Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
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Wazīr
(14,750 words)
(a.), vizier or chief minister. I. In the Arab World 1. The ʿAbbāsids.
Etymology The term
wazīr occurs in the Ḳurʾān (XXV, 35: “We gave Moses the book and made his brother Aaron a
wazīr with him”), where it has the sense of “helper”, a meaning well attested in early Islamic poetry (for examples, see Goitein,
The origin of the vizierate, 170-1). Though several scholars have proposed Persian origins for the term and for the institution, there is no compelling reason to doubt the Arabic provenance of the term or an Arab-Islamic origin and evolution of the institution of the
wazīr (cf. Goitein,
op.
ci…