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NOVEMBER, 1914.]
NOTES AND QUERIES
NOTES AND QUERIES.
SOME HOBSON-JOBSONS.
ACH-TACON-SHIACTEMES-ALYMBEIUS ALVANTE."As an instance of the absurd translations current in France as in England [in the seventeenth Century], the word ach-tacon may be mentioned. It is explained in [Sir John] Chardin's [traveller, 1643-1713] text to mean les hôpitaux à Tauris : c'est à-dire lieux ou l'on fait profusion de vivres, " [the hospitals at Tabriz (in Persia): that is to say, places where they make lots of victuals]. Chardin's Editor remarks: "La dernière partie de ce mot est inconnaisable, et je ne puis deviner quel mot Persan signifiant profusion a pu donne naissance à la corruption qu' on voit ici." [the last part of this word is beyond recognition, and I cannot guess what Persian word meaning 'profusion' have given birth to the corruption which one sees here]. In other words the first syllable ach (Anglice ash) was understood in its common acceptance for food' or victuals, but tacon was naturally a puzzle. The solution of the whole difficulty is however, to be found in the Turco-Persian
can
4
khastah khanah, pronounced by Turks hasta hona, or more vulgarly asta-khon, and even to a French ear ash-tacon, a hospital, literally a sick house. This word is undoubtedly current at Tabriz and throughout Northern Persia." Sir Frederick Goldsmid in Encyc. Brit. (XI Ed.) Vol. XXI, p. 230 footnote 6.
This note was drawn from the author by the corruption Shlacthames by the Venetian traveller Angiolello (16th Cent.) for Shah Tahmasp, the
JOANNES DE LAET ON INDIA AND SHAHJAHAN. DE LAET-De Imperio Magni Mogolis, sive India Vera; Commentarius e variis auctoribus congestus. Oum privileglo. Lugduni Batavorum. Ex officina Elzeviriana. Anno CIC IO CXXXI
The valuable ittle book published at Leyden in 1681 under the above title was brought prominently to the notice of students of Indian history and geography for the first time by the late E. Lethbridge. That gentleman published a disquisition, entitled Topography of the Mogul Empire' (Calc. Rev., October 1870; Jan. 1871), which, as Mr. E. Thomas observed, traces with equal patience and ability the geographical details fur
239
well-known second ruler of the Satavi Dynasty who reigned 52 years (1524-1576) and was the 'Great Sophie (Safi-Safavi, through Angiolello's. Sophl) to whom Queen Elizabeth sent Anthony Jenkins as ambasador in 1651.
that the identity of a remarkable man of those days, Sir Frederick Goldsmid also points out (p. 228) the Ak-küyünlü, or White Sheep Standard, Turkish ruler of Persia (1468-1478) Uzun Hasan (Long Hasan, was so lost by the corruptions, which his not very difficult name assumed in traveller's reports, that he has never received adequate justice at the hands of historians, Knolles Purchas (1575-1626) Caterino Zeno (late 15th Cent.), Sir Frederick says, called him so differently as Alymbelus, Asembelus, Asembee, Assimbeo, and Ussan Cassano.. We can get at the corruptions, however, reading. Alymbeius as a mistranscription for Asymbeius. The termination beo, beius similarly arise out of misreadings for bec-beg. So that all these words represent Hasan Beg. Ussan Cassano offers no difficulties as an Italianization of Uzun Hasan.
BOOK NOTICE.
Sir Frederick (loc. cit.), in describing the confused times between the death of Uzun Hasan and the rise of Isma'il Safavi (1478-1499), says that Zeno's account is, he was succeeded by his son Ya'qib (1478-1485), and Ya'qub by a son Allamur, known also as Alamot, Alvante, El-wand and Alwung Beg. Allamur and Alâmût (a name made famous through the Assassins (Hashishin) of Alâmût, are obviously the same word, and as obviously Alwung Beg is the original form of Alvante and El-wand.
R. C. TEMPLE..
nished by the opening chapter' of De Last's book Mr. Lethbridge (in Calc. Rev. 1873) followed up that disquisition by a translation of another section of the book, namely, the Fragmentum Historic Indica, as far as it relates to the reigns of Humâyân and Akbar, promising to complete the version. But, for some reason or other, the task was never completed.
Since 1873, other writers have referred occa. sionally to De Last's testimony, without making full use of his small volume. My studies having lately led me to examine it closely, I hope to find opportunities for publishing the results of my investigations, so far as they concern the reign of Akbar. At present I desire, in the first place, to draw attention to a discovery made by mo, namely.
