Begum, Begam or Baigum (Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

: Begüm, Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

: بیگم) is a Turkic

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...

 title given to female family members of a Baig

Baig

- History & Origins:The name Baig originates from a Turkic clan called Barlas . They played a pivotal role in Turko-Persian empires in Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia....

 or 'Beg', a higher official. The term Begum is derived from the word Beg, and means a female member of the Beg's family.

Also used Begzadi, for Ex. "Beg-Zadi" (daughter of "Beg"), use this type "Begzadi Ameena".

It has been adapted for use in South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 as an honorific address and title given to women of rank. It used to be conferred upon women of royalty or aristocracy and also to women with high ranking social status, and could also mean "Queen

Queen consort

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

". Examples are (from as early as the 18th century): Zaynab Begum , Begum Hazrat Mahal - who later divorced Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, Mughal princesses Jahanara Begum

Jahanara Begum

Shahzadi Jahanara Begum Sahib was the eldest daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.-Influence at Court:...

 and Roshanara Begum

Roshanara Begum

Roshanara Begum was the second daughter of the Mughal ruler, Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Born on September 3, 1617, Roshanara was a brilliant woman, a talented poetess, the mastermind behind Aurangazeb's accession to the Mughal throne, and by the time of her death in 1671, one of the most...

, and Begum Inaara Aga Khan, Begum Nusrat Bhutto

Nusrat Bhutto

Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples...

, Begum Khaleda Zia

Khaleda Zia

Begum Khaleda Zia is the former First Lady of Bangladesh , and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim world to head a democratic government as prime minister. She served again from 2001 until...

.

The term became well known in the West

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

, especially in the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-speaking world, due to Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

's 1879 novel The Begum's Millions

The Begum's Millions

The Begum's Fortune , also published as The Begum's Millions, is an 1879 novel by Jules Verne, with some elements which could be described as utopian and others which seem clearly dystopian. It is remarkable as the first published book in which Verne was cautionary and to some degree pessimistic...

(in French, Les Cinq cents millions de la Begum).

Colloquially, the term is also used in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 by Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 men to refer to their own wives or as an honorific address to a married or widowed woman. For example, Begum Khaleda Zia

Khaleda Zia

Begum Khaleda Zia is the former First Lady of Bangladesh , and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim world to head a democratic government as prime minister. She served again from 2001 until...

.

Begumpet

Begumpet

Begumpet is a neighborhood in Hyderabad, India.-History:Begumpet is named after the daughter of the second Nizam, Basheer Ul-Unnisaa Begum , who received it as part of her wedding dowry was married to the second Amir of Paigah The Shums ul Umra Amir e Kabir 1...

 is one of the major commercial and residential suburbs in Hyderabad, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The sixth Nizam

Nizam

Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad popularly known as Nizams of Hyderabad was a former monarchy of the Hyderabad State, now in the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra in India...

's daughter married a Paigah

Paigah

Paigah or the Shums ul Umra family was the Premier nobility of the Hyderabad State. They were richer and had larger estates than the average Indian Maharajah, they maintained their own court, their own extraordinary palaces, and their own twelve-thousand-strong private army...

 noble and her wedding present from her father was the area that now makes up modern day Begumpet

Begumpet

Begumpet is a neighborhood in Hyderabad, India.-History:Begumpet is named after the daughter of the second Nizam, Basheer Ul-Unnisaa Begum , who received it as part of her wedding dowry was married to the second Amir of Paigah The Shums ul Umra Amir e Kabir 1...

, from then onwards it was named after her. Sahibzadi Shehkyar Begum http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/turkey/i382.html, was born 1964 and is the daughter of Prince Mukarram Jah who was himself the grandson of the Nizam of Hyderabad.

Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

's suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 Mississauga in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 is referred as Begumpura (Women's Town) by Pakistani community in Toronto. Mississauga has a large Pakistani immigrant community and many husbands work in the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

while their wives and children live in Mississauga.