‖ rayah Now Hist..
(ˈraɪə)
Also raiah, raya.
[a. Arab. raﻋīyah flock or herd, subjects, peasants, f. raﻋā to pasture or feed. Cf. next.]
A non-Muslim subject of the Sultan of Turkey, subject to payment of the poll-tax (see kharaj).
| 1813 Byron Br. Abydos ii. xx, To snatch the Rayahs from their fate. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. v. 77 They might rise against their Government and fall upon the Christian rayahs. |
| attrib. 1886 A. Weir Hist. Basis Mod. Europe (1889) 298 The Greeks..possessed a..status to which other Rayah populations could lay no claim. |