The Bund (2)

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The word "Bund" means an embankment or an embanked quay, and comes from the Persian word band, meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms, bind and band, German term, bund, etc.). The term was brought to India (where it came to be pronounced as "bund") by either the Mughals in at the beginning of the 16th century, or possibly, by the Baghdadi Jews like the family of David Sassoon, and thence to Shanghai by the family of Victor Sassoon. There are many "bands" to be found in Baghdad, even at present. There are numerous sites in India, China, and Japan which are called "bunds". However, "the Bund" as a proper noun almost invariably refers to this particular stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.

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