Note 55 — BOOK I

Sehraie [in the text], from sahra, ‘desert.’ Hence Sarrazin, or Saracen, is a corruption from sahra, ‘desert,’ and zadan, ‘to strike,’ contracted. Rāhzani, ‘to strike on the road’ (rāh). Rāhbar, ‘on the road,’ corrupted by the Pindaris to labar, the designation of their forays. [The true name is Sahariya, which has been connected with that of the Savara, a tribe in Eastern India. Saracen comes to us from the late Latin Saraceni, of which the origin is unknown; it cannot be derived from the Arabic Sharqi, ‘eastern’ (see New English Dictionary, s.v.).]