rayah

British

/ ˈrɑːjə, ˈraɪə /

noun

Also (less common): raia. (formerly) a non-Muslim subject of the Ottoman Empire

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rayah

C19: from Turkish raiyye , from Arabic ra`iyah herd, flock

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Kassim Pasha is your den, where your rayah loll and scratch in the sun!

From The Moonlit Way by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)

But the spectacle of a Turkish Pasha inciting Christian rayah against an army of Moslems aroused the wrath of the Faithful throughout the Empire.

From Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle by Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)

Have we not laws? and art thou not my brother, and the rayah of our Queen, as I am and no more?’

From Letters from Egypt by Ross, Janet

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023