High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sheikh is an Arabic word meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man, or Islamic scholar. In South Asia it is used as an ethnic title generally attributed to Muslim trading families. From the beginning of Muslim rule in South Asia in 713 AD, the Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis traveled from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and settled permanently. The Siddiqui and Quraishi Shaikhs are communities that are descended from these immigrants.