1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Salaam

SALAAM (Arab. salam, "peace"), the Oriental term for a salutation. The word is used for any act of salutation, as of an ambassador to a monarch, and so in a secondary sense of a compliment. Properly it is the oral salutation of Mahommedans to each other; but it has acquired the special meaning of an act of obeisance.