Qanungoh Shaikh

Qanungoh Shaikhs ( _fa. قانون گوہ شيخ) are a clan of Muslim Shaikhs in Punjab, and other parts of Pakistan. Shaikh meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man, or Islamic scholar. In South Asia, it signifies Arab ancestry. From the beginning of Muslim rule in South Asia in 713 AD, the Arab technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and settled permanently.

The "Qanun-goh" ("Law givers") were the employees of court and judicial system in South Asia during the Muslim rule. The word "Qanun" means "law" in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. These included judges (Qadi or Qazi), lawyers (Wakil or Vakil) and court secretaries (Daftar) who have the title of Sahibzada. Qanungoh Shaikhs are descendant of families who held the hereditary office of ‘’Qanungoh’’ (‘’Law givers’’) during the Muslim Period. The Qanungoh were mostly Muslim from Middle East and were later admixed with indigenous converts to Islam. Many Qanungoh Shaikhs are considered to be originally belonging to Punjabi khatri tribes which converted to Islam. Qanungoh Shaikhs belonged to all the districts of the Punjab as well as some districts in the Sarhad and Balochistan provinces, although can be found in small numbers in Seistan, Paktika and Khost provices in Iran and Afghanistan. A minority of Qanungoh Shaikhs adhere to the Shia Islam whilst others hailing from lower Punjab and Baluchistan are Sunni belonging to Naqshbandi and other Sufi orders.

Origins

See also

* Shaikh
* Shaikhs in South Asia
* Punjabi Shaikh
* Kashmiri Shaikh
* Khawaja Shaikh
* Shaikh Siddiqui
* Sindhi Shaikh
* Siddiqui
* Qallu
* Kakkezai

References

External links

* [http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/ Shaikh Siddiqui]