Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.15765

c10.15765

**VIZIER, WUZEER**, s. Ar.—H. *wazir*, ‘a minister,’ and usually the principal minister, under a (Mahomedan) prince. [In the Koran (cap. xx. 30) Moses says: “Give a *wazir* of my family, Harūn (Aaron) my brother.” In the *Aīn* we have a distinction drawn between the *Vakīl*, or prime minister, and the *Vazīr*, or minister of finance (ed. Blochmann, i. 527).] In India the Nawāb of Oudh was long known as the Nawāb Wazīr, the founder of the quasi-independent dynasty having been Sa’ādat ’Alī Khān, who became Sūbadār of Oudh, c. 1732, and was also Wazīr of the Empire, a title which became hereditary in his family. The title of Nawāb Wazīr merged in that of *pādshāh*, or King, assumed by Ghāzī-ud-dīn Haidar in 1820, and up to his death still borne or claimed by the ex-King Wājid ’Alī Shāh, under surveillance in Calcutta. As most titles degenerate, *Wazīr* has in Spain become *alguazil*, ‘a constable,’ in Port. *alvasil*, ‘an alderman.’