BUYING

[ BAIʿ .] BUZURG ( بزرگ‎ ) . Lit . “great.” A Persian word used in the East for a saintly person, an old man, or a person of rank. A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, Together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion C CÆSAR. The Arabic and Persian form of the Latin Cæsar is Qaiṣar . The word occurs in the traditions of the Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Muslim (vol. ii. p. 99), where it is applied to the Emperor Heraclius, who received a letter from Muḥammad inviting him to Islām, when he was at Ede a on his way to Jerusalem, August, A.D . 628. The origin of the title is uncertain. Spart i an us, in his life of Aelius ver us (c. ii.), mentions four different opinions respecting its origin: (1) That the word signified an elephant in the language of the Moors, and was given as a surname to one of the Julii because he had killed an elephant; or (2) That it was given to one of the Julii because he had been cut ( caesus ) out of his mother’s womb after her death; or (3) Because he had been born with a great quantity of hair ( caesaries ) on his head; or (4) Because he had azure-coloured ( caesii ) eyes. Of these opinions the second is the one adopted by the Arabic-Persian Dictionary the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hāt . The first of the Julian family who occurs in history as having obtained the surname of Cæsar is Sex. Julius Cæsar, prætor in B.C . 208. It was first a umed as an imperial title by August us as the adopted son of the dictator, and was by August us handed down to his adopted son Tiberius. It continued to be used by Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, as members, either by adoption or female descent, of Cæsar’s family; but though the family became extinct with Nero, succeeding emperors still retained it as part of their titles, and it was the practice to prefix it to their own name, as, for instance, Imperator Cæsar Dom it i an us August us . The title was superseded in the Greek Empire under Alexis Com menus by that of Sebastocrator. In the west, it was conferred on Charles the Great, and was borne by those who succeeded him on the imperial throne. Although this dignity came to an end with the resignation of Francis II. in 1806, the title Kaiser is still a umed by the Emperors of Austria and Germany, and more recently by the Queen of England as Qaiṣar-i-Hind , or Empre of India.