Also 7 ulemi, 9 oulema, uhlema, oolama, ulama. [a. Arab. (also Turk, and Pers.) sulemā, pl. of sālim knowing, learned, f. salama to know. Hence also Sp. Ulema, Pg. Ulemas, F. Uléma.]
1. pl. or collect. Those who have had special training in the knowledge of Mohammedan religion and law, and are regarded by Moslems as the authorities on these matters; spec. the body of Mohammedan doctors under the headship of the Sheik-ul-islam, which exercises great political influence in the Turkish empire.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2313/2. The next day was a great Consultation held with the Ulemi or Interpreters of their Law.
1768. Sir J. Porter, Observ. Turks, Pref. (1771), 30. They have the Ulema … composed of all the members of the church or law; a body of men … who stand as an intermediate order between the prince and people.
1803. Edin. Rev., II. 292. Russia, and imperial Rome, had its prætorian guards. Turkey has its uhlema.
1848. Layard, Nineveh (1849), I. Introd. p. xxiv. The ulema having at length pronounced that these figures were the idols of the infidels, the Mohammedans … destroyed them.
1892. Tennyson, Akbar’s Dream, 45. But our Ulama … Are like wild brutes new-caged.
attrib. 1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s Hist. Servia, v. 89. The establishment of the influence of some great Ulema families which had become almost hereditary.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 654/2. The juridical and spiritual precepts of the Koran and its ‘ulemâ interpreters.
2. A Mohammedan doctor or divine.
a. 1843. in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. (1849), 350. A great part of the oulemas and of the people in office delayed not to partake of this luxury.
1848. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., I. 260. The divan was rescued from the mystic domination of the ulemas.
1882. Macm. Mag., XLVI. 474. The army was accompanied by a number of moullas and ulemas.
