Padishah,
Padshah,
Padeshah,
Badishah or
Badshah (
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
پادشاه Pādeshāh) is a superlative royal
titleA title is a prefix or suffix added to a person's name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may even be inserted between a first and last name...
, composed of the Persian
pād "master" and the widespread
shāhShah is a Persian term for a king that has been adopted in many other languages.-Word history:"Shāh" was the title of Iranian kings including the Achaemenid dynasty which unified Persia and created a vast intercontinental empire...
"king", which was adopted by several Islamic
monarchsThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
claiming the highest rank, roughly equivalent to Christian Emperors or the ancient notion of "Great King". The
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
kshetrapati is a near-cognate.
The rulers on the following thrones, the first three effectively commanding major Muslim empires, were styled Padishah:
- The Shahanshah of Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
(King of KingsKing of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies throughout history, and in many cases the literal title meaning "King of Kings", i.e...
of Persia).
- The Great Sultan
Great Sultan is one of various informal titles, such as Grand Turk, used to refer to the Ottoman Sultan, known in Ottoman Turkish as Padishah, Hünkar or Hakan, the sovereign of the Ottoman dynasty....
of the Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, also claiming the title of CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
(the highest religious authority, as successor to the Prophet Mohammed), recognized by most Muslims, most of the time.
- Over most of the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
(where there also was a Sanskritised version, Patisaha), the MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
SultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
of DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
as head of the vast Moghul Empire.
Miangul Golshahzada Abdul Wadud (predecessor styled
Amir-i shariat, successors (Khan and)
Wali) of the tiny (one valley)
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
i North West Frontier state of
SwatSwat was a princely state and is now part of Pakistan. Swat was part of the Mughal Empire ruled by local rulers known as Akhwand. From 1926 until 1947, Swat was a princely state in British Raj, and in 1947 it acceded to Pakistan. It lay to the north of the modern North-West Frontier Province of...
called himself
badshah from November 1918 to March 1926.
http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Pakistan/swat.htm
- In Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, Ahmed Shah Duranni founded the Durrani EmpireThe Durrani Empire was a large state based in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan and later included northeastern Iran and even parts of eastern Punjab, India. It was founded at Kandahar in 1747 by a Pashtun military commander, Ahmad Shah Durrani...
in 1747 with the title 'Pādshah-i Afghanistan in Persian Dari, then Da Afghanistan Bacha in the Pashto language.
Padishah,
Padshah,
Padeshah,
Badishah or
Badshah (
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
پادشاه Pādeshāh) is a superlative royal
titleA title is a prefix or suffix added to a person's name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may even be inserted between a first and last name...
, composed of the Persian
pād "master" and the widespread
shāhShah is a Persian term for a king that has been adopted in many other languages.-Word history:"Shāh" was the title of Iranian kings including the Achaemenid dynasty which unified Persia and created a vast intercontinental empire...
"king", which was adopted by several Islamic
monarchsThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
claiming the highest rank, roughly equivalent to Christian Emperors or the ancient notion of "Great King". The
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
kshetrapati is a near-cognate.
History of Islamic monarchies
The rulers on the following thrones, the first three effectively commanding major Muslim empires, were styled Padishah:
- The Shahanshah of Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
(King of KingsKing of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies throughout history, and in many cases the literal title meaning "King of Kings", i.e...
of Persia).
- The Great Sultan
Great Sultan is one of various informal titles, such as Grand Turk, used to refer to the Ottoman Sultan, known in Ottoman Turkish as Padishah, Hünkar or Hakan, the sovereign of the Ottoman dynasty....
of the Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, also claiming the title of CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
(the highest religious authority, as successor to the Prophet Mohammed), recognized by most Muslims, most of the time.
- Over most of the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
(where there also was a Sanskritised version, Patisaha), the MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
SultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
of DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
as head of the vast Moghul Empire.
Miangul Golshahzada Abdul Wadud (predecessor styled
Amir-i shariat, successors (Khan and)
Wali) of the tiny (one valley)
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
i North West Frontier state of
SwatSwat was a princely state and is now part of Pakistan. Swat was part of the Mughal Empire ruled by local rulers known as Akhwand. From 1926 until 1947, Swat was a princely state in British Raj, and in 1947 it acceded to Pakistan. It lay to the north of the modern North-West Frontier Province of...
called himself
badshah from November 1918 to March 1926.
http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Pakistan/swat.htm
- In Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, Ahmed Shah Duranni founded the Durrani EmpireThe Durrani Empire was a large state based in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan and later included northeastern Iran and even parts of eastern Punjab, India. It was founded at Kandahar in 1747 by a Pashtun military commander, Ahmad Shah Durrani...
in 1747 with the title 'Pādshah-i Afghanistan in Persian Dari, then Da Afghanistan Bacha in the Pashto language. The Sadozai were overthrown in 1823 but there was a brief restoration by Shoja Shah in 1839. The title went dormant after his assassination in 1842 until 1926 when Amanullah KhanAmanullah Khan was the ruler of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change.Amanullah Khan was the third son...
resurrected it (official from 1937) and was finally laid to rest with the abdication of Mohammed Zahir ShahMohammed Zahir Shah was the last King of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973. Following his return from exile he was given the title 'Father of the Nation' in 2002 which he held until his death.-Family background and early life:Zahir Shah was...
in 1973 following a coup; at other times the Afghan monarchy used the style EmirEmir , is a high title of nobility or office, used throughout the Arab World and historically in 19th-century Afghanistan and also in the medieval Muslim World...
(Amir al-Momenin) or MalikMalik is an Arabic word meaning "king". It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere; furthermore it is sometimes used in derived meanings. Malik is one of the names of Allah, "King" in the absolute sense....
=King. http://www.rulers.org/rula1.html
- The last Basha
Pasha or pacha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries...
beyBey is a Turkish title for "chieftain," traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh...
of TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
, Muhammad VIII al-AminMuhammad VIII al-Amin was the last bey of Tunisia . He was the first head of state of independent Tunisia from 1956 until he was deposed in 1957...
(ruling since 15 May 1943), adopted the sovereignSovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
style padshah 20 March 1956 - 25 July 1957.
The paramount prestige of this title, in Islam and even beyond, is clearly apparent from the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
's dealings with the (predominantly
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
)
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an powers. As the Europeans and the
RussiansThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
gradually drove the
TurksThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
from the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
,
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, and the Caucasus, they insisted—even at the cost of delaying the end of hostilities—on the usage of the title 'Padishah' for themselves in the Turkish versions of their treaties with the High Porte, as acknowledgement that their Christian
emperorAn emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress is the female equivalent. As a title, "empress" may indicate the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules in her own right...
s were in all diplomatic and protocollary capacities the equal of the Turkish ruler, who by his religious paramount office in
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
(
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
) had a theoretical claim of universal sovereignty (at least among Sunnites).
The compound Pādshah-i-
Ghazi-People:*King Ghazi of Iraq*Abdullah Shah Ghazi, VIII century Sufi saint*Ghazi , used for Muslim rulers in South Asia*The Ghazi is a title used for Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey....
'Victorious Emperor' is only recorded for two individual rulers:
- H.M. Ahmad Shah Bahadur, Padshah-i-Ghazi, Dur-i-Durran ('pearl of pearls'), Padshah of Khorasan
Greater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
(today Afghanistan) 1747 - 1772
- H.H. Rustam-i-Dauran, Aristu-i-Zaman, Asaf Jah IV, Muzaffar ul-Mamaluk, Nizam ul-Mulk, Nizam ud-Daula, Nawab Mir Farkhunda 'Ali Khan Bahadur [Gufran Manzil], Sipah Salar, Fath Jang, Ayn waffadar Fidvi-i-Senliena, Iqtidar-i-Kishwarsitan Muhammad Akbar Shah Padshah-i-Ghazi, Nizam
Nizam , a shortened version of Nizam-ul-Mulk , meaning Administrator of the Realm, was the title of the native sovereigns of Hyderabad State, India, since 1719, belonging to the Asaf Jah dynasty...
of Hyderabad 1829 - 1857
- Note that as many titles, the word was also often used as a name, either by nobles with other (in this case always lower) styles, or even by commoners
Fictional usage
In
Frank HerbertFranklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
's
DuneThe Dune universe, or Duniverse, is the political, scientific, and social fictional setting of author Frank Herbert's series of six science fiction novels which began with 1965's Dune...
series, the Padishah EmperorPadishah Emperor is the title given to the hereditary rulers of the Old Empire in the science fiction Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.-Original series:...
— also commonly referred to as "Emperor of the Known Universe" or "Emperor of a Million Worlds" — is the supreme ruler of humanity, whose power is checked by the Spacing GuildThe Spacing Guild is an organization in the fictional Dune universe developed by science fiction author Frank Herbert in a series of novels starting in Dune and ending with Chapterhouse Dune.-Overview:...
, the Bene GesseritThe Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain powers and abilities that can...
and the LandsraadThe Landsraad is a fictional organization in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. The Landsraad is the assembly of all the nobles in the Imperium, representing Houses Great or Minor.-Overview:...
.
In Dan Simmon's Hyperion-Writing and publishing:* "Hyperion" , by John Keats* Hyperion , a book by Dan Simmons in the Hyperion Cantos series* Hyperion * Hyperion * Hyperion , a literary journal...
, minor padishah rulers are aluded to as historical interplanetary overlords.
Modern usage
There is a large family of Turkish origin using the surname Badi in modern-day
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
. They were originally called "Padishah" due to their Military rank in the Ottoman Army, but the part "shah" was dropped after the Ottoman landing in the North East Libyan town of Musrata, and the pronunciation of "Padi" became "Badi" due to Arabic pronunciation.
In 2008, a professional
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
team, the
Lahore BadshahsLahore Badshahs is one of the nine teams competed in the 2008 and 2008/09 competition of the Indian Cricket League . The captain is former Pakistani captain and batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq...
, was founded.
Sources and references