Also kootbah, khootba, khotbeh, -bah. [Arab. khutbah, khotbeh, f. khaṭaba to preach.] A form of sermon or oration used at the Friday service in Mohammedan mosques; the name of the ruling sovereign is inserted near its close.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr., 49/1. He repeatedly read the kootbah, or prayer, containing the name and titles of the prince of the age.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 112, note. Inserting a prince’s name in the Khootba, and inscribing it on the current coin, are reckoned in the East the most certain acknowledgments of sovereignty.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 325. His lieutenant deposed the Fatimite dynasty by a simple ordinance that the khotbah or public prayer should be read in the name of the Abbasside caliph Mostadhi.
1860. Gardner, Faiths World, II. 467/2. In the mosque on the Friday, which may be termed the Mohammedan Sabbath, the Khotbeh … is regularly recited.
