The surname "Sheikh" is prevalent in the Bengali Muslim community. It is from the Arabic word "
Sheikh" (
Arabic: شيخ shaykh[ʃajx]), meaning elder, this word is also applied to those who are in a position of respect such as a leader, especially a religious leader or preacher. After the advent of Islam into the subcontinent, then eventually into Bengal, many
Sufi Islamic missionaries known as
Dervishes to the native people came from places in
Western Asia such as
Arabia,
Yemen,
Iraq,
Iran,
Afghanistan had come to spread
Islam in
Bengal.[1][2][3] Notable amongst these Sufi Muslim preachers were
Shah Jalal,
Bayezid Bostami,
Sultan Balkhi, and many other preachers had come to Bengal, all at different times. Wealthy Arab businessmen who were known as
Sheikhs in the Middle East as a respect for their wealth and
tribal lineage had also come to conduct business at Bengal at port cities such as
Chittagong, these Arabs had also done business in
South India and
Indonesia, they had also played a role in promoting
Islam in
Bengal. [4] All these respectable migrants from the Middle East were known as Sheikhs, and this status was inherited by their descendants. They are part of a larger social class in Bengal, known as the Khandan or
Sharif, the
upper class of
Bengali Muslim society.[5] Amongst, this class are families with surnames with a similar origin, being taken from the founder of the family's title, such as
Khandaker,
Syed,
Kazi, and
Mirza.[6]
This page lists people with the
surnameSheikhs of Bengal. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.