Dragoman

For the town, see Dragoman, Bulgaria

Dragoman, a word of Assyrian or Akkadian origin, designates the official title of a person who would function as an interpreter, translator and official guide between countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Turkish, and European languages.

The status of dragomans was especially prestigious in the Ottoman Empire, where it incorporated diplomatic duties — namely, in the Porte's relation with Christian countries.

It became customary that most hospodars 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.

Variants

In Arabic the word is ترجما&#1606, in Turkish "tercümen." Deriving from the Semitic root rgm, it appears in Akkadian as "targumannu," and in Aramaic as "targemana."

During the Middle Ages the word entered European languages: in Middle English as "dragman," in Old French as "drugeman", in Middle Latin as "dragumannus," and in Middle Greek "dragoumanos." Later European variants include the German "trutzelmann" and the French "trucheman." In modern French it is "drogman."

See also

• List of dragomans

External links

• Oxford University Press: excerpt of Bernard Lewis, From Babel to the Dragomans