Sardar

Sardar (Persian: سردار, romanized: Sardâr, pronounced; lit.'commander, chief, leader') is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote Muslimprinces, noblemen, kings, and other aristocrats. It has also been used to denote a Muslimchief of a tribe. It is used as a Persian synonym of the title Sheikh of Arabic origin.

The term and its cognates originate from Persian sardār () and have been historically used across Persia (Iran), the Ottoman Empire and Turkey (as "Serdar"), Afghanistan (as "Sardar" for a member of the royal Mohammadzai clan in meaning of noblemen), Pakistan (for tribal chiefs), Mesopotamia (now Iraq), Syria, Central Asia (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as "Sardor"), the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Egypt (as "Sirdar").