nawab

English

Etymology

From Urdu نوّاب‏, from Persian نوّاب‏, ultimately from Arabic نوّاب‏, plural of نائب‏ (“naib”).

Noun

nawab (plural nawabs)

1. (now historical) A Muslim official in South Asia acting as a provincial deputy ruler under the Mughal empire; a local governor. [from 17th c.]
   • 2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin 2016, p. 71:

     The nawabs of Bhopal, Ranput, Murshidabad, and Dhaka, along with the nizam of Hyderabad, all affirmed that the sultan has misled Muslims with his “erroneous” call to jihad and insisted that Indian Muslims had a duty to support Great Britain.

See also

• nabob

Translations

title

• Hungarian: navab

Anagrams

• ba-wan, bawan, bwana