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Hajji

 

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Hajji



 
 
Hajji ( , , , pilgrim
Pilgrim

A pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious or historic significance; often a considerable distance is traveled....
; sometimes spelled "hadji"), or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
 person who has successfully completed the Hajj
Hajj

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so....
 to Mecca
Mecca

Mecca , also spelled Makkah , Makka is a city in Saudi Arabia. Home to the Masjid al-Haram, it is the holy city in Islam and plays an important role in the faith....
, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it takes time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name (For instance John Smith becomes Hajji John Smith). It is derived from the Arabic al-Hajj, which follows the person's name rather than preceding it.






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Encyclopedia


Hajji ( , , , pilgrim
Pilgrim

A pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious or historic significance; often a considerable distance is traveled....
; sometimes spelled "hadji"), or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
 person who has successfully completed the Hajj
Hajj

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so....
 to Mecca
Mecca

Mecca , also spelled Makkah , Makka is a city in Saudi Arabia. Home to the Masjid al-Haram, it is the holy city in Islam and plays an important role in the faith....
, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it takes time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name (For instance John Smith becomes Hajji John Smith). It is derived from the Arabic al-Hajj, which follows the person's name rather than preceding it. In some areas, the title has been handed down the generations, and has become a family name
Family name

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
. Such usage can be seen, for example, in the Bosniak
Bosniaks

group = BosniaksBo?njaci|image = ...
 surname Hadžiosmanovic, which originally meant son of Hajji Osman.

Women who complete the Hajj are referred to as Hajja.

Usage in the Balkan Peninsula

In Christian
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 countries formerly under the rule of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 in the Balkans
Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
, the title was also sometimes used by Christians despite the initial explicit reference to Islam. In the case of Eastern Orthodox Christians, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 and the Holy Sepulchre is almost always meant and in particular the baptism of the pilgrim in the Jordan River
Jordan River

The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
. The title is rendered as ????? (hadzhi) in Bulgarian
Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European languages, a member of the Slavic languages linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except Macedonian language, such as the elimination of grammatical case, the development of a suffixed definite article , the lack of a verb infin...
 Cyrillic, and ???? (hadži) in Serbian
Serbian language

name=Serbian|nativename=|pronunciation=['sr?pski?]|familycolor=Indo-European|map=|states=See below under "Official status", besides that in Croatia and as an immigrant's language spread over Central Europe and Western Europe, as well as Northern America...
 and Macedonian
Macedonian language

Macedonian is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian language, Serbian language, Bosnian language, and Croatian language languages....
 Cyrillic. In Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 — as the first part in a Greek family name
Family name

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
 — it is spelled ?at??-
Chatzi

Chatzi- is a Prefix of Greece family names.It derives from the honorific title chatz?s , which is borrowed, through Turkish haci, from Arabic hajji, used of a Muslim who has completed the obligatory hajj....
 (khatzi-). It can often be found in family names, whether written together, hyphenated or separate, of people who descend from pilgrims, in Greek ?at???, plural ?at??de?; South Slavic hadžija, plural hadžii (Bulgarian/Macedonian) or hadžije (Serbian), from the times of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
..

Usage in the Iraq War (2003- )

Hajji has become a catch-all slang used by American service members
Serviceman

See also Troop The term serviceman, alternatively service member, refers to non-commissioned member of an armed forces. More generally, the term can be applied to officers as well....
 for any Arab person, and is often meant to be insulting (such as "gook" during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina Wars, the Vietnam Conflict, or often in Vietnam the American War occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1959 to April 30, 1975....
). It can also be used specifically to refer to an enemy combatant
Enemy combatant

Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an insurrection the term "enemy state" may be repl...
 instead of a generalization, as well as a descriptive word (such as "Hajji Armor" to describe flack jacket-covered vehicles to provide ballistics protection).

The use of Hajji in this way can be seen throughout the HBO series Generation Kill
Generation Kill (TV series)

Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO television miniseries based on the Generation Kill by Evan Wright, and adapted for television by David Simon , Ed Burns, and Wright....
, where the Marines use the word as an all-encompassing term to describe Iraqis and Arabs in general. Its connotation in this context is derogatory.