ASubah is a term for aprovince orstate in severalSouth Asian languages. It was introduced by theMughal Empire to refer to its subdivisions or provinces; and was also adopted by other polities of theIndian subcontinent. The word is derived fromArabic andPersian. The governor/ruler of aSubah was known as asubahdar (sometimes also referred to as a "Subeh"^[1]), which later becamesubedar to refer to an officer in theIndian andPakistani armies. Thesubahs were established byPadishah (emperor)Akbar during his administrative reforms of the years 1572–1580; initially, they numbered 12, but his conquests expanded the number ofsubahs to 15 by the end of his reign.Subahs were divided intoSarkars, or districts.Sarkars were further divided intoParganas orMahals. His successors, most notablyAurangzeb, expanded the number ofsubahs further through their conquests. As the empire began to dissolve in the early 18th century, manysubahs becamede facto independent or came under the influence of theMarathas or thesuzerainty of theEast India Company.

In the modern context,subah (صوبہ) is used in severalPakistani languages (most notablyPunjabi,Balochi, andUrdu) to refer to aprovince of Pakistan.

Initially, after the administrative reforms ofAkbar, theMughal empire was divided into 12 subahs: Kabul, Lahore, Multan, Delhi, Agra, Avadh, Illahabad, Bihar, Bangal, Malwa, Ajmer and Gujarat. After the conquest ofDeccan, he created three more subahs there: Berar, Khandesh (initially renamed Dandesh in 1601) and Ahmadnagar (in 1636 renamed as Daulatabad and subsequently as Aurangabad).

Jahangir increased the number of subahs to 17 during his reign; Orissa being carved out of Bangal in 1607. The number of subahs increased to 22 underShah Jahan.^[2] In his 8th regnal year, Shah Jahan separated thesarkar of Telangana from Berar and made it into a separate subah. In 1657, it was merged with Zafarabad Bidar subah. Agra was renamed Akbarabad in 1629 and Delhi became Shahjahanbad in 1648.^[3] Kashmir was carved out of Kabul, Thatta (Sindh) out of Multan, and Bidar out of Ahmadnagar. For some time Qandahar was a separate subah under the Mughal Empire but it was lost to Persia in 1648.

Aurangzeb added Bijapur (1686),Sira (1687)^[4] andGolkonda (1687) as new subahs. There were 22 subahs during his reign.^[2] These were Kabul, Kashmir, Lahore, Multan, Delhi, Agra, Avadh, Illahabad, Bihar, Bangalah, Orissa, Malwa, Ajmer, Gujarat, Berar, Khandesh, Aurangabad, Bidar, Thatta, Bijapur,Sira^[4] and Haidarabad (Golkonda).^[5]Aurangzeb made Arcot a Mughal subah in 1692.

During the Mughal Empire, thePunjab region consisted of three subahs: Lahore, Multan, and parts of Delhi subah.^[6] TheSikh Empire (1799–1849), originating in the Punjab region, also used the termSuba for the provinces it administered under its territorial delineation, of which there were five.^[7]

In modern usage inUrdu language, the term is used as a word forprovince, while the wordriyasat (Urdu:ریاست, "princely state" in English) is used for(federated) state. The terminologies are based on the administrative structure ofBritish India which was partially derived from the Mughal administrative structure. In modern times, the termsubah is mainly used inPakistan, where its fourprovinces are called "Subah" in theUrdu language.

The twelve subahs created as a result of the administrative reform by Akbar(Mughal Emperor):

Thesubahs which added later were (with dates established):

• Administrative divisions of India
• Subah or Taraf, Pargana or Mahal, Mauza or Pir

• Keay, John (2000).India: a History. Grove Press, New York.
• Markovits, Claude (ed.) (2004).A History of Modern India: 1480–1950. Anthem Press, London.

• Foltz, Richard (1996)."The Mughal Occupation of Balkh 1646–1647".Journal of Islamic Studies.7 (1). Oxford University Press:49–61.doi:10.1093/jis/7.1.49.

• Mughal subahs
• Subdivisions of the Mughal Empire
• Types of administrative division
• Urdu-language words and phrases

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