A
Nawab or
Nawaab (
Urdu: نواب,
Hindi: नवाब) was originally the
subedar (provincial governor) or viceroy of a
subah (province) or region of the
Mughal empire. It became a high title for
Muslim nobles.
History
The term is
Urdu, borrowed via
Persian from the
Arabic being the honorific plural of
naib i.e. 'deputy'. In some areas, especially
Bengal, the term is pronounced
Nobab. This later variation has entered the English and other foreign languages, see below.
The title Nawab or Nawaab is basically derived from the Arab word Naib which means a deputy, Muslim rulers preferred this as then they could be referred to as the deputies of God on earth and hence not infringing on God's title ie Lord and master of this earth.
The term Nawab is often used to refer to any Muslim ruler in north India while the term
Nizam is preferred for their counterparts in south India. This is technically imprecise, as the title was also awarded to others but not applied to every Muslim ruler. With the decline of that empire the title, and the powers that went with it, became hereditary in the ruling families in the various provinces.
Under later British rule, Nawabs continued to rule various
princely states of
Awadh,
Amb,
Bahawalpur,
Baoni,
Banganapalle,
Bhopal,
Cambay,
Jaora,
Junagadh,
Kurnool,
Kurwai,
Mamdot,
Multan,
Palanpur,
Pataudi,
Rampur,
Sachin and
Tonk. Other former rulers bearing the title, such as the Nawabs of
Bengal and
Oudh, had been dispossessed by the British or others by the time the Mughal dynasty finally ended in 1857.
The style for a Nawab's queen is
Begum. Most of the Nawab dynasties were male primogenitures, although several ruling Begums of
Bhopal and Ruchka Begum of TikaitGanj, near Lucknow were a notable exception.
Before the incorporation of the
Subcontinent into the
British Empire, Nawabs ruled the kingdoms of
Awadh (or Oudh, encouraged by the British to shed the Mughal suzereignty and assume the imperial style of
Badshah),
Bengal,
Arcot and
Bhopal.
A few of the Muslim rulers who were tributary to the Mughal emperors used other titles; the first
Nizam of
Hyderabad was given the alternative title
Nizam-ul-Mulk, usually translated as Governor of the
Mughal kingdom.
Ruling Nawabs
Families ruling when acceding to India- Nawab Of Basai [ Nawab Khwaja Muhammad Khan]
Families ruling when acceding to Pakistan (including present Bangladesh)Former dynasties which became political pensioners:also imperial
Wazir of all Mughal India, both hereditary
Other Nawabs
Personal Nawabs
The title
nawab was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similarly to a
British peerage, to persons and families who never ruled a princely state. The term nawab got widest currency in the nineteenth century. In order to motivate the Bengal ruling classes to participate in the community services the Auckland administration (1836-1842) had introduced a system of conferring honorific titles on the philanthropic and socially leading people. For the Muslim elite various Mughal-type titles were introduced, including Nawab. Among the noted British creations of this type were Nawab
Hashim Ali Khan (1858-1940),Nawab
Khwaja Abdul Ghani (1813-1896), Nawab
Abdool Luteef (1828-1893), Nawab
Faizunnesa Choudhurani (1834-1904), Nawab
Ali Chowdhury (1863-1929), Nawab
Syed Shamsul Huda (1862-1922) and Nawab
Sirajul Islam (1848-1923),Nawab
Nawab Alam yar jung Bahadur,M.A,Madras,B.A.,B.C.L.,Barr-At-Law (1888-1975). The 'Nawab' title was normally awarded to those influential people who already had some connection in land control and the title was attached to the name of the concerned estate or village, such as the
Dhaka Nawab Family (seated at
Ahsan Manzil), not to be confused with the earlier
Naib Nazims of Dhaka which had been pensioned off in 1793). There also were the Nawabs of
Dhanbari (Tangail), Nawabs of
Ratanpur (Comilla), and such others.
Nawab as a court rank
- At the court of Persia's Shahanshahs of the imperial Qajar dynasty, precedence for non-members of the dynasty was organised in eight protocollary classes, generally coupled to various offices and qualities; the highest of these, styled nawab, was usually reserved for minor princes, while the six next classes (Shakhs-i-Awwal, Janab, Amir or Khan, 'Ali Jah Muqarrab, 'Ali Jah, 'Ali Sha'an) were awarded to various ministers, officers, commanders, Muslim clergy and so on, the eight and lowest, 'Ali Qadir, even to guild masters and the like.
Derived titles
Nawabzada
This style, adding the Persian suffix
-zada which means son (or other male descendants; see other cases in
Prince), (etymo)logically fits a Nawab's sons, but in actual practice various dynasties established other customs.
For example in
Bahawalpur only the Nawab's Heir Apparent used
Nawabzada before his personal name, then
Khan Abassi, finally
Wali Ahad Bahadur (an enhancement of Wali Ehed), while the other sons of the ruling Nawab used the style
Sahibzada before the personal name and only Khan Abassi behind. "Nawabzadi" implies daughters of the reigning nawab.
Elsewhere, rulers who were not styled nawab yet awarded a title nawabzada.
Nabob
In colloquial usage in
English (since 1612), adopted in other Western languages, the form nabob refers to commoners: a
merchant-leader of high
social status and
wealth. "Nabob" derives from the
Bengali pronunciation of "nawab":
nôbab. During the 18th century in particular, it was widely used as a disparaging term for British merchants or administrators who, having made a fortune in India, returned to Britain and aspired to be recognised as having the higher social status that their new wealth would enable them to maintain.
Jos Sedley in
Thackeray's Vanity Fair is probably the best known example in fiction. From this specific usage it came to be sometimes used for ostentatiously rich businesspeople in general. It can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose style or manner of speech, as in
Spiro Agnew's famous dismissal of the press as
"nattering nabobs of negativism".
Naybob
A corrupted form of the English Nabob, which in itself is a corruption of the Indian Nawab. Noun representing a person who has a negative disposition or one who tends to disagree with everything. Example of usage "Of course you can do it, just ignore the naybobs".
Naib
Naib, a local leader in some parts of
Ottoman Empire and eastern
Caucasus (e.g. during
Caucasian Imamate).
Indian states formerly ruled by Nawabs
Sources and references
- extensive genealogies on several dynasties
- more concise but more states
Category:Gubernatorial titlesCategory:Heads of stateCategory:Noble titlesCategory:Titles in IndiaCategory:Titles in PakistanCategory:Titles of national or ethnic leadershipCategory:Royal titlesCategory:Nawabs of Indiabg:Набабde:Nawabes:Nawabfr:Nawabit:Nababbohu:Navabnl:Nawabja:ネイボッブpl:Nababpt:Nababoru:Набобsv:Nawabtr:Nevvabuk:Набоб
