Malik


Malik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Malick, or Melekh is
the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and later Northwest Semitic and Arabic.
Although the early forms of the name were to be found among the Pre-Arab and Pre-Islamic Semites of The Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, it has since been adopted in various other, mainly but not exclusively Islamized or Arabized non-Semitic Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings.
The female version of Malik is Malikah , meaning "queen".
The name Malik was originally found among various pre-Arab and non-Muslim Semitic peoples such as the indigenous ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Amorites, Jews, Arameans, Mandeans, Syriacs, and pre-Islamic Arabs. It has since been spread among various predominantly Muslim and non-Semitic peoples in Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. Malik is also an angel in the Quran, who never smiled since the day the hellfire was created.
The last name "Malik" or the accented version "Malík" may also be of West Slavic origin, most predominantly Polish, Czech, and Slovakian, as it comes from a Polish word "mały" meaning "small". It's comparable with surnames such as "Malicki", "Maliczek", or "Malikowski".
The last name "Malik" also refers to people belonging to the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana region in India and Pakistan.
Malik is also a common name for boys in Greenlandic, meaning "wave".

Etymology

The earliest form of the name Maloka was used to denote a prince or chieftain in the East Semitic Akkadian language of the Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea. The Northwest Semitic :wikt:Appendix:Proto-Semitic *malk-|mlk was the title of the rulers of the primarily Amorite, Sutean, Canaanite, Phoenician and Aramean city-states of the Levant and Canaan from the Late Bronze Age.
Eventual derivatives include the Aramaic, Neo-Assyrian, Mandic and Arabic forms: Malik, Malek, Mallick, Malkha, Malka, Malkai and the Hebrew form Melek.
Moloch has been traditionally interpreted the epithet of a god, known as "the king" like Baal was an epithet "the master" and Adon an epithet "the lord", but in the case of Moloch purposely mispronounced as Molek instead of Melek using the vowels of Hebrew bosheth "shame".
Malik is also an unrelated Greenlandic Inuit name meaning "wave."

Political

Primarily a malik is the ruling monarch of a kingdom, called mamlaka; that term is however also used in a broader sense, like realm, for rulers with another, generally lower titles, as in Sahib al-Mamlaka. Malik is also used for tribal leaders, e.g. among the Pashtuns.
Some Arab kingdoms are currently ruled by a Malik:
Other historic realms under a Malik include:
The title Malik has also been used in languages which adopted Arabic loanwords, for various princely or lower ranks and functions.
The word Malik is sometimes used in Arabic to render roughly equivalent titles of foreign rulers, for instance the chronicler Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad refers to King Richard I of England as Malik al-Inkitar.
The following components are frequently part of titles, notably in Persian :
In the great Indian Muslim salute state of Hyderabad, a first rank- vassal of the Mughal padshah imitating his lofty Persian court protocol, the word Molk became on itself one of the titles used for ennobled Muslim retainers of the ruling Nizam's court, in fact the third in rank, only below Jah and Umara, but above Daula, Jang, Nawab, Khan Bahadur and Khan; for the Nizam's Hindu retainers different titles were used, the equivalent of Molk being Vant.

Usage in South Asia

Pashtun usage

The Arabic term came to be adopted as a term for "tribal chieftain" in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, especially among Pashtuns, for a tribal leader or a chieftain. In tribal Pashtun society the Maliks serve as de facto arbiters in local conflicts, interlocutors in state policy-making, tax-collectors, heads of village and town councils and delegates to provincial and national jirgas as well as to Parliament.
Malik is a common surname among every Pashtun family leader to solve the problem at the time of conflict with another family.

Punjabi usage

In the Punjab, "Malik", literally meaning "King" is a title used by some well-reputed specific Punjabi aristocrat bloodlines with special lineage, more formally known as Zamindars. The Actual clan to hold and originate this esteemed title is the Malik which is also associated with different aspects throughout different generations and periods of history, It is believed that they originated as a clan of warriors who later on settled as wealthy landlords. Malik title is used various castes and tribes.

General usage

Malik or Malek is a common element in first and family names, usually without any aristocratic meaning, However Malik is a large community and a well known clan of the Awan tribe in Pakistan with Arab heritage.
Some Maliks are also a clan of Hindu Jat, Muslim and a few Sikh Jatt, found primarily in India. or its derivative malakhra.

List of notable name-bearers

First name