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Asker: Soldier EN[1] [ Dede Korkut Kitabı, 1400] Tekür daχı ˁaskerini cem edüp [ordusunu toplayıp] karşu çıkdılar
fromAR ˁaskar عسكر ordu ≈Farsi laşkar لشكر ordu, leşker.
çeri: oldTR: [ Küli Çors yazıtı, 800] süŋüş bolsar çerig éter erti [savaş olsa ordu düzer idi] KazakTR: [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303] exercitus [ordu] Farsi: lasχar [leşker] TR: čeryi (...) armiragius [komutan] - TR: čeribasi << oldTRçerig savaşta asker safı, ordu.
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, and other territories located to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, who were employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 20th century.
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Three lascar crew of the P&O liner RMS Viceroy of India
The Hindi word lashkar (army) derives from al-askar, the Arabic word for a guard or soldier. The Portuguese adapted this term to "lascarim", meaning Asian militiamen or seamen, specifically from any area east of the Cape of Good Hope. This means that Indian, Malay, Chinese and Japanese crewmen were covered by the Portuguese definition. The British of the East India Company initially described Indian lascars as 'Black Portuguese' or 'Topazes', but later adopted the Portuguese name, calling them 'lascar'. Lascars served on British ships under "lascar agreements." These agreements allowed shipowners more control than was the case in ordinary articles of agreement. The sailors could be transferred from one ship to another and retained in service for up to three years at one time. The name lascar was also used to refer to Indian servants, typically engaged by British military officers.[2]
The term Lascar is inextricably linked with the history of the Indian Ocean but has been more than often ignored by historians, deliberately. The roots of the Lascars can be traced to the western coast of India some hundred years after the advent of Islam. The Arab soldiers, who were on frequent trade expeditions to this area, were encouraged by the Indian princes and rulers of southern India to settle on the coastal area in order to impart their skills and knowledge in navigation, ship building and maritime affairs to their natives. Since the 7th century, the close interaction of the Indian rulers with Arab sailors made them realize that they could wield tremendous power and authority through trade and maritime activities. The indo-Arab partnership was consolidated by a relationship that over years produced a class of people of Indo-Arab blood, Known as lascars.
In 1342 when iben Batuta, the famous Arab globe trotter visited India, he witnessed Calicut (today known as Kozhikode) as a prosperous and busy commercial port flanked with minarets and temples. By the 15th century, the lascars had attained good reputation of their expertise in seamanship, shipbuilding and port activities and successive Europeans Powers, batting to hold their grip in the Indian Ocean region, relied heavily on the services of the lascars. In 1498 Vasco da Gama , the first European to reach India by sea , sought services from the Arab navigator jbn Mazid and hired a lascars at Malindi (a coastal settlement in east Africa) to steer the Portuguese ships across the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the Malabar coast of India. Portuguese ships continued to employ lascars in large numbers throughout the 16th & 17th centuries mainly from Goa and other Portuguese colonies in India The need for employing the lascars arose because of high rates of sickness and death of European sailors of Indian-bound ships and their frequent desertions in India, thus leaving the ships short of crew for the return voyages. The European preferred the lascars because of their daring spirit, hard work, resilience, skills and knowledge of the Indian Ocean currents and winds. see more
[1] soldier (v.) "to serve as a soldier," 1640s, from soldier (n.). Related: Soldiered; soldiering. To soldier on "persist doggedly" is attested from 1954.
soldier (n.)
c. 1300, souder, from Old French soudier, soldier "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (source also of Spanish soldado, Italian soldato), literally "one having pay," from Late Latin soldum, extended sense of accusative of Latin solidus, name of a Roman gold coin (see solidus).
The -l- has been regular in English since mid-14c., in imitation of Latin. Willie and Joe always say sojer in the Bill Mauldin cartoons, and this seems to mirror 16c.-17c. spellings sojar, soger, sojour. Modern French soldat is borrowed from Italian and displaced the older French word; one of many military (and other) terms picked up during the Italian Wars in early 16c.; such as alert, arsenal, colonel, infantrie, sentinel.
Old slang names for military men circa early 19c. include mud-crusher "infantryman," cat-shooter "volunteer," fly-slicer "cavalryman," jolly gravel-grinder "marine."
[2] Interracial marriage was fairly Common in Britains from the 17th century , when the British East India Company began bringing over thousands of Sylheti scholars, lascars and workers (mostly Bengali Muslims) to Britain , most of Whom married and cohabited with local English Women .
This later became an issue , as a magistrate of the London Tower Hamlets area in 1817 expressed disgust at how the local English women in the area were marrying and cohabiting almost exclusively with foreign Indian lascars seamen. Nevertheless, there were no legal restrictions against mixed marriages in Britain. Families with Indian Lascars fathers and English mothers established interracial communities in Britains dock areas.
This led to a growing number of mixed race children being born in the country, which challenged the British elite efforts to define them using simple dichotomies Of British Versus Indian , ruler versus ruled. The number of women of colour in Britain was often outnumbered by half-caste Indian daughters born from white mother and Indian fathers.
Asker: Soldier EN[1] [ Dede Korkut Kitabı, 1400] Tekür daχı ˁaskerini cem edüp [ordusunu toplayıp] karşu çıkdılar
fromAR ˁaskar عسكر ordu ≈Farsi laşkar لشكر ordu, leşker.
çeri: oldTR: [ Küli Çors yazıtı, 800] süŋüş bolsar çerig éter erti [savaş olsa ordu düzer idi] KazakTR: [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303] exercitus [ordu] Farsi: lasχar [leşker] TR: čeryi (...) armiragius [komutan] - TR: čeribasi << oldTRçerig savaşta asker safı, ordu.
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, and other territories located to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, who were employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 20th century.
The Hindi word lashkar (army) derives from al-askar, the Arabic word for a guard or soldier. The Portuguese adapted this term to "lascarim", meaning Asian militiamen or seamen, specifically from any area east of the Cape of Good Hope. This means that Indian, Malay, Chinese and Japanese crewmen were covered by the Portuguese definition. The British of the East India Company initially described Indian lascars as 'Black Portuguese' or 'Topazes', but later adopted the Portuguese name, calling them 'lascar'. Lascars served on British ships under "lascar agreements." These agreements allowed shipowners more control than was the case in ordinary articles of agreement. The sailors could be transferred from one ship to another and retained in service for up to three years at one time. The name lascar was also used to refer to Indian servants, typically engaged by British military officers.[2]
The term Lascar is inextricably linked with the history of the Indian Ocean but has been more than often ignored by historians, deliberately. The roots of the Lascars can be traced to the western coast of India some hundred years after the advent of Islam. The Arab soldiers, who were on frequent trade expeditions to this area, were encouraged by the Indian princes and rulers of southern India to settle on the coastal area in order to impart their skills and knowledge in navigation, ship building and maritime affairs to their natives. Since the 7th century, the close interaction of the Indian rulers with Arab sailors made them realize that they could wield tremendous power and authority through trade and maritime activities. The indo-Arab partnership was consolidated by a relationship that over years produced a class of people of Indo-Arab blood, Known as lascars.
In 1342 when iben Batuta, the famous Arab globe trotter visited India, he witnessed Calicut (today known as Kozhikode) as a prosperous and busy commercial port flanked with minarets and temples. By the 15th century, the lascars had attained good reputation of their expertise in seamanship, shipbuilding and port activities and successive Europeans Powers, batting to hold their grip in the Indian Ocean region, relied heavily on the services of the lascars. In 1498 Vasco da Gama , the first European to reach India by sea , sought services from the Arab navigator jbn Mazid and hired a lascars at Malindi (a coastal settlement in east Africa) to steer the Portuguese ships across the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the Malabar coast of India. Portuguese ships continued to employ lascars in large numbers throughout the 16th & 17th centuries mainly from Goa and other Portuguese colonies in India The need for employing the lascars arose because of high rates of sickness and death of European sailors of Indian-bound ships and their frequent desertions in India, thus leaving the ships short of crew for the return voyages. The European preferred the lascars because of their daring spirit, hard work, resilience, skills and knowledge of the Indian Ocean currents and winds. see more
[1] soldier (v.) "to serve as a soldier," 1640s, from soldier (n.). Related: Soldiered; soldiering. To soldier on "persist doggedly" is attested from 1954.
soldier (n.)
c. 1300, souder, from Old French soudier, soldier "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (source also of Spanish soldado, Italian soldato), literally "one having pay," from Late Latin soldum, extended sense of accusative of Latin solidus, name of a Roman gold coin (see solidus).
The -l- has been regular in English since mid-14c., in imitation of Latin. Willie and Joe always say sojer in the Bill Mauldin cartoons, and this seems to mirror 16c.-17c. spellings sojar, soger, sojour. Modern French soldat is borrowed from Italian and displaced the older French word; one of many military (and other) terms picked up during the Italian Wars in early 16c.; such as alert, arsenal, colonel, infantrie, sentinel.
Old slang names for military men circa early 19c. include mud-crusher "infantryman," cat-shooter "volunteer," fly-slicer "cavalryman," jolly gravel-grinder "marine."
[2] Interracial marriage was fairly Common in Britains from the 17th century , when the British East India Company began bringing over thousands of Sylheti scholars, lascars and workers (mostly Bengali Muslims) to Britain , most of Whom married and cohabited with local English Women .
This later became an issue , as a magistrate of the London Tower Hamlets area in 1817 expressed disgust at how the local English women in the area were marrying and cohabiting almost exclusively with foreign Indian lascars seamen. Nevertheless, there were no legal restrictions against mixed marriages in Britain. Families with Indian Lascars fathers and English mothers established interracial communities in Britains dock areas.
This led to a growing number of mixed race children being born in the country, which challenged the British elite efforts to define them using simple dichotomies Of British Versus Indian , ruler versus ruled. The number of women of colour in Britain was often outnumbered by half-caste Indian daughters born from white mother and Indian fathers.