thumb|[[Théodore Géricault: The Giaour (1820, lithograph; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)]]

thumb|[[Eugène Delacroix: The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan (1826, oil on canvas; Art Institute of Chicago), inspired by Lord Byron's The Giaour]]

Giaour or Gawur or Gavour<!--Alternate spelling, from https://www.congress.gov/event/114th-congress/joint-event/LC31261/text--> (; , ; from gâvor; ; ; ; ; Bosnian; kaur/đaur) meaning "infidel", is a slur used mostly in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire for non-Muslims or, more particularly, Christians in the Balkans.

Terminology

The terms "kafir", "gawur", and "rûm" (the last meaning "Rum millet") were commonly used in defters (tax registries) for Orthodox Christians, usually without ethnic distinction. Christian ethnic groups in the Ottoman Balkans included Greeks (rûm), Bulgarians (bulgar), Serbs (sırp), Albanians (arnavut) and Vlachs (eflak), among others.

to prevent problems occurring in social relationships.

European cultural references

thumb|Giaours smoking the [[chibouk|tchibouque with the pacha of the Dardanelles, book illustration from 1839.]]

  • Giaour is the name given to the evil monster of a man in the tale Vathek, written by William Beckford in French in 1782 and translated into English soon after. The spelling Giaour appears in the French as well as in the English translation.
  • In 1813 Lord Byron published his poem The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale, whose themes revolve around the ideas of love, death, and afterlife in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
  • Le Giaour, an 1832 painting by Ary Scheffer, oil on canvas, "Musée de la Vie romantique", Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris.
  • Sonnet XL of Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning contains these lines:

<blockquote>Musselmans and Giaours<br>Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth<br>For any weeping.</blockquote>

See also

  • Xenophobia and discrimination in Turkey
  • Gabr, Persian term, from which "Giaour" is derived
  • Kafir, Arabic equivalent
  • Ajam
  • Dhimmi
  • Barbarian
  • Farang
  • Frangistan
  • Rum (endonym)
  • Rumelia
  • Rayah
  • Guiri is Spanish slang for a foreign tourist. According to Juan Goytisolo, it is derived from Turkish gâvur.
  • Epithets, exonyms, and other names for Muslim groups in the Ottoman Balkans:
  • Arnaut
  • Turco-Albanian
  • Çıtak
  • Vallahades
  • Muslims (ethnic group)
  • Turk (term for Muslims)

Notes

References

Bibliography