Giaour
Giaour, Gawur or Ghiaour written gâvur in modern Turkish, is an offensive ethnic slur used by Muslims in Turkey and the Balkans to describe all who are non Muslim, with particular reference to Christians like Greeks,[1][2] Armenians, Bulgarians, Serbs[3] and Assyrians. The term is considered highly offensive by Christians in the Balkans.
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica described the term as follows:
Giaour (a Turkish adaptation of the Persian gdwr or gbr, an infidel), a word used by the Turks to describe all who are not Moslems, with especial reference to Christians. The word, first employed as a term of contempt and reproach, has become so general that in most cases no insult is intended in its use; similarly, in parts of China, the term foreign devil has become void of offence. A strict analogy to giaour is found in the Arabic kafir, or unbeliever, which is so commonly in use as to have become the proper name of peoples and countries.
[edit] See also
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Look up giaour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- The Giaour, a poem by Lord Byron
- Kafir, Kaffir
- Dhimmi
- Rayah
- Ary Scheffer, "Le Giaour", 1832, oil on canvas, Musée de la Vie romantique, Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris
[edit] References
- ^ James Lewis Farley, Turks and Christians, Adamant Media Corporation, ISBN 1402187866
- ^ James Finn. Stirring Times, Or, Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 To 1856, 2004, p. 12
- ^ http://www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo5.htm
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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