Shah (surname)
Shah (Gujarati: શાહ) is a surname common among people from India, Nepal, and the Middle East. In India this is the surname of mostly Jains and Vaishnav Hindu religion followers. It is historically associated with the business community of Gujarat.
List of People with the name 'Shah'
The surname Shah may refer to:
- Abdullah Shah (died 2004), was the first person executed by the post-Taliban Afghan state
- Bina Shah is a Pakistani journalist and writer
- Bulleh Shah (c.1680-c.1758), a Punjabi Sufi poet
- Eddy Shah, a Manchester-based businessman and writer
- Hemish Shah (1968-2001), an English stock broker and professional poker player
- Idries Shah (1924-1996), a Sufi writer
- Jamal Shah, a Pakistani television actor
- Jawahar Shah (born 1955), Indian homeopath
- Kiran Shah (born 1956), a Kenyan-born actor and stuntman
- Naseeruddin Shah, a famous Indian actor
- Omar Ali-Shah (died 2005), a prominent exponent of modern Sufism
- Owais Shah (born 1978), a Pakistani-born English cricketer.
- Pooja Shah (born 1979) is a British Asian actress.
- Raffique Shah (born 1946), a Trinidad and Tobago trade unionist and politician
- Rajendra Keshavlal Shah (born 1913), a lyrical poet who writes in Gujarati
- Ravindu Shah (born 1972) is a Kenyan cricketer.
- Ray Shah (born 1978) was a contestant on the fourth series of the British Big Brother
- Saira Shah, an English author, reporter and documentary filmmaker
- Sanjay Shah is a former Kenyan, best known for staging an immigration protest
- Satish Beri-Shah was a prominent Indian film and television actor
- Sher Shah (VC) (1917-1945), an Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Sitara Shah, an actress who played Parvati Patil in the first three Harry Potter films
- Wali Khan Amin Shah, an Afghan-born Al-Qaeda member
- Waris Shah (1719 or 1730–1790), a Punjabi poet
- Ashil Shah (1995-)
- Mit Shah A pioneer in the field of nursing and gynaecology.
This noble and honourable surname is of Persian, Turkish and Hindi origin, and was given to one connected in some manner with a king's household. A shah is a ruler of certain Middle Eastern countries, especially Persia (now Iran), and derives from the Persian "shah", king. In Nepal, Shah is the family name of members of the royal family. Jahan Shah (see below) was Mogul emperor from 1628 to 1658. During his reign the finest monuments of Mogul architecture in India were built, including the Taj Mahal and the Pearl Mosque at Agra. The city of Sahjahanpur in northern India was founded in 1647, during his reign. In 1739, Nadir Shah of Persia conquered India, he then ordered a general massacre, in which one hundred and fifty thousand people perished. He carried away treasure amounting to 125,000,000 Sterling. After the death of Mahomed Shah in 1748 the Mogul Empire became merely nominal, with independent sovereignties being formed by petty princes. In 1761, Shah Alum 11 was defeated at Patna, where he attacked the English, and after the Battle of Buxar in 1764, he was thrown upon the protection of the English, who established him at Allahabad. After the victory at Delhi in 1803, General Lake restored the aged monarch to a nominal sovereignty, which descended at his death to his son, Akbar Shah. Akbar died in 1837, and was succeeded by his son, the last king of Delhi. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Jahan Shah, which was dated 1592, born in India, during the reign of Akbar, greatest sovereign of Hindostan, 1556 - 1605. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.