Khawaja

Khawaja or khwaja is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, particularly towards Sufi teachers. The word comes from the Iranian word khwāja (New Persian khāje خواجه) and translates as "master", "lord". The spellings hodja or hoca (Turkish), খাজা (Khaja) (Bengali), hodža (Bosnian), hoxha (Albanian), hodža (Serbian), hotzakis (Greek), hogea (Romanian), koja (Javanese)^[1] and al-khawaja^[2] are also used. The name is also used in Egypt to indicate a person with a foreign nationality or foreign heritage.

People using the name

Male

In the historical order where possible:

• Hodja (Hoca, Hoja, Khodja) Nasreddin, a satirical figure, populist philosopher and wise man from Asian folk tales
• Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088), Persian Sufi
• Khoja Akhmet Yassawi (1093–1166), Kazakh poet and Sufi
• Khawaja Awais Kagha (died 1300), Sufi saint
• Hoca Sefer, captain, who was in charge of pro-Ottoman forces in Gujarat in the first half of the 15th century
• 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
• Khwaja Abdul Ghani (1813–1896), the first Nawab of Dhaka to be recognised by the British Raj
• Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845–1901), South Asian Sufi poet
• İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca, (1875–1926), Turkish Islamic scholar
• 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
• Khawaja Nazimuddin (1894–1964), Pakistan’s second Governor General, later Prime Minister
• Enver Hoxha, Albanian Head of State
• Fadil Hoxha, Yugoslav politician
• Fedor Hodža (1912–1968), Slovak politician
• Khawaja Khurshid Anwar (1912–1984) Indo-Pakistani filmmaker, writer, director and music composer
• Jamal Khwaja (born 1926), Indian philosopher
• Khawaja Muhammad Sharif (born 1948), Pakistani judge
• Khawaja Muhammad Asif (born 1949), Pakistani politician
• Jawwad S. Khawaja (born 1950), Pakistani judge
• Adnan Hoca, or Adnan Oktar (born 1956), also known as Harun Yahya, author and Islamic creationist
• 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
• Khalid Khawaja (1951–2010) Pakistani Air Force's intelligence officer
• Jawwad S. Khawaja,Justice of supreme court of Pakistan
• 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 Sheraz (born 1981) Aam Awaam Party, Pakistan
• Ataf Khawaja, Pakistani-Danish rapper
• Fikret Hodžić, Bosnian bodybuilder
• Tarik Hodžić, Bosnian footballer
• Allah Dino Khawaja, Incumbent IGP of Sindh Police, in Sindh, Pakistan.

Female

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

See also

• 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