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Article: Vizier
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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VIZIER
VIZIER.
Vizier, 'helper' or 'deputy', a term first employed in the Koran, evolved to mean 'chief minister' in early Islamic history, possibly becoming an office of Arab administration with the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi (775
–
785). The title vizier was applied widely as an honorific for representatives of the caliph or sultan. The term "grand vizier" denoted those chief, or prime, ministers who served the Ottoman sultans from 1300 to 1923.
ORIGINS OF THE INSTITUTION
The Perso-Turkish word vizier (also "vezir," or "vizier") originates in the Arabic
waz
ī
r,
and appears in the Koranic verse "We gave Moses the book and made his brother Aaron his waz
ī
r," (Koran, ...