückiger, 269.

OOJYNE, n.p. Ujjayani, or, in the modern vernacular, Ujjain, one of the most ancient of Indian cities, and one of their seven sacred cities. It was the capital of King Vikramaditya, and was the first meridian of Hindu astronomers, from which they calculated their longitudes.

The name of Ujjain long led to a curious imbroglio in the interpretation of the Arabian geographers. Its meridian, as we have just mentioned,