TURBAN, s. Some have supposed this well-known English word to be a corruption of the P.—H. sirband, 'head-wrap,' as in the following:

1727.—"I bought a few seerbunds and sannoes there (at Cuttack) to know the difference of the prices."—A. Hamilton, i. 394 (see [PIECE-GOODS]).

This, however, is quite inconsistent with the history of the word. Wedgewood's suggestion that the word may be derived from Fr. turbin, 'a whelk,' is equally to be rejected. It is really a corruption of one which, though it seems to be out of use in modern Turkish, was evidently used by the Turks when Europe first became familiar with the Ottomans and their ways. This is set forth in the quotation below from Zedler's Lexicon, which is corroborated by those from Rycaut and from Galland, &c. The proper word was apparently dulband. Some modern Persian dictionaries give the only meaning of this as 'a sash.' But Meninski explains it as 'a cloth of fine white muslin; a wrapper for the head'; and Vüllers also gives it this meaning, as well as that of a 'sash or belt.'[[272]] In doing so he quotes Shakespear's Dict., and marks the use as 'Hindustani-Persian.' But a merely Hindustani use of a Persian word could hardly have become habitual in Turkey in the 15th and 16th centuries. The use of dulband for a turban was probably genuine Persian, adopted by the Turks. Its etymology is apparently from Arab. dul, 'volvere,' admitting of application to either a girdle or a head-wrap. From the Turks it passed in the forms Tulipant, Tolliban, Turbant, &c., into European languages. And we believe that the flower tulip also has its name from its resemblance to the old Ottoman turban, Concise Dict. s.v. tulip, turban)].[[273]]

1487.—"... tele bambagine assai che loro chiamano turbanti; tele assai colla salda, che lor chiamano sexe (sash)...."—Letter on presents from the Sultan to L. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 371-72.

c. 1490.—"Estradiots sont gens comme Genetaires: vestuz, à pied et à cheval, comme les Turcs, sauf la teste, où ils ne portent ceste toille qu'ils appellent tolliban, et sont durs gens, et couchent dehors tout l'an et leurs chevaulx."—Ph. de Commynes, Liv. VIII. ch. viii. ed. Dupont (1843), ii. 456. Thus given in Danett's translation (1595): "These Estradiots are soldiers like to the Turkes Ianizaries, and attired both on foote and on horsebacke like to the Turks, save that they weare not vpon their head such a great roule of linnen as the Turkes do called (sic) Tolliban."—p. 325.

1586-8.—"... the King's Secretarie, who had upon his head a peece of died linen cloth folded vp like vnto a Turkes Tuliban."—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Hakl. iv. 33.

1588.—"In this canoa was the King's Secretarie, who had on his head a piece of died linen cloth folded vp like vnto a Turkes Tuliban."—Cavendish, ibid. iv. 337.

c. 1610.—"... un gros turban blanc à la Turque."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 98; [Hak. Soc. i. 132 and 165].

1611.—Cotgrave's French Dict. has: "Toliban: m. A Turbant or Turkish hat.

"Tolopan, as Turbant.