imam

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

noun

1. One who leads the salat prayers in a mosque.
   Now it chanced that in one of the mosques was an Imam. (footnote: The person specially appointed to lead the prayers of the congregation and paid out of the endowed revenues of the mosque to which he is attached) 1901, John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp
   But then there's a Christian cleric and an imam on each of the country's three regional censorship boards, in Kaduna, Lagos and Onitsha, although more than one producer told me that the brown envelope worked the same magic here as in any other Nigerian Government department. 10 May 2001, London Review of Books
   In the 1980s, roughly six hundred young Algerian men, many of them protégés of Muslim Brothers from Egypt and Wahhabi imams from Saudi Arabia, went to Afghanistan to join the anti-Soviet jihad. 7 October 2004, London Review of Books, page 3
   The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month. 13 Jan 2021, Bethan McKernan, “Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days”, in The Guardian
2. (usually capitalized) A Shi'ite Muslim leader descended from the prophet Muhammad and functioning as his spiritual successor.
   1. (Twelver Shi'ism) One of the Twelve imams, descendants of Muhammad from the seventh to ninth centuries CE who lived exemplary lives.