Nawab
Nawab (
Urdu: نواب ) was originally the
subadar (provincial governor) or viceroy of a
subah (province) or region of the
Mughal empire, but became a high title for Muslim nobles.
The term is
Urdu, derived from the
Arabic being the honorific plural of
naib 'deputy'. In some areas, especially
Bengal, the term is pronounced
Nabob. This later variation has entered the English and other foreign languages, see below.
Since most of the
Muslim rulers of the subcontinent had—like most otherwise titled
Hindu (Maha)radjas and other
princely states—accepted the authority of the Mughals at the height of this empire the term Nawab is often used to refer to any Muslim ruler in the subcontinent. 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.
Many Nawabs later accepted British rule. Under later British rule, Muslim Nawabs continued to rule various
princely states of
Awadh,
Bahawalpur,
Baoni,
Banganapalle,
Bhopal,
Cambay,
Jaora,
Junagadh,
Kalabagh,
Kurnool,
Kurwai,
Palanpur (
Pakistan),
Pataudi,
Rampur,
Sachin and
Tonk. Other former rulers bearing the title, such as the Nawabs of
Bengal, had been dispossessed by the British or others by the time the Mughal dynasty finally ended in 1857.
The style for a Nawab dynasty's queen(s) (usually his consort, and Islam is polygamous) is
Begum (not specific).Most of the Nawab dynasties were male primogenitures, although several ruling Begums of
Bhopal were a notable exception.
Before the incorporation of
India 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.
First we list the Nawabs still in power at the independence of India viz. Pakistan, then those whose
princely states had ceased to exist before.
Families ruling when acceding to India
*
Nawab Babi of
Balasinor*the former
Nawabs of Arcot Carnatic, restyled Princes of Arcot
*Nawab of
Banganapalle * Masulipatam
*Nawab of
Baoni*Nawabs and
Begums of Bhopal*Nawab of
Cambay=Kambay
*Nawab of
Dujana*Nawab of
Farrukhabad*Nawab of
Jaora*
Nawab Sahib of
Junagadh*Nawabs of
Kurwai*Nawab of
Maler Kotla*Nawab of
Muhammadgar*
Nawab Sahib of
Palanpur*Nawab of
Pataudi*Nawab of
Pathari*Nawab of
Radhanpur*Nawab of
Rampur*Nawab of
Sachin*Nawab of
Savanur*Nawab of
Tonk, IndiaFamilies ruling when acceding to Pakistan (including present Bangladesh)
*Nawab of
Amb *
Bahawalpur *Nawabs of
Teri State (
Kohat,Pakistan) =?
Naibs(Khans) of Seni Gumbat (
Kohat, Pakistan)
*Nawab of
Padamdi (
Faridpur,
Bangladesh)
*
Padshah-i-Oudh, formerly
Nawab Wazir of
Awadh, the Nawab of that rich province near the capital who was also imperial
Wasir of all Mughal India, both hereditary
*
Nawabs of Bengal, as Nawabs of
Murshidabad*Nawab of
SuratPersonal Nawabs
The title
nawab was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similarly to a British life 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
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). 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 Nawab of
Dhaka (
Ahsan Manzil; not be be confused with the earlier
Naib Nazim of Dhaka which had been pensioned off in 1793), Nawab of
Dhanbari (Tangail), Nawab of
Ratanpur (Comilla), and so on.
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.
Nawab was also the rank title—again not an office—of a much lower class of
Muslim nobles—in fact retainers—at the court of the Nisam of
Hyderabad and
Berar State, ranking only above
Khan bahadur and Khan, but under (in ascending order)
Jang,
Daula,
Mulk,
Umara and
Jah; the equivalent for Hindu courtiers was
Raja Bahadur.
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 surprising used the (hindi!) style
Sahibzada before the personal name and only Khan Abassi behind.
Elsewhere, rulers who were not styled nawab yet awarded a title nawabzada.
Nabob
For the warship, see HMS Nabob; for the archiver program, NABOBIn colloquial usage in
English (since 1612), adopted in other Western languages, the corrupted form nabob (never officially awarded, but homophonous with the Bengali pronunciation) was erroneously used instead of Nawab but, also, since 1764 to refer to commoners: a
merchant-leader of high
social status and
wealth or a
capitalist.
It can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose style or manner (including of speech) as in
Spiro Agnew's famous dismissal of the press as
"nattering nabobs of negativism".
*
Arcot*
Awadh*
Bahawalpur*
Banganapalle*
Baoni*
Bengal*
Bhopal*
Cambay*
Janjua*
Jaora*
Junagadh*
Kalabagh*
Kurwai*
Nabob*
Naybob*
Palanpur (
Pakistan)
*
Pataudi*
Rampur*
Sachin*
Gumbat *
Tanoli*
Tonk*
Bengal Encyclopaedia [
1]
*
Etymology OnLine*
RoyalArk- here Indian, see also Pakistan extensive genealogies on several dynasties
*
WorldStatesmen conciser but more states
Dhaka
