‖ saraf
(saˈrɑːf)
Also 6 xaraffe, -affo, 7 charaff, xeraffo, 9 sarraf, saraff, serof, -aff. See also shroff.
[Pers., etc., a. Arab. {cced}arrāf, f. {cced}arafa to exchange, corresp. to Heb. {cced}āraph to refine, assay (gold or silver), whence {cced}ōrēph refiner, worker in gold. Cf. F. cherafe (17th c.), Pg. xarrafo, {cced}arafo (16th c.).]
A banker or money-changer in the East; = shroff.
| 1598 W. Phillip tr. Linschoten i. xxxiii. 66/1 There is in euery place of the street exchangers of mony, by them [sc. Heathens] called Xaraffos, which are all christian Jewes. Ibid. 244 Xaraffes. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. vi. 330 The money-changers, whom they call Xeraffi [in Persia]. 1678 J. P. tr. Tavernier's Trav. I. ii. 4 There is no considerable payment made, which is not received by the Cheraff or Banker. 1811 Niebuhr's Trav. Arab. liii. in Pinkerton's Voy. X. 71 He sent us to receive the money from his Saraf, or banker. 1877 M{supc}Coan Egypt as it is 115 The mâmour..till the recent reform appointing a Controller-General of Receipts, received the taxes from the saraffs. 1883 C. J. Wills In Land of Lion & Sun xvii. 192 The business of the serof is despised as being a usurer on the sly. 1897 Blackw. Mag. July 24/2 They [sc. Armenians] prospered as our ‘Sarrafs’. |