Ghulam ( ar, غلام, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in paradise. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...

, Ottoman,

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

and to a lesser extent, Mughal empires, as described in the article ''

Ghilman Ghilman (singular ar, غُلاَم ',Other standardized transliterations: '' / ''. . plural ')Other standardized transliterations: '' / ''. . were slave-soldiers and/or mercenaries in the armies throughout the Islamic world, such as the Safavi ...

'', which is the plural form of the word. It is traditionally used as the first element of compounded Muslim male given names, meaning ''servant of ...'', mostly in Persian (where it is pronounced ) and in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' al- ( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized as ''el-'', ''il-,'' and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic, is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed def ...

'' is not used with ''ghulam'' (unlike compounds formed with '' ʿabd''; e.g. ''Gholammohammad'', ''Gholamhoseyn'', ''Gholamali''... and ''Abd al-Muhammad'', ''Abd al-Husayn'', ''Abd al-Ali''...). Since the 20th century, ''Ghulam'' has also been used as an independent given name and surname.

People with the given name (not in compound)

* Ghulam Bombaywala, Pakistani-American restaurateur * Ghulam Ali Chowdhury (1824–1888), Bengali landlord and philanthropist * Ghulam Murshid, Bangladeshi author, scholar and journalist * Arbab Ghulam Rahim (born 1957), Pakistani politician * Ghulam Raziq (born 1932), Pakistani hurdler

People with the surname

* Nabil Gholam (born 1962), Lebanese architect * Ali Gholam (born 1981), Iranian footballer * Sara Ghulam (born 1989), Canadian model * Jassim Ghulam Al-Hamd (born 1979), Iraqi footballer

List of compounded given names with first part ''Ghulam''

* Ghulam Abbas * Ghulam Ahmad, also Ghulam Ahmed * Ghulam Ali *

Ghulam Azam Ghulam Azam ( bn, গোলাম আযম; 7 November 192223 October 2014) was a Bangladeshi Islamist politician. He was the former leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh. Azam was arrested b ...

(1922–2014), Bangladeshi politician * Ghulam Dastagir * Ghulam Farid * Ghulam Faruq * Ghulam Hassan * Ghulam Haider * Ghulam Hussain also Gholam Hossein etc. *Ghulam Ishaq, notably borne by ** Ghulam Ishaq Khan (1915–2006), President of Pakistan *Ghulam Mansur, notably borne by ** Ghulam Mansoor (born 1812), Subedar-Major at Bhopal State in 1867 * Ghulam Mohammad, also Ghulam Mohammed, Ghulam Muhammad etc., notably borne by ** Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt (1878–1960), Pakistani wrestler known as "The Great Gama" * Ghulam Mohiuddin, also other spellings * Ghulam Murtaza * Ghulam Mustafa * Ghulam Nabi, notably borne by ** Ghulam Nabi Azad (born 1949) Indian politician *Ghulam Qadir, notably borne by ** Ghulam Qadir Khan (1920–1988), last ruler of the State of Las Bela in Balochistan, Pakistan * Ghulam Rabbani * Ghulam Rasul, also Ghulam Rasool * Gholam Reza, notably borne by ** Gholam Reza Pahlavi *Ghulam Sadiq, notably borne by ** Ghulam Sediq Wardak (born 1942), Afghan peasant inventor {{given name, type=both

People with the given name (not in compound)

People with the surname

List of compounded given names with first part ''Ghulam''

See also