The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
To Tauris or Casbeen...."
Paradise Lost, x. 431 seqq.
1673.—"But the Suffee's Vicar-General is by his Place the Second Person in the Empire, and always the first Minister of State."—Fryer, 338.
1681.—"La quarta parte comprehende el Reyno de Persia, cuyo Señor se llama en estos tiempos, el Gran Sophi."—Martinez, Compendio, 6.
1711.—"In Consideration of the Company's good Services ... they had half of the Customs of Gombroon given them, and their successors, by a Firman from the Sophi or Emperor."—Lockyer, 220.
1727.—"The whole Reign of the last Sophi or King, was managed by such Vermin, that the Ballowches and Mackrans ... threw off the Yoke of Obedience first, and in full Bodies fell upon their Neighbours in Caramania."—A. Hamilton, i. 108; [ed. 1744, i. 105].
1815.—"The Suffavean monarchs were revered and deemed holy on account of their descent from a saint."—Malcolm, H. of Pers. ii. 427.
1828.—"It is thy happy destiny to follow in the train of that brilliant star whose light shall shed a lustre on Persia, unknown since the days of the earlier Soofees."—J. B. Fraser, The Kuzzilbash, i. 192.
SOUBA, SOOBAH, s. Hind. from Pers. ṣūba. A large Division or Province of the Mogul Empire (e.g. the Ṣūbah of the Deccan, the Ṣūbah of Bengal). The word is also frequently used as short for Sūbadār (see [SOUBADAR]), 'the Viceroy' (over a ṣūba). It is also "among the Maraṭhas sometimes applied to a smaller division comprising from 5 to 8 ṭarafs" (Wilson).