Babar

This article is about the given name. For other uses, see Babar (disambiguation).

Babar (Urdu: بابر ), also variously spelled as Baber,^[1] Babur,^[2] and Babor is a male given name of Pashto, and Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan.^[3] It is generally taken in reference to the Persian babr (Persian: ببر), meaning "tiger".^[1] There is a similar name in connotation to the Arabic male given form and generic name of the animal by the name "Nimr" (Arabic: نَمِر namir) which means "yellow-black stripped cat", i.e. "tiger".

The word repeatedly appears in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and was borrowed into the Turkic languages of Central Asia.^[2][4] Thackston argues for an alternate derivation from the PIE word "beaver", pointing to similarities between the pronunciation Bābor and the Russian bobr (бобр, "beaver").^[5]

The most famous bearer of this name was Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, known popularly as Babur, a prince of the Timurid dynasty who founded the Mughal Empire, and the name is popular in Bahrain, Afghanistan, as well as Muslim communities in South and Central Asia.

Geographical

• Babar Islands, a group of islands in the Southwest Maluku Regency in Maluku, Indonesia.

People

• Babur (1483–1530), also spelled Baber or Babar, Turkic ruler of present-day India and founder of the Mughal Empire which encompassed territories outside of India.
• Babar Ahmed (director), Pakistani-born American film director
• Babar Ali (disambiguation)
  • Babar Ali (born 1975), Pakistani actor
  • Babar Ali (cricketer) (born 1986), Pakistani cricketer
  • Babar Ali (teacher), Indian educator
  • Babar Ali Khan (fl. 1793–1810), Nawab of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa
  • Babar Ali Khan Mohmand (born 1983), Pakistani politician
• Babar Awan (born 1958), Pakistani writer and politician
• Babar Azam (born 1994), Pakistani cricketer
• Babar Bhatti (born 1949), British actor
• Babar Hayat (born 1992), Pakistani-born Hong Kong cricketer
• Babar Khan, Pakistani actor and model
• Babar Khan (cricketer) (born 1993), Pakistani cricketer
• Babar Luck (born 1970), Pakistani-born British musician
• Babar Khan Ghauri, Pakistani politician
• Babar Nawaz Khan, Pakistani politician
• Babar Naeem (born 1983), Pakistani cricketer
• Babar Rehman (born 1984), Pakistani cricketer
• Diana Babar, British solicitor
• Fahad Babar (born 1992), Pakistani-born American cricketer
• Farhatullah Babar, Pakistani politician
• Ilyas Babar (1926–2002), Indian athletic coach
• Lutfozzaman Babar, Bangladeshi politician
• Naseerullah Babar (1928–2011), Pakistani general and cabinet minister
• Wali Khan Babar (1982–2011), Pakistani journalist
• Zulfiqar Babar (born 1978), Pakistani cricketer (Bowler)

Fiction

• Babar the Elephant, fictional character from a French children's book series

Other uses

• BaBar, a nuclear physics experiment

References

1. EB (1878).
2. EB (1911).
3. Eraly 2007, pp. 18–20.
4. Thumb, Albert, Handbuch des Sanskrit, mit Texten und Glossar, German original, ed. C. Winter, 1953, Snippet, p. 318
5. Babur, Emperor of Hindustan (2002). The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. translated, edited and annotated by W. M. Thackston. Modern Library. ISBN 0-375-76137-3.

Sources

• Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), "Baber" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 179
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Baber" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 92
• Eraly, Abraham (2007), Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Moghuls, Penguin Books Limited, ISBN 978-93-5118-093-7