Sahibzada is a princely style or title equivalent to, or referring to a young prince. This derivation using the Persian suffix -zada, literally born from a Sahib', was also the formal style for some princes of the blood of Muslim dynasties in the Indian sub-continent, e.g.:
Sahibzada Mir Khan Bahadur; in the case of the Heir Apparent, all this was followed by The Prince of Berar, with the style of His Highness, normally reserved for ruling princes with at least an 11 guns-salute;
In Loharu, where the Heir Apparent was Nawabzada Mirza Khan, both the younger sons, and male descendants, of a ruling Nawab, in the male line, were styled:
Sahibzada Mirza Khan.
In Sachin, the grandsons and other male descendants of the ruling Nawab, in the male line, were styled:
Sahibzada Sidi Khan Bahadur, while the Heir Apparent was Nawabzada Sidi Khan Bahadur, Wali Ahad Sahib, and the other sons: Nawabzada Sidi 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, the other sons and male descendants of the reigning Nawab, in the male line:
Sahibzada Sayyid' Mirza;
In Hangu, the grandsons of the male line of the ruling Sahib are styled as Sahibzada Noor.
Wali-ahad Sahib
In Palanpur, the younger sons of the ruling Nawab, and other male descendants in the male line, were styled Sahibzada Khan; but the Heir Apparent: Nawabzada Khan, Wali-ahad Sahib.
In Junagadh, younger sons of the ruling Nawab and other male descendants in the male line, were styled ' Sahibzada' and Khanji Babi.
Sahib means "owner" in Arabic and was commonly used in the Indian Sub-continent as a courteous term in the way that "Mister" and "Mrs." 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. "Sahib" is also appended to the names of holy places associated with the SikhGurus such as Nankana Sahib, Patna Sahib, Anandpur Sahib. In the British Indian Army, a British officer would address a Viceroy's commissioned officer as " sahib" or " sahib". This form of address is still retained in the present-day army of independent India. The term sahib 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. Pukka sahib was also a term used to signify genuine and legitimate authority, with pukka meaning "absolutely genuine". Sahiba is the authentic form of address to be used for a female. 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. The same word is also appended to the names of Sikh gurus. The term sahib was used on P&O vessels which had Indian and/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/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.
Literary reference
The term is used exclusively to refer to any white European on the Indian subcontinent, throughout Rudyard Kipling's 1901 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 Russian and a Frenchman. The term is used in a similar manner in George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant", particularly referring to white men in their role as conquerors in British-controlled Burma. 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, an Indian magician was performing tricks in front of a crowd and drew attention to a mysterious box.
'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 Collector as Burra Sahib, implying the respect felt for him. The following dialogue in Dorothy Sayers's 1926 novel Clouds of Witness shows what the term implied in British society at the time.
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. In 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". 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".. Jim Davis uses the term in a 1983 Garfieldcomic strip in which Garfield refers to Jon Arbuckle as "sahib" after Jon asks Garfield to retrieve his newspaper, and again in a 1989 strip after Jon asks Garfield to go outside and see if it's 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, etymologically the active part. of to associate, or consort, means originally companion, associate, friend ; not unlike the Hellenistic Greek Philos and the Latin Comes in the Roman empire, it became a title for a favourite, and such 'personally close' positions as aide-de-camp, in some princely states even a Minister.
