Janab is a rank title in Persian, which may be rendered as Excellency

Excellency

Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...

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At the court of Persia's Shahanshahs of the imperial Qajar dynasty, precedence for non-members of the dynasty was organised in eight protocollary classes, generally coupled to various offices and qualities; the highest of these, styled Nawab

Nawab

A Nawab or Nawaab is an honorific title given to Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia. It is the Muslim equivalent of the term "maharaja" that was granted to Hindu rulers....

, was usually reserved for princes, while the six classes were awarded to various ministers, officers, commanders, Muslim clergy and so on. Ranking only below Nawab and Shakhs-i-Awwal (usually present and former Prime Ministers), Janab was the style borne by senior Ministers of State, high ranking clergy, Grand Ministers of State, Governors-General of major provinces, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, etc.; it ranked above Amir or Khan

Khan (title)

Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...

, 'Ali Jah Muqarrab, 'Ali Jah, 'Ali Sha'an and 'Ali Qadir.

The compound style Janab-i-Ashraf (Ashraf

Ashraf

Ashraf refers to someone claiming descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter Fatimah. The word is the plural of sharīf "noble", from sharafa "to be highborn"...

being a provincial aristocrat) was borne by prime ministers and can be translated as His Serene Highness.