mukhtar

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See also: Mukhtar

English

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WOTD – 25 May 2021

Etymology

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From North Levantine Arabic مختار (“village headman”), from substantive application of Arabic مُخْتَار (muḵtār, “chosen”), the passive participle of اِخْتَارَ (iḵtāra, “to elect, to choose”). Specific application with influence from various local languages including Ottoman Turkish مختار (muhtar, “village headman”) and Bengali মুখতার (mukhtar), Marathi मुख्तार (mukhtār), and Urdu مختار (muktār, “agent; lawyer”). Within Indian English, the application of mukhtar is influenced by a folk etymology derivation from Sanskrit मुक्ति (mukti, “liberation, becoming or setting free”). Doublet of myftar.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mukhtar (plural mukhtars)

  1. (politics) A minor official—usually overseeing a village or town—in many Arab countries and (historical) in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, including Turkey, Northern Cyprus, and formerly Albania.
    • [1786, Eradut Khan, translated by Jonathan Scott, A Translation of the Memoirs of Eradut Khan, a Nobleman of Hindostan, Containing Interesting Anecdotes of the Emperor Aulumgeer Aurungzebe, and of His Successors Shaw Aulum and Jehaundar Shaw; […], London: […] John Stockdale, […], →OCLC, page 18:
      Mukhtar Khan, the ſoubadar, who was attached to Azim Shaw, and father-in-law to Bedar Bukht, hoping to impede his progreſs, ſunk all the boats in the Jumna, and placed guards at the neareſt fords.
      Used as a name. Footnote 5 at the word Mukhtar states: “Anglicè, Powerful lord.”]
    • 1848 May 21, Seentakroy Anundroy, “[Charges of Bribery against Hurree Lall, Connected with the Succession of the Bhaderwa State.] Substance of a Petition from Seentakroy Anundroy, Karkoon at Jhuguria, Tahe Rajpeepla, Illaka Rewa Kanta, to the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, Dated 21st, and Received 24th May 1848.”, in Accounts and Papers: […], volumes 14, part I (East India. Baroda.—Part I.), [London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office], →OCLC, paragraph 1, page 113:
      Afterwards, when the Raja complained against us, Mr. Ogilvy issued an order to me, No. 836 of 1845, directing us not to interfere with the jumebundee matters of the Raja, who was mooktar of his territory, but only to report cases in which he or his kharbarree might levy more than the assessment; accordingly I made several reports of over-exaction, which are on the agency records.
    • 1880, [Esmé] Scott-Stevenson, “The New Administration”, in Our Home in Cyprus, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 75:
      The Cypriote, like other Turkish, and, indeed, most Oriental villages, is under the charge of a head man, called a Mukhtar, assisted by a Council or Commission, consisting of three or more members belonging to a village. The Mukhtar is elected annually, and is paid by a contribution of so much per head of the population of the village. In some of the larger ones there are two Mukhtars: usually one Christian, and the other Moslem (they prefer this style to being called simply Greek and Turk).
    • 1884 January 12, “A Leper Farm in Cyprus”, in Littel’s Living Age, volume XLV (5th Series; volume CLX overall), number 2064, Boston, Mass.: Littel & Co., →OCLC, page 128, column 1:
      On my arrival at the gate I found that the doctor was absent; but I could see the mukhtar. The mukhtar is the principal man in every Cypriote village – a kind of mayor on a reduced scale. [From St. James's Gazette.]
    • 1888, G[ottlieb] Schumacher, “Position, Extent, Limits, and Administration of the Jaulân”, in [anonymous], transl., The Jaulân. Surveyed for the German Society for the Exploration of the Holy Land, […], London: Richard Bentley and Son, […], →OCLC, page 10:
      The Mudîr and Mukhtar are inferior officials of the Kaimakam. The Mukhtars, properly only village magistrates, have to look after the punctual payment of the taxes, and are responsible for them.
    • [1897], N. Ter Gregor, History of Armenia (Illustrated) from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time, London: J. Heywood, →OCLC, article 16, page 223:
      The villages comprised in the nahié shall each have a Mukhtar; if a village contains several wards, and if the inhabitants are divided into different classes, there shall be a Mukhtar for each ward and for each class of inhabitants.
    • 1919 October 17, “Palestine Notes”, in The Near East, volume XVI, number 441, London: The Near East Editorial and Publishing Offices, →OCLC, page 405, column 1:
      Leaflets in Arabic on some subjects, distributed to and through Mukhtars, might do good.
    • 1930 May 14, “Organic Statute of the Government of the Jebel Druse, Promulgated by Decree of the High Commissioner of the French Republic, No. 3114 of May 14th, 1930”, in League of Nations – Official Journal, number 9, [Geneva]: [League of Nations], published September 1930, →OCLC, article 20, page 1129:
      The above areas [cazas, mudirieh, and villages] shall be administered respectively by Kaimakams, Mudirs, and Mukhtars. These officials shall meet periodically at the chief town of the district for the discharge of current business.
    • 1950 February 27, “Druzes in Israel Elect Council”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      At Acre, 15,000 Druzes elected a six-member council comprising sheiks and mukhtars, their first official representative body since the establishment of Israel.
    • 2004 September–October, Robert M. Chamberlain, “101st FIST Platoon in SOSO: Lessons Learned from CMO”, in Patrecia Slayden Hollis, editor, Field Artillery: A Joint Magazine for US Field Artillerymen, Fort Sill, Okla.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, under the auspices of the US Army Field Artillery School, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34, column 1:
      Having done our initial assessments of community institutions, we began meeting with local leaders to gain their support of the US effort. In Iraq, we met with secular community leaders (called Muktars), local religious leaders, academic leaders from the university and city leaders from the newly selected Mosul City Council.
    • 2008, Caleb S. Cage, Gregory M. Tomlin, “Revisionistas: An Interlude”, in The Gods of Diyala: Transfer of Command in Iraq (Texas A&M University Military History Series; 118), College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, part 4 (Good Things, Bad People, and the Pictures to Prove It), page 158:
      I encouraged people to speak with their muqtars (informal mayors of small villages or city districts) and mayors about petitioning the Provincial Government for a portion of the funds for their dilapidated community.
    • 2009 August, Sadie Jones, Small Wars: […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper, published 2010, →ISBN, page 34:
      He and Hal started up the hill together towards the mukhtar’s house, as the trucks rattled away from them.
    • 2010, Hillel Cohen, “Beginning a Beautiful Friendship: The Rise of the Collaborator Class”, in Haim Watzman, transl., Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Forces and the Israeli Arabs, 1948–1967, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 25:
      During Israel's early years, there were three distinct types of mukhtars. […] All mukhtars were monitored constantly by the security forces, who produced frequent reports on them. […] In some villages and neighborhoods there was competition for the post of mukhtar, and winning the job was itself adequate compensation for assistance offered. But other mukhtars and collaborators frequently expected more concrete returns, and security officials grappled with the subject of how to compensate collaborators from the time the state was founded.
    • 2018, Ville Männistö, I Found Myself in Iraq, [Kolkata, West Bengal]: Living Word Publications, published 2020, page 92:
      Ahmed Jasso, the leader of the village (also known as the Muqtar) told everyone that living under ISIS would not be much different from the way life had been under Saddam Hussein.
    1. (specifically) Alternative spelling of muhtar: an elected official overseeing a village or neighborhood in modern Turkey.
  2. (India, historical) A person acting as an agent, particularly a lawyer. [early 19th – mid 20th c.]
    • 1827 December, “Art. VII.—Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825, […] by the late Right Rev. Reginald Heber, D.D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta.—London: John Murray, 1828. [book review]”, in The Quarterly Oriental Magazine, Review, and Register, volume VIII, number XVI, Calcutta, West Bengal: Thacker & Co. […], published 1828, →OCLC, page 197:
      [W]e took leave, escorted to the gate by our two young friends, and thence by a nearer way through the ruins to our pinnace, by an elderly man, who said he was the Raja's "Muktar," or chamberlain, and whose obsequious courtesy, high reverence for his master's family, and numerous apologies for the unprepared state in which we had found "the court," reminded me of old Caleb Balderstone [from Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor (1819)].
    • 1850, “Section X. Prohibiting Various Irregular Practices on the Part of the Police.”, in John C[lark] Marshman, compiler, The Darogah’s Manual, Comprising also the Duties of Landholders in Connection with the Police, Serampore, West Bengal: Serampore Press, →OCLC, paragraph 100, page 28:
      The Darogahs and other mofussil police officers are prohibited from employing any mokhtar or vakeel at the station of the zillah or city Magistrate, for the purpose of receiving and transmitting the salaries of the thannah establishment, or for any other purpose, connected with their public functions, except in particular cases, wherein they may be specially authorized by the Magistrate to employ a vakeel.
    • 1850 May, “I. Recollections of an Official Visit to the Ramgurh District.”, in The Benares Magazine, volume III, number 5, Mirzapore, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh: […] [Orphan School Press] for the proprietors, and sold by Messrs. Thacker & Co., […], →OCLC, page 357:
      Very shortly after my arrival, the Rajah's Mooktar had waited on me, and requested that his master might be allowed to present himself, as he had much to say to me of great importance.
    • 1855 October 2, “Bengal and Agra”, in The Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affairs, number 315, London: […] Richard Kinder [for] William Tweedie, →OCLC, page 443, column 2:
      The false rumours regarding the Santhals being in arms near Midnapore are said to have originated with some idle and mischievous Mooktars.
    • 1861 April 19, [Austen Henry] Layard, “Indigo Planting in Bengal. Question.”, in Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, […] (House of Commons), volume CLXII, London: Cornelius Buck, […], →OCLC, column 809:
      One mooktar or lawyer was sentenced by Mr. Betts, for the offence which was no offence at all, to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 200 rupees—the Act being alternative, and, in default of payment, to a further imprisonment of six months. […] Did not such a state of things as regards the ryots demand an expression of sympathy from the House?
    • 1870 May 3, F. B. Kemp, judge of the High Court of Judicature at Fort William, “Chedambara Chetty (Plaintiff) v. Renja Krishna Muthu Vira Puchanja Naiker (Defendant). [On Appeal from the High Court of Judicature at Madras.]”, in The Bengal Law Reports of Decisions of the High Court at Fort William, […], volume XIII, Calcutta, West Bengal: […] Thacker, Spink and Co., →OCLC, footnote (2), page 516:
      Sheikh Abed Hossein (Plaintiff) v. Lalla Ramsaran and Others (Defendants). […] The plaintiff in this case is a mukhtar of the Mozufferpore Zilla. […] Now in a case of this description where the plaintiff, who is a mukhtar of a Court, claims to be entitled to carry into specific performance an agreement alleged to have been entered into him and the defendants, which agreement savours of champerty, it is necessary that such a claim should be certain, fair, and just in all its parts.
    • 1883, J[ames] O’Kinealy, “Chapter III.—Of Parties and Their Appearances, Applications and Acts.”, in The Code of Civil Procedure: Act XIV of 1882. […], Calcutta, West Bengal: Brown & Co., […], →OCLC, part I (Of Suits in General), section 37, paragraph (b), page 68:
      By section 11, Act XX, 1865, mukhtars may subject to the conditions of their certificates as to the class of Courts in which they are authorized to practice, appear and act in any Civil Court, and appear, plead and act in any Criminal Court within the same limits. They cannot plead in Civil Courts. Merely bringing a plaint to a vakil for his signature […] or standing behind a pleader and giving him information does not amount to an appearance as mukhtar in contravention of Act XX, 1865 […].
    • 1896 May 9, Richard Couch, member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, “Rajah Muhammad Mumtaz Ali Khan, Plaintiff; and Sheorattangir and Another, Defendants. On Appeal from the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of Oudh.”, in Frederick Pollock, A. P. Stone, editors, The Law Reports. […] Indian Appeals: Being Cases in the Privy Council on Appeal from the East Indies, volume XXIII, London: Printed and published for the [Incorporated] Council of Law Reporting [for England and Wales] by William Clowes and Sons, […], →OCLC, page 82:
      It was not sufficient that Thakur Parshad was the Mukhtar of the Court of Wards, and said he had authority to admit the plaintiff's right.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “mukhtar, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2003; “mukhtar, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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