Wakil
Arabic term meaning deputy, delegate, or agent
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Through Caliphate, Islam and Mughal Empire
Etymology
Vakel or Vakil is the Arabic term used in the meaning of "representative" or "proxy".
The root w-k-l bears meanings of entrusting, assigning, and empowering; some of the other words that are made from this root are توكل (tawakkala, tawakkul) and وكالة (wikāla).
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Usage
Some literalist schools like those of Ibn Hazm and Ahmad ibn Hanbal consider those who die without pledging allegiance to a Muslim ruler to be Kuffar. Likewise, Friday prayer officiated by an Imam not representative of the government of a Muslim ruler is considered invalid by the Four Schools of Madhhab, since the title Imam itself is ceremonial in prayer, and actually referring to the Muslim ruler in islamic law.
Whoever dies without having given Bay'ah, has died the death of Jahiliyyah.
— Sahih Muslim, 1851
It can refer to an attorney as well, and a diplomat or the custodian of a mosque or religious order. Agents appointed by slave owners to hunt for fugitive slaves in Ottoman Syria were also referred to as wakīls.
Historical usage
Vakil or vekil was the term used for the deputies and de facto prime ministers of the Mughal Emperor in Mughal administration. He was considered the most powerful person after Emperor in the Mughal Empire.
Vakil was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of Safavid Iran, denoting the viceroy in the administrative and some religious affairs of the realm.
In the Ottoman Empire, the viziers were considered "absolute delegates" (vekil-i mutlak) of the Ottoman Sultan.