Khojan.

1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes II. ix. xv. §8. 1598 From fiue yeers of age vntill ten..they haue their Hoiah (that is, their Schoole-master) appointed them by the King to teach them.

1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 525 The third, are Hogi, Writers of Bookes; for they have no Printing.

1704 J. Pitts True Acct. Mohammetans iv. 21 Rides in the Van of the Army, with two Hoages, or Clerks.

1786 Art. Charge W. Hastings in Burke Writ. (1852) VII. 27 I sent for Retafit Ali Khân, the Cojah.

1834 J. Morier Ayesha I. xi. 265 They collected all that the city possessed of wisdom and learning,—Khodjas, Mollahs, Hakims, Imams.

1887 Liverpool Daily Post 14 Feb. 5/4 This last savant brings a Khoja, who has just arrived from Bombay.

1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 64/1 Only the military class, the priesthood, and the khodjas are exempt from the payment of taxes. The khodjas consider themselves descendants of the prophet.

1921 C. Eliot Hinduism & Buddhism III. lviii. 455 The sects known as Khojas and Bohras owe their conversion to the zeal of Arab and Persian missionaries who preached in the eleventh century.

1931 G. Macmunn Relig. India 97 A portion of the Assassins escaped to India where they have developed into a wealthy trading fraternity known generally as the Khojas or ‘worthy men’.

1937 L. Bromfield Rains Came i. vi. 41 The prospect of putting over a sharp deal in Bombay on the Khojas and Parsees.

1970 D. G. Mandelbaum Society in India II. vii. xxix. 555 There are several Isma'ili jatis, the Bohras and Khojas of Gujarat being the major groups among them... Khoja doctrine held..that the Aga Khan was an incarnation of the ‘glorious Tenth Avatar’.