Note 21 — Chapter XIII

Alguazil: one of the many words of law and administration derived by the Spaniards from the Arabs. The word was originally, according to Dozy, al-vacil, which was from al-wazir, “vizier.” Under the Arabs it was used to denote an officer of high rank, equivalent to dux. The governors of provinces under the Ommiade Khalifs sometimes received the title by way of extra dignity. The Christians used the word down to the fourteenth century as an equivalent to judge of first instance. Descending lower, in time it came to designate an officer of the court, the bailiff—in which sense only alguacil is now used. (H. E. Watts, in note to his edition of Don Quixote [London, 1895], iv, p. 14.) ↑