Khawaja

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Khawaja (Persian: خواجه, romanized: khwāja) is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, particularly towards Sufi teachers. It is also used by Kashmiri Muslims and Mizrahi Jews—particularly Kurdish Jews. Usually, the title was given in the Arabic-speaking world to non-Muslim dignitaries, usually to Jews or Christians. The Persian word khwāja roughly translates to 'Lord' or 'Master'. It comes from an Indo-Aryan Prakrit loanword uvaǰǰhāa, via a local reflex in the language of Kashgar, meaning 'Master', as derived by P. Pelliot; according to Garnik Asatrian, although Iranian etymologies have been proposed, it is more likely from a Prakrit root. The Ottoman Turkish pronunciation of the Persian khwāja gave rise to hodja and its equivalents such as hoca in modern Turkish, hoxha in Albanian, խոջա (xoǰa) in Armenian, xoca (khoja) in Azerbaijani, hodža/хоџа in Bosnian, ходжа (khodzha) in Bulgarian and Russian, χότζας (chótzas) in Greek, and hoge...

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