OMLAH, s. This is properly the Ar. pl. 'amalat, 'amalā, of 'āmil (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. 1778.—"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. (Umarā, pl. of Amīr—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 umarāyān, 'omrahs.' From the remarks and quotations of Blochmann, it would seem that Manṣabdārs (see [MUNSUBDAR]), from the commandant of 1000 upwards, were styled umarā-i-kabār, or umara-i-'izām, 'Great Amīrs'; and these would be the Omrahs properly. Certain very high officials were styled Amīr-ul-Umarā (Āīn, 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.