dragoman n : an interpreter and guide in the Near East; in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries a translator of European languages for the Turkish and Arab authorities and most dragomans were Greek (many reached high positions in the government)

English

Etymology

dragman < drugeman < Medieval Latin dragumannus < Medieval Greek δραγομάνος < Arabic (turgumán) ‘translator, interpreter’. Compare truchman.

Noun

1. An interpreter, especially for the Arabic and Turkish languages.

Related terms

• drogman
• truchman

Translations

Dragoman designates the official title of a person who would function as an interpreter, translator and official guide between Turkish, Arabic, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Turkish, and European languages.

The position took particular prominence in the Ottoman Empire, where demand for the mediation provided by dragomans is said to have been created by the resistance on the part of the Muslim Ottomans to learn the languages of non-Muslim nations. The office incorporated diplomatic as well as linguistic duties — namely, in the Porte's relation with Christian countries — and some dragomans thus came to play crucial roles in Ottoman politics. The profession tended to be dominated by ethnic Greeks, including the first Ottoman Grand Dragoman Panayotis Nicosias, and Alexander Mavrocordato.

It became customary that most hospodars of the Phanariote rule (roughly 1711–1821) over the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area.

Etymology and variants

In Arabic the word is ترجمان (tarjumān), in Turkish tercüman. Deriving from the Semitic quadriliteral root t-r-g-m, it appears in Akkadian as "targumannu," in Hebrew as מתרגם (metargem) and in Aramaic as targemana.

During the Middle Ages the word entered European languages: in Middle English as dragman, in Old French as drugeman, in Middle Latin as dragumannus, and in Middle Greek δραγομάνος. Later European variants include the German trutzelmann, the French trucheman or truchement (in modern French it is drogman), the Italian turcimanno, and the Spanish trujamán, trujimán and truchimán; these variants point to a Turkish or Arabic word "turjuman", with different vocalization. Webster's Dictionary of 1828 lists dragoman as well as the variants drogman and truchman in English.

See also

• List of dragomans

References

• Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East, Oxford University Press, London and New York, 2004
• Philip Mansel, "Viziers and Dragomans," in Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924, London, 1995. pp. 133-162
• Marie de Testa, Antoine Gautier, "Drogmans et diplomates européens auprès de la Porte Ottomane", in Analecta Isisiana, vol. lxxi, Les Éditions ISIS, Istanbul, 2003
• Frédéric Hitzel (ed.), Istanbul et les langues Orientales, Varia Turca, vol. xxxi, L'Harmattan, Paris and Montreal, 1997