Ghulam (, ) 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, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser extent, Mughal empires, as described in the article Ghilman, 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. In both Persian and Urdu, the particle al- 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 (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 See also Ghilman, young servants in paradise or slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser extent, Mughal empires Ghulam Khan, town in North Waziristan, Pakistan Abd (Arabic) Qul (Turkic) Arabic masculine given names Arabic-language surnames