Arab surname is an Indian last name. Arab surname also indicates the caste of person. Arab surname definition is This designation is sometimes returned by the descendants of the Arab mercenaries of the Bhonsla kings These were at one time largely employed by the different rulers of southern India and made the best of soldiers In the Maratha armies2 their rate of pay was Rs 12 a month while the ordinary infantry received only Rs 5 General Hislop stated their character as follows: There are perhaps no troops in the world that will make a stouter or more determined stand at their posts than the Arabs They are entirely unacquainted with military evolutions and undisciplined; but every Arab has a pride and heart of his own that never forsakes him as long as he has legs to stand on They are naturally brave and possess the greatest coolness and quickness of sight: hardy and fierce through habit and bred to the use of the matchlock from their boyhood: and they attain a precision and skill in the use of it that would almost exceed belief bringing down or wounding the smallest object at a considerable distance and not unfrequently birds with a single bullet They are generally armed with a matchlock a couple of swords with three or four small daggers stuck in front of their belts and a shield On common occasions of attack and defence they fire but one bullet but when hard pressed at the breach they drop in two three and four at a time from their mouths always carrying in them from eight to ten bullets which are of a small size We may calculate the whole number of Arabs in the service of the Peshwa and the Berar Raja at 6000 men a loose and undisciplined body but every man of them a tough and hardy soldier It was to the Arabs alone those Provinces looked and placed their dependence on Their own troops fled and abandoned them seldom or never daring to meet our smallest detachment Nothing can exceed the horror and atarm with which some of our native troops view the Arab At Nagpur in November 1817 the Arabs alone attacked us on the defence and reduced us to the last extremity when we were saved by Captain Fitzgeralds charge The Arabs attacked us at Koregaon and would have certainly destroyed us had not the Peshwa withdrawn his troops on General Smiths approach The Arabs kept General Doveton at bay with his whole army at Nagpur for several days repulsing our attack at the breach and they gained their fullest terms The Arabs worsted us for a month at Malegaon and saved their credit They terrified the Surat authorities by their fame alone They gained their terms of money from Sir John Malcolm at Asirgarh They maintained to the last for their prince their post at Alamner and nobly refused to be bought over there They attacked us bravely but unfortunately at Talner They attacked Captain Sparks detachment on the defence and destroyed it They attacked a battalion of the 14th Madras Infantry with 26-pounders and compelled them to seek shelter in a village; and they gave us a furious wind-up at Asirgarh Yet the whole of these Arabs were not 6000. There is no doubt that the Arabs are one of the finest fighting races of the world Their ancestors were the Saracens who gained a great empire in Europe and Asia Their hardihood and powers of endurance are brought to the highest pitch by the rigours of desert life while owing to their lack of nervous sensibility the shock and pain of wounds affect them less than civilised troops And in addition their religion teaches that all who die in battle against the infidel are transported straight to a paradise teeming with material and sensual delights Arab troops are still employed in Hyderabad State Mr Stevens notices them as follows in his book In India: A gang of half-a-dozen brilliantly dishevelled a faggot of daggers with an antique pistol or two in each belt and a six-foot matchlock on each shoulder They serve as irregular troops there and it must be owned that if irregularity is what you want no man on earth can supply it better The Arab irregulars are brought over to serve their time and then sent back to Arabia; there is one at this moment who is a subaltern in Hyderabad but as soon as he crosses the British border gets a salute of nine guns; he is a Sheikh in his own country near Aden The Arabs who have been long resident here have adopted the ways and manners of other Musalmans Their marriages are in the Nikah form and are marked by only one4 dinner following the example of the Prophet who gave a dinner at the marriage of his daughter the Lady Fatimah and Ali In obedience to the order of the Prophet a death is followed by no signs of mourning Arabs marry freely with other Sunni Muhammadans and have no special social or religious organisation The battle-cry of the Arabs at Sitabaldi and Nagpur was Din Din Muhammad”. People with Arab surname can also be found in other south asian countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Arab surname definition is from a survey conducted during British rule in India. Many surnames in India indicate the type of work done by the person or by someone in family from whom the family inherited the surname. Surnames help spread casteism in India. One of the intellectuals suggested to drop surnames in India so that people can overcome caste differences easily.
