Ghulam (Arabic: غلام, ALA-LC: ghulām) is an Arabic word meaning servant, assistant, boy, or youth.[1] It is used to describe young servants in Jannah. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser extent, Mughal empires, though more commonly with the word Ghilman, which is the plural form of ghulam.[2]
It is traditionally used as the first element of compounded Muslim male given names, meaning servant of ..., mostly in Persian (where it is pronounced Gholâm) and in Urdu. In both Persian and Urdu, the particle al- is not used with ghulam (unlike compounds formed with ʿabd; e.g. Gholammohammad, Gholamhoseyn, Gholamali... and Abd al-Muhammad, Abd al-Husayn, Abd al-Ali...). Since the 20th century, Ghulam has also been used as an independent given name and surname.
- ^ Schimmel, Annemarie (1992-05-14). Islam: An Introduction. SUNY Press. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-0-7914-1328-9.
- ^ Wet, Chris L. De; Kahlos, Maijastina; Vuolanto, Ville (2022-02-17). Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 – 700 CE. Cambridge University Press. pp. 301, 306. ISBN 978-1-108-47622-5.