Mogul
late 17th century: figurative use of Mogul.
wiktionary
Figurative use of Moghul, which originally meant Mongol, or person of Mongolian descent. In this context, it refers to the Mughal Empire (mughal being Persian or Arabic for "Mongol") of the Indian Subcontinent that existed between 1526 and 1857: the early Mughal emperors claimed a heritage dating back to the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan. The modern meaning of the word is supposedly derived from the storied riches of the Mughal emperors, which, for example, produced the Taj Mahal.
From dialectal German Mugel or from dialectal Norwegian mugje(“heap, mound”).
etymonline
mogul (n.1)
"powerful person," 1670s, from Great Mogul (1580s), the common designation among Europeans for the Mongol emperor of India after the conquest of 1520s, from Persian and Arabic mughal, mughul, alteration of Mongol (q.v.), the Asiatic people. As a name for the best quality of playing cards, by 1742, so called for the design on the back.
A Motion was made on behalf of the plaintiff for an injunction to restrain the defendant from making use of the Great Mogul as a stamp upon his cards, to the prejudice of the plaintiff, upon a suggestion, that the plaintiff had the sole right to this stamp, having appropriated it to himself, conformable to the charter granted to the card-makers' company by King Charles the First [Blanchard versus Hill, High Court of Chancery, Dec. 18, 1742]
mogul (n.2)
"elevation on a ski slope," 1961, probably [Barnhart] from Scandinavian (compare dialectal Norwegian mugje, fem. muga, "a heap, a mound"), or [OED] from southern German dialect mugel in the same sense.
