Munshi (title)

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Portrait of Abdul Karim
by Rudolf Swoboda .

Munshi ( Urdu : مُنشی; Hindi मुंशी munśī ; mʊnˈʃɨ ) is a Persian word that originally referred to a contract writer, clerk or secretary. It was later used in Indian English in the Mughal Empire and British India as a term for the native language teachers or secretaries who worked for Europeans. Usually Munshis were Muslims. In some places the harkaras (mail runners) were also called that.

etymology

Munshi ( Arabic منشئ' DMG munši' , Persian منشی, DMG (classic) munšī, (modern) monši ) is an originally Arabic word that means “creator”, “founder” or “author” (active participle from Arabic anša'a , “to create”, “to create”, causative to naša'a , "arise", "grow").

Since the verbal noun to anša'a , inšā ' , not only generally means “production” and “creation”, but in particular “document”, munšī was used, especially in Persian, to designate people who could write official letters , i.e. for secretaries .

However, official writing was seen as a literary art form in the cultures of West, Central, and South Asia. Hence the duties of a munshi in the Islamic Middle Ages and early modern times went beyond what is required of secretaries today. His literarily educated style should represent the education of the sender and, in the case of state letters, that of the state. Last but not least, this included the ability to quote appropriate classical poems in a letter and to write new ones if necessary. Since the 17th century, the Munshis also dared to write art prose outside of the letter literature and wrote rhetorically complex forewords and essays.

Munshi therefore developed into the title for secretaries and other people who were particularly good at a language and its rhetoric . With the introduction of family names in Iran in 1919 and the emergence of family names among the Muslims of India, Munshi also developed into a family name. In modern Persian the word is still used as a salutation for employees and secretaries.

degrees

There is also the "Munshi" in South Asia as a title for a certain degree of education (reading, writing, mathematics). Another level is the Munshi Fazil (Munshi Fadhil).

Munshis in the service of the English

In British India, Munshis were employed as government clerks. This also made her title a job title. Abdul Karim , also known as " The Munshi ", was a particularly valued and honored servant of Queen Victoria .

Famous pepole

literature

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, C. & G. Merriam Co. 1913.
  • The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  • The GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
  • Jesse Page, Henry Martyn, His Life and Labours: Cambridge - India - Persia, SW Partridge & Co. London, ca.1890.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugh Chisholm (Ed., 1911). "Munshi". Encyclopædia Britannica 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press .
  2. ^ Gully, Adrian: The Culture of Letter-writing in Pre-modern Islamic Society , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008, p. 9
  3. ^ Gully, Adrian: The Culture of Letter-writing in Pre-modern Islamic Society, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008, p. 30.
  4. ^ Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad: On History and Historians in Medieval India , Delhi: Manohar, 1982, pp. 17 ff.
  5. ↑ Visram, Rozina: Karim, Abdul (1862 / 3–1909) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press. 2004. doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 42022 .