Bibi (title)
{{Short description|South Asian honorific title}}
File:Portrait of a Bibi, Lucknow.jpg (Oudh State) 1785]]
Bibi ({{IPA|hns|ˈbiːbiː|pron}}) is frequently used as a respectful title for Muslim, Christian and Sikh women in South Asia when added to the given name.{{cite web|url=https://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2000/08/06/stories/1306067n.htm|title=Bibis and mistresses|last=Nevile|first=Pran|year=2000|language=English|work=The Hindu|accessdate=31 October 2018}}{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite book|last=Hyam|first=Ronald|title=Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVS8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA115|accessdate=31 October 2018|year=1990|publisher=Manchester University Press|language=English|isbn=9780719025044|page=115|quote=Bibi is a Hindustani word meaning 'high-class woman', which in Hobson-Jobson 'Anglo-Indian' parlance came to mean native mistress.}}
Bibi, like Begum, is used as a surname by many women in the region.{{cite journal|author1=A. R. Gatrad |author2=Aziz Sheikh |title=Muslim birth customs |journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition |date=2001 |volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=6F–8 |url=http://fn.bmjjournals.com/content/84/1/F6.full |publisher=Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed2001;84:F6-F8 doi:10.1136/fn.84.1.F6 |doi=10.1136/fn.84.1.F6 |pmid=11124915 |pmc=1721205 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205214845/http://fn.bmjjournals.com/content/84/1/F6.full |archivedate=2015-02-05 }}
In Anglo-Indian, the term bibi came to be seen as a synonym for mistress.
Etymology
The word "Bibi", which made its way into the Pashto and Urdu language, was originally borrowed from Classical Persian ({{Lang|fa|بیبی}} bī-bī). It was translated as "grandma" (chiefly in Pashto, Dari, Tajik). Besides this it was also used as respectful title to address senior women.{{Citation |title=بیبی |date=2023-08-31 |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%D8%A8%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%DB%8C&oldid=75926451 |work=Wiktionary, the free dictionary |access-date=2023-11-13 |language=en}}
Notable people known by this title
- Aisha Bibi, 12th-century noble woman, after whom a memorial and village are named in modern Kazakhstan
- Bibi Mubarika, 16th a Yusufzai Pashtun Empress consort in Mughal Empire. She was a wife of first Mughal emperor Babur.
- Bibi Ambha, the Hindu origin mother of Sikandar Lodi{{cite book|last=Pant|first=Poonam|title=Role of Women in Medieval Indian Politics, 1236-1627|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iC4qAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=31 October 2018|year=2001|publisher=Tarun Prakashan|language=English|page=123|quote=Bibi Ambha, a Hindu beauty who enamoured Bahlol Lodi displayed a Machiavellian diplomacy.}}
- Asia Bibi, a Catholic Christian worker accused of blasphemy in Pakistan
- Bushra Bibi, wife of Imran Khan and First Lady of Pakistan
- Sultana Chand Bibi (1550–1599 CE), also known as Chand Khatun or Chand Sultana, Indian Muslim woman warrior
- Islam Bibi, (1974–2013), Afghan policewoman and human right activist.
- Noorjahan Kakon Bibi, female freedom fighter in Bangladesh
- Mukhtaran Bibi (born {{circa}} 1972, now known as Mukhtār Mā'ī), human rights activist.
- Pari Bibi, noblewomen of Mughal Empire buried in Lalbagh Fort, Dhaka
- Taramon Bibi, female freedom fighter in Bangladesh
- Taj Bibi, empress consort of Emperor Jahangir and mother of Emperor Shah Jahan.