Anglo-Indian. Also soubah, soobah, suba. [Urdu = Arab. çūbah.]
1. A province of the Mogul empire.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. XIV. v. 362. Mahommed khan, was … dispatched … to demand … four provinces [Note, These the indians call soubahs.]
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 532. The names of the Soubahs, or Vice-royalties were Allahabad [etc.].
1806. T. Maurice, Ind. Antiq., I. 134. So accurate an account of the geography of the Indian Subahs.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, I. 141. [Akber’s] administrative divisions of the empire into provinces or subahs.
2. = SUBAHDAR.
1753. Orme, Hist. Fragm. (1805), 400. A Nabob, although appointed by a Subah, ought to have his commission confirmed by the King.
1788. Burke, Sp. agst. W. Hastings, Wks. XIII. 96. There was not a captain of a band of ragged topasses that looked for any thing less than the deposition of soubahs.
1884. Encycl. Brit., XVII. 343/2. The revenue, when collected by the various sūbas, is transmitted under an escort to the Government treasury.
