Nawab

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Nawab (Urdu: نواب ) was originally the subadar (provincial governor) or viceroy of a subah (province) or region of the Mughal empire.

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History

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.

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Ruling Nawabs

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.

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Families ruling when acceding to India

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Families ruling when acceding to Pakistan (including present Bangladesh)

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Former dynasties which became political pensioners

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Other Nawabs

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Personal Nawabs

The title nawab was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similarly to a British life peerage. See: Gakhars

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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.
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Derived titles

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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.

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Nabob

For the warship, see HMS Nabob; for the archiver program, NABOB

In 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".

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See also

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Sources and references

ru:Набоб sv:Nawab

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