Khawaja

Khawaja or Khwaja (Template:Lang-ar khawājah, Template:Lang-fa pronounced khâje) is a title used in Middle East and South Asia. It is also used as family name in South Asia.

Those who have had the surname within their family for generations are mostly of a higher class Kashmiri descent. This surname has served within the most popular and powerful political activities in South Asia.

Khwaja, a title especially affected by Kashmiris.It is the same word, as Khoja, but is not used as the as the name of any caste or otherwise than as a title

The Origin

The Khawajah Shaikh are a multi-ethnic community who are mostly descended from local Hindu tribes. They adopted the title Shaikh either out of reverence to the Sufi Saints who used the honorific or were awarded the title Shaikh by the Muslim government or tribe.

Marriage customs

Khawajas (Kashmiris) usually marry within their own social affiliation (Class), and depending on circumstances a group (Class) may be as small as few hundred families and as large as few thousand families. For example, The Bhat class define their clan system to be an entire group having very few sub-groups, whereas Khawajas are branched into a few dozen sub-groups. For the Bhat clan (a Kashmiri clan) a group, by and large, usually shares an ancestral village in Kashmir as a reference point. Marriage between close relatives especially first cousins is discouraged but such a reunion is possible in cases where a group is too small. Marriage outside the social group (e.g. marrying outside such as Punjabi families) is now quite common and accepted by most Khawaja families, although some community elders may still discourage it.

[1] Tribes and Castes of Kashmir By Muhammad Din Folk

People using the name Khawaja

Significant figures with the name or using the title Khawaja:

• Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Abdul Ghani Mian KCSI (1813–1896) was the first Nawab of Dhaka recognized by the British Raj.
• Khawaja Muhammad Asif (born August 9, 1949 in Sialkot) is the current Pakistani Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, with additional portfolio of Sports Ministry in the PM Yousaf Raza Gillani cabinet. He is politically affiliated the center-right party PML-N. He is renowned for his oratory skills and denunciation of military intervention in the political domain.

• Pakistan’s second Governor General was Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin. Sir Khawaja resigned as Governor General to become the second Prime Minister of Pakistan, after Liaquat Ali Khan being assassinated .

• Khwaja Alimullah was the first Nawab of Dhaka. He was the founder of the Dhaka Nawab Family.

• Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty, also known as Khwaja Gharib Nawaz was a Sunni Muslim and is the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of South Asia. He was born in 536 A.H./1141 CE, in Sajistan, a famous city in Khorasan province (other accounts say Isfahan) in Persia. He is also known as "Sultan-e-Hind." Descendants of Sufi saints also use this as a prenomial, although some now use it as a surname.

• Khawaja Saad Rafique was born on November 4, 1962 at Lahore. He has been elected as MNA for his first term. He is politically affiliated with PML(N) and holds the office of General Secretary of the party for the Punjab province. He is the Current Federal Minister for Pakistan.

• Momin Khawaja (born April 14, 1979, Ottawa) a software engineer; while working under contract to the Foreign Affairs department in 2004 became the first person charged and found guilty under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act following the proof that he communicated with British Islamists plotting a bomb attack.
• Usman Khawaja, Australian cricketer of Pakistani heritage

See also

• • Kashmiri Shaikh
  • Khoja
  • In South Asia:
  • Moinuddin Chishti
  • Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
  • Dhaka Nawab Family
  • In Central Asia:
  • Khoja (Turkestan)
  • Abdullah Khawaja