Dragoman
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198523716
2008-03-16T00:35:37Z
AnonMoos
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please give some citation of surprising "fact"
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'''Dragoman''' designates the official title of a person who would function as an [[Interpreter (communication)|interpreter]], translator and official guide between [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and [[Persian language|Persian]]-speaking countries and [[polity|polities]] of the [[Middle East]] and [[Europe]]an [[Embassy|embassies]], [[consulate]]s, vice-consulates and [[trading post]]s. A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Turkish, and European languages.
The position took particular prominence in the [[Ottoman Empire]], where demand for the mediation provided by dragomans is said to have been created by the resistance on the part of the [[Islam|Muslim]] Ottomans to learn the languages of non-Muslim nations. The office incorporated [[diplomacy|diplomatic]] as well as linguistic duties — namely, in the [[Porte]]'s relation with [[Christendom|Christian countries]] — and some dragomans thus came to play crucial roles in Ottoman politics. The profession tended to be dominated by ethnic [[Greeks]], including the first Ottoman Grand Dragoman [[Panayotis Nicosias]], and [[Alexander Mavrocordato]].
It became customary that most [[hospodar]]s of the [[Phanariote]] rule (roughly 1711–1821) over the [[Danubian Principalities]] ([[Moldavia]] and [[Wallachia]]) would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area.
==Etymology and variants==
In [[Arabic language|Arabic]] the word is ترجمان (''tarjumān''), in [[Turkish language|Turkish]] ''tercüman''. Deriving from the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] [[quadriliteral]] root ''t-r-g-m'', it appears in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] as "targumannu," in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] as מתרגם (''metargem'') and in [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] as ''targemana''.
During the Middle Ages the word entered European languages: in [[Middle English]] as ''dragman'', in [[Old French]] as ''drugeman'', in [[Medieval Latin|Middle Latin]] as ''dragumannus'', and in [[Medieval Greek|Middle Greek]] δραγομάνος. Later European variants include the [[German language|German]] ''trutzelmann'', the [[French language|French]] ''trucheman'' or ''truchement'' (in modern French it is ''drogman''), the [[Italian language|Italian]] ''turcimanno'', and the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''trujamán'', ''trujimán'' and ''truchimán''; these variants point to a Turkish or Arabic word "turjuman", with different vocalization. ''[[Webster's Dictionary]]'' of 1828 lists ''dragoman'' as well as the variants ''drogman'' and ''truchman'' in English.
==See also==
*[[List of dragomans]]
==References==
*[[Bernard Lewis]], ''From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East'', [[Oxford University Press]], London and New York, 2004
*Philip Mansel, "Viziers and Dragomans," in ''Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924'', London, 1995. pp. 133-162
*Marie de Testa, Antoine Gautier, "Drogmans et diplomates européens auprès de la Porte Ottomane", in ''Analecta Isisiana'', vol. lxxi, Les Éditions ISIS, Istanbul, 2003
*Frédéric Hitzel (ed.), ''Istanbul et les langues Orientales'', Varia Turca, vol. xxxi, [[L'Harmattan]], Paris and Montreal, 1997
[[Category:Court titles]]
[[Category:Dragomans| ]]
[[Category:History of the Middle East]]
[[Category:Politics of the Ottoman Empire]]
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