Raʾīs, plural ruʾasāʾ, is an Arabictitle meaning "chief" or "leader". It comes from the word for head, raʾs. The corresponding word for leadership or chieftaincy is riʾāsaʾ. It is often translated as "president" in Arabic, and as "boss" in Persian. Swahilispeakers may also use it for president. The Ottoman Turkish form of the title is reis, which denoted a captain. The term raʾīs is of pre-Islamic origin. It may function as an honorific laqab in a person's name. In the central Arab world, the term originally meant village headman.
In British India the landed gentry in Muslim societies often used the word rais to describe their aristocratic position held in society. The term rais was also often used by Muslims when making deed of endowments in their community. Although, the word meant 'chief' or 'leader' legal documents used it in the context of 'landlords' or landowners. Other terms such as malik or Zamindar also appeared as 'landlords' or ‘landowners’, even though these titles implied that the individual who bore them was more ruler than proprietor. However, when describing any aspect of the management of their holdings 'rais or zamindars' employed regal terminology. The raissat upon a throne. Riayat, whom British preferred to call tenants or cultivators were literally subjects. When a raismet with his riayat he described himself as holding court. The money which riayat paid his lord was tribute not rent. The place where he paid the tribute was called a kachari, just as a government revenue office was, and the clerks who collected, kept accounts and ensured tributes kept coming on time were known by their Mughal courtly styles of and.
From Arabic, via Persian, this word came into Urdu as raees, which means a person belonging to the aristocracy of noble distinction. In Urdu, the word Rais is also used similarly to the English term "old money," as the opposite or antonym of nouveau riche, a person who has accummulated considerable wealth within his or her generation. When the book "The Pleasure of Philosophy" by Will Durant was translated into Urdu, by Syed Abid Ali Abid, he translated the word aristocracy with the Urdu word raisiyyat.
