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