Effendi

This article is about the Turkish title. For the cyberpunk novel, see Arabesk trilogy.

Effendi or Efendi (from Turkish Efendi) is a Turkish title meaning a lord or master. It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, in Turkey and some other Eastern countries. It follows the personal name, when it is used, and is generally given to members of the learned professions, and to government officials who have no higher rank, such as Bey or Pasha. It may also indicate a definite office, as Hekim efendi, chief physician to the sultan. The possessive form efendim (my master) is used by servants and in formal intercourse.

In Ottoman era, the most common title affixed to a personal name after that of agha was efendi. Such a title would have indicated an "educated gentleman", hence by implication a graduate of a secular state school (rüşdiye), even though at least some if not most of these efendis had once been religious students, or even religious teachers.

According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica the word is a corruption of the Greek aphentes (afendis in Modern Greek's "lord" or "master"). Or it may have derived from the Old Turkic apandi, a title of nobility, since it appears in Old Uyghur.^[1]

Effendi (warrant officer) was the highest rank that a Black African could achieve in the British King's African Rifles.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, "Effendi" can be referred as someone's name.

Effendi was also considered a man of high education or social standing in an eastern Mediterranean or Arab country. It was a title of Turkish origin, analogous to Esquire, and junior to Bey in Egypt during the period of Muhammad Ali dynasty.^[1][2]

See also

• Ottoman titles
• Agha
• Bey
• Pasha

Notes

1. ^ e.g., Baranovitch at n. 41

References

• Baranovitch, Nimrod. "From the Margins to the Center." China Quarterly 175: 726-750 . Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.
• Drompp, Michael. Tang China And The Collapse Of The Uighur Empire: A Documentary History. Brill Academic Publishers, 2004.
• ReadLiterature.com - Definition of Efendi
• A Nation of Empire: The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity

1. A glossary of titles in Muhammad Ali Dynasty - Definition of Efendi
2. Nassau William Senior. "Conversations and Journals in Egypt and Malta"