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Janjīrā was a princely state in India, south of Mumbai, with an area of 844 square kilometres and a population (in 1941) of 103,557. Most of its inhabitants were Hindus, but the rulers were Muslims of African ancestry. The African-Indians of Janjīrā were called either Sīdī—probably from sayyidī, “my master,” originally a title for aristocrats in general, later confined largely to African nobles and now used for any African-Indian (for a discussion of etymologies, with alternative suggestions, see Lodhi, 302–3)—or Ḥabshī ( ḥabashī, Abyssinian). The ancestors of the Sīdīs of Ja…

Junagarh (Junāgaŕh, from jūnun “old” and gaďh “fort” in Gujarātī; more fanciful etymologies have been proposed) is a city in the Saurashtra or Kathiawar peninsula of India, now the headquarters of the Junagarh district of Gujarat state. From 1167/1754 to 1368/1949, it was the capital of a princely state of the same name, also known as Sorath (a variant of Saurashtra). 1. Geography and people The state had an area of 8,643 square kilometres in 1947. It included the Girnar mountains and the Gir forest which, in the nineteenth century, covered a third of its ter…

The history of Kachchh (Kachchh, often spelt Kutch) in western India has been affected by its status as a maritime centre and by its geographical location between Sind and Gujarat (Gujarāt). The region’s ports long handled much of the overseas trade of the northern Indian subcontinent, and for centuries Kachchhī sailors have ranged across the Indian Ocean. 1. Population The Arab conquest of Sind in 90–2/709–11 placed Kachchh on the frontier between Muslim-dominated Sind to the north and the Hindu-ruled states of Saurāshtra (now part of Gujarat) to the s…