Giaour


Giaour or Gawur meaning "infidel", a slur, historically used in the Ottoman Empire for non-Muslims or more particularly Christians in the Balkans.
The terms kafir, gawur or rum were commonly used in defters for Orthodox Christians, usually without ethnic distinction. Christian ethnic groups in the Balkan territory of the Ottoman Empire included Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, and Vlachs, among others.
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica described the term as follows:
During the Tanzimat, the use of the term by Muslims for non-Muslims was prohibited to prevent problems occurring in social relationships.

European cultural references