Hoca

Hoca [hoˈd͡ʒɑ], also rendered into English as hodja, is a Turkish word deriving from the Persian word خواجه khwāja, khâjeh, used as a title, given name or surname.

As a title, hoca means “master” and is commonly used for teachers, professors, leaders, and in general, wise people. It is also used as a slang word between friends.

It may refer to:

• Adnan Hoca or Adnan Oktar (born 1956), also known as Harun Yahya, cult leader and Islamic creationist
• Cinci Hoca (died 1648), Ottoman spiritualist
• İskilipli Âtıf Hoca (1875–1926), Turkish Islamic scholar
• Hoca Ali Rıza (1858–1939), Turkish painter
• Hoca Çelebi or Ebussuud Efendi (1490–1574), Hanafi Ottoman jurist and Qur'an exegete
• Hoca Niyaz or Hoja-Niyaz, Uyghur independence movement leader who led several rebellions in Xinjiang
• Hoca Sadüddin Efendi (1536–1599), Ottoman scholar, official, historian, a teacher of Ottoman sultan Murad III
• Hoca Sefer, captain, who was in charge of pro-Ottoman forces in Gujarat in the first half of the 15th century
• Nasreddin Hoca or Nasreddin, Seljuq satirical Sufi figure (around 13th century)
• Fatahillah or Hoca Hassan, Malay commander in the Malacca and Demak sultanates

See also

• Hoxha (surname), Albanian surname of the same origin
• Velika Hoča, village in Kosovo