Khawaja

Khawaja or Khwaja (Persian: خواجه‎ khvājeh, in Arabic: خواجة‎ khawājah) is a title used in the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia. It means Master , Lord, the title is also closely related to other terms in Sufism. Originally an honorific, it later became common as a surname. The spellings Hodja or Hoca (Turkish), Hodžić (Bosnian), Hoxha (Albanian), Hodža (Slovak), Hotzakis (Greek), and Al-Khawaja^[1] are also used.

The Persian word Hodja (خواجه) is also used to refer to those who have "wisdom" as well as "knowledge". In Arabic they are called "ârif" (عارف), which is different from "âlim" (عالِم)(a very knowledgable person). An "ârif" has a virtue of "irfan" (wisdom)that is closely associated with deep insight into and reflection on the entities, which is known to be the "profound and deeper knowledge of the things" (or the truth about the things). This insight and reflection is said to be revealed through the practice of sufism (sayr al-sulûq) and manifests itself with refined moral behaviour and wisdom. A privileged and prestigious group of Hodjas like Rûmi, Suhreverdî, Rabbanî, Gilanî or Bahaeddin are called "hacegân" (خواجه) who are also the figures mostly concerned with sufism, hikmet (حكمت) and spiritual wisdom.

People using the name

Significant figures with the name, or using the title Khawaja include:

Males

• Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088), Persian Sufi
• Khoja Akhmet Yassawi (1093-1166), Kazakh poet and Sufi
• Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti (1141-1230), also known as Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, Sufi saint of the Chishti Order
• Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki(1173-1235), Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India.
• Khwaja Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari (1199-1291), "Suhrawardiyya" Sufi saint and missionary, called Surkh-posh ("Red-clad") on account of the red mantle he often wore
• Khawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī, also known as Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274)
• Hodja Nasreddin (died ca. 1280), satirical Sufi figure, known as populist philosopher and wise man
• Khawaja Awais Kagha (died 1300), Sufi saint
• Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (1238-1325), Sufi saint of the Chishti Order
• Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi (died 1600), Emperor Akbar's minister and superintendent of construction
• Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-1785), Indian poet
• Khwaja Alimullah (died 1854), Nawab of Dhaka
• Michal Miloslav Hodža (1811–1870), Slovak national revivalist
• Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Abdul Ghani Mian KCSI (1813–1896), the first Nawab of Dhaka to be recognized by the British Raj
• Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845-1901), South Asian Sufi poet
• Milan Hodža (1878–1944), Slovak politician
• Abdul Majeed Khwaja (1885–1962), barrister; co-founder of Jamia Millia Islamia University following its relocation to New Delhi
• Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin (1894-1964), Pakistan’s second Governor General, later Prime Minister
• Khwaja Ghulam Ahmad Ashai (born ca. 1895?), Kashmiri bureaucrat and political leader
• Fedor Hodža (1912–1968), Slovak politician
• Khawaja Khurshid Anwar (1912-1984) Indo-Pakistani filmmaker, writer, director and music composer
• Khawaja Reazuddin Atash (1925-2001), Indo-Pakistani poet

• Jamal Khwaja (born 1926), Indian philosopher
• Khwaja Shamsuddin Azimi (born 1927), Pakistani Sufi Sheikh, patriarch of the Azeemia Sufi Order
• Khawaja Muhammad Sharif (born 1948), Pakistani judge
• Khawaja Muhammad Asif (born 1949), Pakistani politician
• Jawwad S. Khawaja (born 1950, Pakistani judge
• Khalid Khawaja (1951–2010) Pakistani Air Force's intelligence officer
• Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (born 1962), founder and former president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
• Khawaja Saad Rafique (born 1962), Pakistani politician
• Momin Khawaja (born 1979), Canadian software engineer, found guilty under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act for conspiring with British Islamists plotting a bomb attack
• Usman Khawaja (born 1986), Pakistani-Australian cricketer
• Khawaja Adil Maqbool (born 1988), Pakistani squash player
• Albin Hodža (born 1988), French footballer
• Khawaja Muhammad Safdar, Pakistani politician
• Khawaja Muhammad Islam, Pakistani politician
• Zafar Iqbal Khawaja, Pakistani businessman
• Khwaja Mubarak Shah, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference leader and Member of The Indian Parliament
• Khawaja Zafar Iqbal, journalist, peace activist and researcher in Pakistan Administered Kashmir
• Ataf Khawaja, Pakistani-Danish rapper
• Enver Hoxha, Albanian Head of State
• Fadil Hoxha, Yugoslav politician
• Fikret Hodžić, Bosnian bodybuilder
• Tarik Hodžić, Bosnian footballer

Females

• Zainab Alkhawaja (born c. 1983), Bahraini human rights activist
• Maryam Alkhawaja (born 1987), Bahraini human rights defender

See also

• Khawaja Clan, Clan belonging to the area of Azad Kashmir, Mirpur and surrounding areas.
• Khwajagan, a chain of Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi Masters from the 10th to the 16th century
• Khoja (Turkestan), a title of the descendants of the Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani
• Hoca, Turkish spelling of Khawaja
• Hoxha, Albanian surname
• Hodžić, Bosniak surname

References

This page or section lists people with the surname Khawaja. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.