Begum

Begum Malika-uz-Zamani, wife of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah.

Begum, begam, baigum or beygum (Turkish: begüm, Persian: ?????, Urdu: ??????, Bengali: ????) is a female royal and aristocratic title from Central and South Asia. It is the feminine equivalent of the title baig or bey, which in Turkic languages means "higher official". It usually refers to the wife or daughter of a beg. The related form begzadi (daughter of a beg) also occurs.

In South Asia, particularly in Punjab, Sindh, Hyderabad, Delhi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sylhet, begum has been adapted for use as an honorific for Muslim women of high social status, accomplishment, or power. The honorific may either precede or follow proper name of the woman.

Examples

Some examples of women with the title of begum are:

Khanzada Begum
Zaynab Begum
Begum Hazrat Mahal
Mughal Princesses Jahanara Begum and Roshanara Begum
Begum Inaara Aga Khan
Begum Nusrat Bhutto
Begum Khaleda Zia
Saira Banu
Sharmila Tagore
Begum of Bhopal

Begum in modern society

Colloquially, the term is also used in Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by Muslim men to refer to their own wives, daughters, sisters or as an honorific address to a married or widowed woman.

In Bangladesh the term has been used for the titles of current and former First Lady of Bangladesh e.g. Begum Khaleda Zia and Begum Rowshan Ershad. It has also been used to refer to women of high social status such as phillantrophists, activists, authors and many others such as Begum Sufia Kamal.

The term became well known in the West, especially in the French-speaking world, due to Jules Verne's 1879 novel The Begum's Millions.

The term had earlier become known in Great Britain during the impeachment and Parliamentary trial of Warren Hastings, former Governor-General of India, which lasted from 1787 until 1795. One of the major charges against Hastings was that he had unjustly confiscated land belonging to the "Begums of Oudh" (the mother and grandmother of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, Nawab of Oudh).

Begumpet is one of the major commercial and residential suburbs of the city of Hyderabad, India. Begumpet stands on land given by the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad to his daughter as her wedding present when she married a Paigah noble.^{[citation needed]}

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, a suburb of Toronto, is referred as Begumpura ("Ladies' Town") by members of the Pakistani community of Toronto. Mississauga has a large Pakistani immigrant community and many husbands work in the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia while their wives and children live in Mississauga.^[3]

Among the Nizari Ismaili people, the title is also used as the official style of the consort of their imam, the Aga Khan.