Mir (title)

Mir (مير) (is a title which is derived from the Arabic title Emir). It is an aristocratic title generally used to refer to a person who is a descendant of a commander in medieval Muslim tradition.

It was adopted in many languages under Islamic influence, such as Balochi, Ottoman Turkish,[1] Persian, Turkish, Pashto, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Kashmiri, Urdu, Sindhi and Bengali meaning leader of a group or tribe. According to the book Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments, Mir is most probably an Arabized form of Pir. Pir in Old Persian and Sanskrit means the old, the wise man, the chief and the great leader. It was Arabized as Mir then, with Al(A) (Arabic definite article), it was pronounced as Amir.

Title

Mir was also subsequently used as an honor rank. (See: Mirza).

Amongst Muslims, mir/meer has become an interchangeable synonym of sayyid (or syed), meaning "relative of prophet Muhammad".

(The last name Mirpourian is a present day example of sayyid, a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad.)

In Muslim princely states very few formal mirs have actually reached the level of salute state, notably in present Pakistan, where only two of the six have been entitled to a gun salute and the attached His Highness. The highest-ranking are the Amir of Bahawalpur), the Mir of Khairpur (17 guns) and the Mir of Hunza (15 guns).

In Balochistan, mir is a title give to The Khan of Kalat and a sardar son or brother. The twelve mirs make one sardar. When a mir has twelve mirs under him he becomes a sardar. It is given as well to people in religion. Sayyid sons or brothers remain as such until they fulfill the complete Islam requirement and hold the title of mir instead of sayyid.

The title mir was also used by members of the chief clans of the Soomro and Talpur Baloch tribe before and after they became rulers of Sindh. Today, it is still used by their descendants.

Compound titles

On the Indian subcontinent, since the Mughal period, various compounds were used in Urdu including:

In the Hindu kingdom of Nepal:

In the Baloch kingdom of Balochistan:

In the Ottoman Empire, mir-i miran was used as the Persian equivalent to the Turkish title beylerbey ("bey of beys"), alongside the Arabic equivalent amir al-umara ("emir of emirs").[1]

See also

Gallery

Sources and External links

References

  1. 1 2 Zetterstéen (1986), p. 446
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