Nawab

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(Redirected from
Nawabzada
)
This article is about the honorific title. For the nawab butterfly, see Polyura.
"Naib" redirects here. For other uses, see Naib (disambiguation).

Part of a series on
Imperial, royal, noble, gentry and chivalric ranks in West, Central, South Asia and North Africa

Nawab (

princely states in the Indian subcontinent loyal to the Mughal Empire, for example the Nawabs of Bengal
.

"Nawab" usually refers to males and literally means Viceroy; the female equivalent is "Begum" or "Nawab Begum". The primary duty of a Nawab was to uphold the sovereignty of the Mughal emperor along with the administration of a certain province.

The title of "nawabi" was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similar to a

British peerage, to persons and families who ruled a princely state for various services to the Government of India. In some cases, the titles were also accompanied by jagir grants, either in cash revenues and allowances or land-holdings. During the British Raj, some of the chiefs, or sardars
, of large or important tribes were also given the title, in addition to traditional titles already held by virtue of chieftainship.

The term "

subah
(province) or regions of the Mughal Empire.

History

Robert Clive, meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, by Francis Hayman
General Nawab Sir Sadeq Mohammad Khan V, the last ruling Nawab of Bahawalpur

Nawab was a

Arabic honorific plural of naib, or "deputy." In some areas, especially Bengal, the term is pronounced nobab. This later variation has also entered English and other foreign languages as nabob
.

The winter diwan of a Mughal nawab

The term nawaab is often used to refer to any Muslim ruler in north or

Sikhs, as well, and large zamindars
and not necessarily to all Muslim rulers. 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

Tonk. Other former rulers bearing the title, such as the nawabs of Bengal and Awadh
, had been deprived by the British or others by the time the Mughal dynasty finally ended in 1857.

Some princes became nawab by promotion. For example, the ruler of Palanpur was "diwan" until 1910, then "nawab sahib". Other nawabs were promoted are restyled to another princely style, or to and back, such as in Rajgarh a single rawat (rajah) went by nawab.

The style for a nawab's wife is

Begums of Bhopal
were a notable exception.

Before the incorporation of the

Arcot
and Bhopal.

Ruling nawab families

The Procession of Yusef Ali Khan, a painting depicting Yusef Khan on his way to an encampment for the durbar held at Fatehgarh in 1859

Nawabi dynasties acceding to India

Nawabi dynasties in India abolished before independence

  • Nawab of Kurwai
  • Nawab of Pataudi
  • Nawab of Savanur
  • Nawab of Mamdot
  • Nawab of
    Tarakote State
  • Nawab of Farukhnagar
  • Nawab of Jhajjar
  • Nawab of Surat
  • Nawab of Mohna

Nawabi dynasties acceding to Pakistan

Nawabi dynasties acceding to Bangladesh

Former dynasties which became political pensioners

also imperial Wazir of all Mughal India, both hereditary

Rohilla Confederation[2]

All of these states were at some point under the authority of the Nawab of Rohilkhand, later made the Nawab of Rampur. Most of these states were annexed at the close of the First Rohilla War.

Miscellaneous nawabs

Personal nawabs

The title nawab was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similarly to a

Baroda
and such others.

Nawab as a court rank

A picture of whom is believed to be the first ever "Nawab" of Mughal Empire, "Saadat Ali Khan I" of Awadh.

Nawab was also the rank title—again not an office—of a much lower class of

Raja Bahadur
.

Related titles

Nawabzada

Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim
1757

This style, adding the Persian suffix -zada which means son (or other male descendants; see other cases in prince), etymologically fits a nawab’s sons, but in actual practice various dynasties established other customs.

For example, in

sahibzada
before the personal name and only Khan Abassi behind. "Nawabzadi" implies daughters of the reigning nawbab.

Elsewhere, there were rulers who were not styled nawbab yet awarded a title nawabzada to others.

Naib (Ottoman, Iranian, Arabic title)

See also: Dar Niaba

The word naib (

Safavids, etc.), and in the eastern Caucasus (e.g. during Caucasian Imamate). In the Sultanate of Morocco, the Naib was the Sultan's emissary to the foreign legations in Tangier between 1848 and 1923, when the creation of the Tangier International Zone led to its replacement by the office of the Mendoub
.

Today, the word is used to refer to directly elected legislators in lower houses of parliament in many Arabic-speaking areas to contrast them against officers of upper houses (or

Arabic
: مجلس النواب, literally council of deputies) has been adopted as the name of several legislative lower houses and unicameral legislatures.

"Naib" has also been used in the

Malaysian variant) to translate the component of "deputy" or "vice" in certain titles (e.g "Vice President" - Naib Presiden)[3] aside from timbalan and wakil (latter predominant in the Indonesian variant
).

"Nabob", derived colloquial term

For other uses, see Nabob (disambiguation).

In colloquial usage in English (since 1612),[4] adopted in other Western languages, the transliteration "nabob" refers to commoners: a merchant-leader of high social status and wealth. "Nabob" derives from the Bengali pronunciation of "nawab": Bengali: নবাব 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.

"Nabob" can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose sense of their own importance, as in the famous alliterative dismissal of the news media as "nattering nabobs of negativism" in a speech that was delivered by Nixon's vice president Spiro Agnew and written by William Safire.[5]

Gallery

Indian states formerly ruled by Nawabs

See also

References

  1. ^ Sir Robert, Lethbridge (1893). The Golden Handbook of India. p. x.
  2. ^ Hamilton, Charles. An Historical Relation of the origin, progress and final dissolution of the Rohilla Afghans in the northern provinces of Hindostan. pp. 90–92.
  3. ^ "vice - Kamus Bahasa Inggeris". Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  4. ^ Origin of NABOB Archived 3 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  5. ^ "nattering nabobs of negativism" Archived 10 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, PoliticalDictionary.com. Retrieved 7 April 2015.

Further reading

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