The Persian and Arabic authors, I have remarked, substitute Y for J in Scripture names; for instance, Jacob and Joseph are pronounced Yaacoob and Yeusuf.[15] They also differ from us in some names commencing with A, as in Abba, which they pronounce Ubba (Father); for Amen, they say Aameen[16] (the meaning strictly coinciding with ours); for Aaron, Aaroon; for Moses, Moosa.[17] I am told by those who are intimate with both languages, that there is a great similarity between the Hebrew and Arabic.  The passage in our Scripture ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabaethani,’ was interpreted to me by an Arabic scholar, as it is rendered in that well-remembered verse in the English translation.

[1] Sawari.

[2] The Padshah Begam was the widow of Ghazi-ud-din Haidar,
    King of Oudh.  On his death, in 1837, she contrived a plot to place his
    putative son, Munna Jan, on the throne.  After a fierce struggle in
    the palace, the revolt was suppressed by the Resident, Colonel Low,
    and his assistants, Captains Paton and Shakespear.  The pair were
    confined in the Chunar Fort till their deaths.  See the graphic
    narrative by Gen. Sleeman (Journey Through Oudh, ii. 172 ff.); also
    H.C.  Irwin (The Garden of India, 127 f.); Mrs. F. Parks (Wanderings
    of a Pilgrim, ii. 114).

[3] Khawass, ‘distinguished’:  special attendants.

[4] Mughlani, a Moghul woman:  an attendant in a zenana, a
    sempstress.

[5] Kahani.

[6] Chausa, chhahsa, not to be found in Platt’s Hindustani
    Dictionary.

[7] The game of Pachisi, played on a cloth marked in squares:  see
    Bombay Gazetteer, ix, part ii, 173.

[8] Gambling is one of the greater sins.—­Sale, Koran:  Preliminary
    Discourse, 89; Sells, Faith of Islam, 155.

[9] Fixed punkahs were introduced early in the nineteenth century.—­Yule,
    Hobson-Jobson, 744.

[10] Firdausi, author of the Shahnama, died A.D. 1020 or 1025,
    aged 89 years.  An abridged translation, to which reference is made, by
    J. Atkinson, was published in 1832.  It has since been translated by
    A.G. and E. Warner (1905), and by A. Rogers (1907).

[11] Shaikh Sa’di, born at Shiraz A.D. 1175, died 1292, aged 120
    lunar years.  His chief works are the Gulistan and the Bostan.

[12] Khwaja Hafiz, Shams-ud-din Muhammad, author of the
    Diwan Hafiz, died at Shiraz A.D. 1389, where his tomb at
    Musalla is the scene of pilgrimage; see E.G.  Browne, A Year amongst
    the Persians, 280 f.

[13] Gulistan.

[14] See p. 77.

[15] Ya’qub, Yusuf.

[16] Amin.

[17] Harun, Musa.

LETTER XVIII