SHA, SAH, s. A merchant or banker; often now attached as a surname. It is Hind. sāh and sāhu from Skt. sādhu, 'perfect, virtuous, respectable' 'prudhomme'). See [SOWCAR].
[c. 1809.—"... the people here called Mahajans ([Mahajun]), Sahu, and Bahariyas, live by lending money."—Buchanan Hamilton, E. India, ii. 573.]
SHABASH! interj. 'Well done!' 'Bravo!' Pers. Shā-bāsh. 'Rex fias!'[[243]] [Rather shād-bāsh, 'Be joyful.']
c. 1610.—"Le Roy fit rencontre de moy ... me disant vn mot qui est commun en toute l'Inde, à savoir Sabatz, qui veut dire grand mercy, et sert aussi à louer vn homme pour quelque chose qu'il a bien fait."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 224.
[1843.—"I was awakened at night from a sound sleep by the repeated savāshes! wāh! wāhs! from the residence of the thanndar."—Davidson, Travels in Upper India, i. 209.]
SHABUNDER, s. Pers. Shāh-bandar, lit. 'King of the Haven,' Harbour-Master. This was the title of an officer at native ports all over the Indian seas, who was the chief authority with whom foreign traders and ship-masters had to transact. He was often also head of the Customs. Hence the name is of prominent and frequent occurrence in the old narratives. Portuguese authors generally write the word Xabander; ours Shabunder or Sabundar. The title is not obsolete, though it does not now exist in India; the quotation from Lane shows its recent existence in Cairo, [and the Persians still call their Consuls Shāh-bandar (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 158)]. In the marine Malay States the Shābandar was, and probably is, an important officer of State. The passages from Lane and from Tavernier show that the title was not confined to seaports. At Aleppo Thevenot (1663) calls the corresponding official, perhaps by a mistake, 'Scheik Bandar' (Voyages, iii. 121). [This is the office which King Mihrjān conferred upon Sindbad the Seaman, when he made him "his agent for the port and registrar of all ships that entered the harbour" (Burton, iv. 351)].
c. 1350.—"The chief of all the Musulmans in this city (Kaulam—see [QUILON]) is Mahommed Shāhbandar."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 100.
c. 1539.—"This King (of the Batas) understanding that I had brought him a Letter and a Present from the Captain of Malaca, caused me to be entertained by the Xabandar, who is he that with absolute Power governs all the affairs of the Army."—Pinto (orig. cap. xv.), in Cogan's Transl. p. 18.
1552.—"And he who most insisted on this was a Moor, Xabandar of the Guzarates" (at Malacca).—Castanheda, ii. 359.
1553.—"A Moorish lord called Sabayo ([Sabaio]) ... as soon as he knew that our ships belonged to the people of these parts of Christendom, desiring to have confirmation on the matter, sent for a certain Polish Jew who was in his service as Shabandar (Xabandar), and asked him if he knew of what nation were the people who came in these ships...."—Barros, I. iv. 11.