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{{Short description|Arabic word meaning "companion", used as honorific title}}
{{Redirect|Saheb|the city in Iran|Saheb, Iran|the administrative subdivision of Iran|Saheb Rural District|other uses|Saheb (disambiguation)}}

{{about|the title|other uses|Sahib (disambiguation)}}

{{More citations needed|date=June 2008}}
{{Indo-Persian royal and noble ranks}}

'''Sahib''' or '''Saheb''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɑː|h|ɪ|b}}) is a [[Style (manner of address)|term of address]] originating from [[Arabic]] ({{Langx|ar|[[wiktionary:صاحب|صاحب]]|label=none|rtl=yes}}). As a [[loanword]], ''Sahib'' has passed into several languages, including [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]], [[Tajik language|Tajik]], [[Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=van Schaaik |first1=Gerjan |title=Studies in Turkish Grammar |date=1996 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3447038065 |pages=144–145}}</ref> [[Urdu]], [[Hindi]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Pashto language|Pashto]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Rohingya language|Rohingya]] and [[Somali language|Somali]]. During medieval times, it was used either as an official [[title]] or an [[honorific]]. Now, in South and Central Asia, it is almost exclusively used to give respect to someone higher or lower. The honorific has largely been replaced with ''[[sir]]''. In the [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman language]] of [[Mizo language|Mizo]], it is shorten as '''sâp''', referring to [[White people|people of European descent]].

==Derived non-ruling princes' titles==

===Sahibzada===

''Sahibzada'' is a princely style or title equivalent to, or referring to a [[prince|young prince]].<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Ramaswal mi |first1 = N.S. |title = Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs |location = India |publisher = Abhinav Publications |year= 2003 |pages = 76 |isbn = 978-81-7017-191-1 }}</ref> This derivation using the Persian suffix ''-zada(h)'', literally 'born from' (or further male/female descendant; compare ''[[Shah]]zada'') a ''Sahib'', was also (part of) the formal style for some [[prince of the blood|princes of the blood]] of Hindu and Muslim dynasties in the Indian sub-continent, e.g.:

* ''Babu Saheb'' is a colloquial term used to denote the [[rajput]] [[kshatriya]]s (warrior sons of a king)
* The sons of a ruling [[Arcot State|Nawab of Arcot]] (the head of the family; [[Political pensioner#Colonial|political pensioners]], the only princely title still recognized by the Indian Republic) are styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) [[Khan Bahadur]], 'not' Nawabzada (literally 'son of the Nawab').
* The sons of [[Guru Gobind Singh]] are known as Sahibzaadey
* In [[Bahawalpur]], Pakistan, the younger sons of the ruling Nawab/[[Amir]] are styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan Abassi; but the Heir Apparent: Nawabzada (personal name) Khan Abassi, [[Wali Ahad Bahadur]].
* In [[Mandi Bahauddin District|Mandi Bahauddin]], Punjab, Pakistan, the sons of a [[Zaildar]] are addressed as Sahibzada.
* In [[Baoni]], the younger sons and other male descendants of the ruling Nawab, in the male line, were styled ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan Bahadur, while the Heir Apparent was: Nawabzada (personal name) Khan, Wali Ahad Bahadur; either could be personally promoted to Nawab.
* In [[Bhopal State|Bhopal]], the grandsons of the ruling Nawab were styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan, while the Heir Apparent was the Wali Ahad Bahadur, the younger sons: Nawab (personal name) Khan Bahadur.
* In [[Jaora State|Jaora]], more distant male relatives of the ruling Nawab then the sons (who were Nawabzada) were styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan.
* In [[Khudadad]], [[Tippu Sultan]]'s grandsons and other male descendants of the sovereign [[Padshah bahadur]] were styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name), until in 1860 the colonial (British) Indian Government extended to them the existing style for sons of the ruling Nawab: Shahzada (personal name) ''Sahib''.
* In [[Malerkotla]], where the Heir Apparent was Nawabzada (personal name) Khan Bahadur, the younger sons of the ruling Nawab were styled: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan Bahadur.
* In [[Savanur]], where sons of the ruling Nawab were Nawabzada, the other male descendants in the male line: ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) ''[[Khan Sahib]]'', and the more remote male descendants of the ruler: [[Sardar]] (personal name) ''Khan Sahib''.

This could be further combined, e.g.:

* In [[Hyderabad state|Hyderabad Deccan]], a state of the [[Nizam]], every son of the ruler was fully styled [[Walashan Nawab]] (personal title), '''Sahibzada Mir''' (personal name) Khan Bahadur; in the case of the Heir Apparent, all this was followed by The Prince of [[Berar Province|Berar]], with the style of [[His Highness]], normally reserved for ruling princes with at least an 11 (later 9) guns-salute;
* In [[Loharu]], where the Heir Apparent was Nawabzada Mirza (personal name) Khan, both the younger sons, and male descendants, of a ruling Nawab, in the male line, were styled: '''Sahibzada Mirza''' (personal name) Khan.
* In [[Sachin, Gujarat|Sachin]], the grandsons and other male descendants of the ruling Nawab, in the male line, were styled: '''Sahibzada Sidi''' (personal name) Khan Bahadur, while the [[Heir Apparent]] was Nawabzada Sidi (personal name) Khan Bahadur, Wali Ahad Sahib, and the other sons: Nawabzada Sidi (personal name) Khan Bahadur.
* In [[Bengal]], male members of Muslim zamindari families with distant connections to ruling or formerly ruling royal families, were styled '''Sahibzada''' if the head of the family was called '''sahib'''. It could be affixed to more titles or family names.
** In [[Murshidabad]] (present title-seat of the royal house of [[Bengal]]), the other sons and male descendants of the reigning Nawab, in the male line: '''Sahibzada Sayyid''' (personal name) Mirza;
* In Hangu, the grandsons of the male line of the ruling Sahib are styled as Sahibzada (personal name) Noor.

===Wali-ahad Sahib===

* In [[Palanpur]], the younger sons of the ruling Nawab, and other male descendants in the male line, were styled ''Sahibzada'' (personal name) Khan; but the Heir Apparent: Nawabzada (personal name) Khan, ''Wali-ahad Sahib''.
* In [[Junagadh]], younger sons of the ruling [[Nawab]] and other male descendants in the male line, were styled ' Sahibzada' and (personal name) Khanji Babi.

=== Jam Sahib ===

* [[Jam Sahib]] (Gujarati: જામ સાહેબ), is the title of the ruling prince of [[Nawanagar State|Nawanagar]], now known as [[Jamnagar]] in Gujarat, an Indian princely state.

==Colonial and modern use==

''Sahib'' was commonly used in the [[Indian Sub-continent]] as a courteous term in the way that "Mister" (also derived from the word "master") and "Mrs." (derived from the word "mistress") is used in the English language. It is still used today in the sub-continent just as "Mister" and "Mrs." and continues to be used today by English-language speakers as a polite form of address. It was used on [[P&O (company)|P&O]] vessels which had Indian or Pakistani crew to refer to officers, and in particular senior officers. On [[P&O Cruises]] and [[Princess Cruises]] vessels, the term continued to be used by non-Indian and non-Pakistani junior officers to refer to the senior deck and engine officers for many years, even when no Indian or Pakistani crew featured in the ship's company. It is also appended to the names of holy places associated with the [[Sikh]] [[gurus]] such as [[Nankana Sahib]], [[Patna Sahib]], [[Anandpur Sahib]].

In the [[British Indian Army]], a British officer would address a [[viceroy's commissioned officer]] (i.e., a native Indian officer) as "<rank> sahib" or "<name> sahib". In turn Indian soldiers would address British or Indian superiors with this term as a substitute for "sir". This form of address is still retained in the present-day army of independent India.

The term was applied indiscriminately to any person whether Indian or non-Indian. This included Europeans who arrived in the sub-continent as traders in the 16th century and hence the first mention of the word in European records is in 1673.

===Memsahib===

The authentic feminine form of ''Sahib'' is ''Sahiba''. Under the British Raj, however, the word used for female members of the establishment was adapted to ''memsahib'', a variation of the English word "ma'am" having been added to the word ''sahib''.

===Pukka sahib===

''[[Pukka sahib]]'' was also a term used to signify genuine and legitimate authority, with ''pukka'' meaning "absolutely genuine".

===Literary reference===
The term is used exclusively to refer to any white European on the Indian subcontinent, throughout [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s 1901 novel ''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]]''. Kim is ethnically a 'sahib', but was raised as a low-caste native boy. Most sahibs in the novel are British, but there is also a [[Russians|Russian]] and a [[French people|Frenchman]].

The term is used in a similar manner in [[George Orwell]]'s essay "[[Shooting an Elephant]]", which is used to accentuate his isolation in [[British rule in Burma|Colonial Burma]] (now [[Myanmar]]), and throughout his novel [[Burmese Days]].

The term is used throughout the children's novel ''[[A Little Princess]]'' by [[Frances Hodgson Burnett]].

In [[Herman Cyril McNeile]]'s 1920 novel ''[[Bulldog Drummond (novel)|Bulldog Drummond]]'', an Indian magician was performing tricks in front of a crowd and drew attention to a mysterious box.
{{blockquote|
'You don't mean the fourth dimension, do you?' demanded a man incredulously.

'I know not what you call it, sahib,' said the Indian quietly. 'But it is the power which renders visible or invisible at will.'
}}

[[E.M. Forster]] also employed the term in his 1924 novel ''[[A Passage to India]]''. His [[Anglo-Indian]] characters refer to the [[District collector|Collector]] as Burra Sahib, implying the respect felt for him.<ref>Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924. Print</ref>

The following dialogue in [[Dorothy Sayers]]'s 1926 novel ''[[Clouds of Witness]]'' shows what the term implied in British society at the time.
{{blockquote|
Coroner: "What kind of a man was Captain Cathcart?"

Duke of Denver: "Well – he was a Sahib and all that. I don't know what he did before joining up in 1914. I think he lived on his income; his father was well off. Crack shot, good at games, and so on."
}}
It is noteworthy that the character referred to had never been in India and had no connection with India.

It is used in [[Agatha Christie]]'s 1934 novel ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' in a similar way.
{{blockquote|
"About Miss Debenham," [Colonel Arbuthnot] said rather awkwardly. "You can take it from me that she's all right. She's a ''pukka sahib''."

Flushing a little, he withdrew.

"What," asked Dr. Constantine with interest, "does a ''pukka sahib'' mean?"

"It means," said Poirot, "that Miss Debenham's father and brothers were at the same kind of school as Colonel Arbuthnot."
}}

In [[Bruce Marshall (writer)|Bruce Marshall]]'s ''[[The World, the Flesh and Father Smith]]'', the protagonist serves as a military chaplain in the trenches of WWI and gives absolution to soldiers and officers about to go into battle. A major tells him: "God's a bit hard on a chap at times. Still, I am sure God's too much of a Sahib to run a fellow in for ever and ever just because he got messed up with a bit of fluff" (i.e. had casual affairs with women).

Later, the same major is mortally wounded. As the priest is about to administer last rites, the major says: "It's all right, Father; I still think God is a Sahib".<ref>[[The World, the Flesh and Father Smith]], Ch.IX-X.</ref>

[[Jim Davis (cartoonist)|Jim Davis]] uses the term in a 1983 [[Garfield]] comic strip in which Garfield refers to [[Jon Arbuckle]] as "sahib" after Jon asks Garfield to retrieve his newspaper,<ref>Davis, Jim. Garfield, 12 July 1983. <https://garfield.dale.ro/garfield-1983-july-12.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302025424/https://garfield.dale.ro/garfield-1983-july-12.html |date=2017-03-02 }}></ref> and again in a 1989 strip after Jon asks Garfield to go outside and see if it is still raining.

The term is frequently used throughout the short stories of [[Robert E. Howard]], mostly by Indian or Arabic characters—e.g. a Sikh manservant addresses the guests of his employer as "sahib" in ''The Noseless Horror''.

==Musahib==

This title (pl. ''musāhibān''), etymologically the active part. of to associate, or consort (with), means originally companion, associate, friend (the abstract term is ''musāhabat''); not unlike the Hellenistic Greek ''Philos'' and the Latin ''[[Comes]]'' in the Roman empire, it became a title for a favourite (of a Sahib, especially a prince), and such 'personally close' positions as ''[[aide-de-camp]]'', in some princely states even a Minister.

==Other compound titles==
* ''Burra sahib'' ({{langx|hi|बड़ा साहब}} ''baṛā sāhab'') "big man" or important person (''Burra'' meaning ''big'' in Hindi)

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* Platts, John T. [https://archive.today/20121211144211/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/contextualize.pl?p.6.platts.1888585 "Musahib"]. ''A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English''.

==External links==

* {{Wiktionary-inline}}

[[Category:Arabic words and phrases]]
[[Category:Court titles]]
[[Category:Feudalism]]
[[Category:Heads of state]]
[[Category:Indian English idioms]]
[[Category:Men's social titles]]
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[[Category:Noble titles]]
[[Category:Royal titles]]
[[Category:Titles in India]]
[[Category:Titles in Pakistan]]