White Mughals by William Dalrymple Read Free Book Online

festival in which participants sprinkle red and yellow powder on one another
    Hookah ✷ Waterpipe or hubble bubble
    Id ✷ The two greatest Muslim festivals: Id ul-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, and Id ul-Zuha commemorates the delivery of Isaac. To celebrate the latter a ram or goat is slaughtered, as on the original occasion recorded in both the Old Testament and the Koran
    Iftar ✷ The evening meal to break the Ramadan fast
    Jagir ✷ Landed estate, granted for service rendered to the state and whose revenues could be treated as income by the jagirdar
    Jali ✷ A latticed stone or wooden screen
    Jashn ✷ Party or marriage feast
    Karkhana ✷ Workshop or factory
    Khanazad ✷ Palace-born princes
    Khansaman ✷ In the eighteenth century the word meant butler. Today it more usually means cook
    Khanum ✷ A junior wife or concubine
    Kharita ✷ Sealed Mughal brocade bag used to send letters as an alternative to an envelope
    Khilat ✷ Symbolic court dress
    Kotwal ✷ The police chief, chief magistrate or city administrator in a Mughal town
    Lakh ✷ One hundred thousand
    Langar ✷ Free distribution of food during a religious festival
    Lathi ✷ Truncheon or stick
    Lota ✷ Water pot
    Lungi ✷ Indian-type sarong, longer version of the dhoti (qv)
    Mahal ✷ Lit. ‘palace’, but often used to refer to sleeping apartments or the zenana wing of a palace or residence
    Maistry ✷ (modern Hindi: mistri ) A highly skilled foreman or master craftsman. According to Hobson Jobson the word, ‘a corruption of of the Portuguese mestre has spread into the vernaculars all over India and is in constant Anglo-Indian use’
    Majlis ✷ Assembly, especially the gatherings during Muharram (qv)
    Mansabdar ✷ A Mughal nobleman and office-holder, whose rank was decided by the number of cavalry he would supply for battle—for example, a mansabdar of 2500 would be expected to provide 2500 horsemen when the Nizam went to war
    Marqana ✷ Stalactite-type decoration over a mosque or palace gateway
    Marsiya ✷ Urdu or Persian lament or dirge for the martyrdom of Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet, sung in the ashur khana (qv) mourning halls during the festival of Muharram (qv)
    Masnavi ✷ Persian or Urdu love lyric
    Maula ✷ ‘My Lord’
    Mehfil ✷ An evening of courtly Mughal entertainment, normally including dancing, the recitation of poetry and the singing of ghazals (qv)
    Mihrab ✷ The niche in a mosque pointing in the direction of Mecca
    Mir ✷ Title given before a name usually signifying that the holder is a sayyed (qv)
    Mirza ✷ Prince or gentleman
    Mohalla ✷ A distinct quarter of a Mughal city—i.e. a group of residential lanes, usually entered through a single gate
    Muharram ✷ The great Shi’a Muslim festival commemorating the defeat and death of Imam Hussain, the Prophet’s grandson. Celebrated with particular gusto in Hyderabad and Lucknow
    Mujtahid ✷ A cleric; one who does ijtehad , the interpretation of religious texts
    Munshi ✷ Indian private secretary or language teacher
    Mushaira ✷ Poetic symposium
    Musnud ✷ The low arrangement of cushions and bolsters which formed the throne of Indian rulers at this period
    Nabob ✷ English corruption of the Hindustani nawab , literally ‘deputy’, which was the title given by the Mughal emperors to their regional governors and viceroys. In England it became a term of abuse directed at returned ‘old India hands’, especially after Samuel Foote’s 1779 play The Nabob brought the term into general circulation
    Naqqar khana ✷ Ceremonial drum house
    Nautch ✷ Indian dance display
    Nazr ✷ Symbolic gift given in Indian courts to a feudal superior
    Nizam ✷ Part of the title of the first Subedar of the Deccan, Asaf Jah, Nizam ul-Mulk. In the fashion of the time, Asaf Jah became effectively independent of the Mughal government in Delhi, and at his death in 1748 his title was claimed as hereditary by his dynastic successors, starting with his illegitimate younger son