Sindhi Shaikh
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (6,503,000 ) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
•  Pakistan •  India
|
|
| Languages | |
| • Sindhi • Urdu | |
| Religion | |
•  Islam 100% • |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| • Sindhi Memon • Punjabi Shaikh • Shaikh |
Sheikh (Arabic and Urdu: شيخ), is an Arabic word meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man, or Islamic scholar. The Shaikh of Sindh are one of the larger communities of the Sindhi Muslims ethnic group. They speak the various dialects of Sindhi, depending on their place of residence. The Shaikh are largely urban community, residing in the towns and cities of Sindh. Shaikhs have different community in them, namely baghdadi, sanjogi, nangani, deewan and chatani.
In South Asia, it is used as an ethnic title generally attributed to Muslim trading families descended from the higher clans and are generally very rich and powerful in the local administration and economy. Shaikh families are descended from Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis who travelled from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and settled permanently. In Sindh, the families of the Makhdums of Hala are Siddiqui Shaikhs, who arrived from Central Asia. The shaikhs who migrated from the Arab lands as Sufis conjointly lived with the existing wealthy Shaikh inhabitants of Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Khairpur while now they have spread throughout Sindh, making a worthy population around 1 Million. [Sindh - Pakistan].
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Wikipedia