Hajji

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Hajji (Arabic: الحجّي‎ al-ḥağğī, Bosnian: Hadžija, pilgrim), or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca,^[1] 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. Such usage can be seen, for example, in the Bosniak surname Hadžiosmanović, which originally meant son of Hajji Osman.

[edit] Usage in the Balkan Peninsula

In Christian countries formerly under the rule of the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, 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 and the Holy Sepulchre is almost always meant and in particular the baptism of the pilgrim in the Jordan river. The title is rendered as хаджи (hadzhi) in Bulgarian Cyrillic, and хаџи (hadži) in Serbian and Macedonian Cyrillic. In Greek — as the first part in a Greek family name — it is spelled χατζη- (khatzi-). It can often be found in family names, whether written together, hyphenated or separate, of people who descend from pilgrims from the times of the Ottoman Empire.

[edit] Usage in the Iraq War (2003- )

The term Hajji was coopted by American service members as an all-encompassing term to describe Iraqis and Arabs in general. Its connotation in this context can be construed as being derogatory, but is not necessarily intended as such.

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