We got lucky when we discovered that the surname of Hasan's grandmother is Begum, which has unusual roots.

Did you know that?

No.

Begum is an Urdu word with roots in a Turkish word for princess.

And historically, it was given to women who were the wife or daughter of a beg, meaning a Lord or a chieftain.

Ever thought of your family as maybe having royal roots?

I know in your fantasy, when you look at a mirror, you see a prince, but.

.

You know, I got cousins that have egos like that.

But I don't know if we are related in that way.

Well, we didn't find any evidence that any of your ancestors were royalty, except etymologically.

But it's certainly possible because of that, that they were.

Mm.

What's it like to think about that?

It's pretty incredible.

Mm-hm.

Yeah.

And it's pretty amazing to just understand who you are and where you come from and what generations before may have been doing.

Mm, it is.

Yeah.

Riding around on those elephants in the backyard.

Party elephants or yeah.

Though we couldn't connect Hasan's family to royalty, we did uncover something fascinating.

Hasan's relatives told us that his great grandfather, a man named Sibghat Ullah, was a prominent landowner.

And as we combed through the archives in his home region, we uncovered a British publication that seemed to confirm this.

"The town of Dhampur is the seat of several well-known families who owned land."

Mm-hm.

"Muhammad Sibghat-ullah, the principal Sheik resident of the place."

That name sound familiar?

That's my great grandfather.

We can't be certain, but we spoke with the scholar about this at length, and we think this may be indeed your great grandfather.

The names are similar, and Dhampur is about five miles from Sherkot.

Wow, and this is from a newspaper.

The "Bijnor" gazetteer.

Yeah.

Which is a geographical index.

Yeah, Bijnor.

My dad has talked about Bijnor just casually.

Oh, yeah?

When he talks about Sherkot and Bijnor, but it just sounds like he's describing different regions from "Game of Thrones".

I'm like, I don't know what that territory is.

This index not only indicates that Sibghat owned land, it also describes him as being the "principal Sheik" of this town, which was potentially a very significant find.

The term Sheik refers to a social class of Muslims in Northern India, a group that claims Arab descent through the Prophet Muhammad, and two of the founding caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr and Omar.

Did you ever think you might have Arabic roots?

No.

What's it like to think of that possibility?

That's... You know, in our faith, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Abu Bakr and Omar, the caliph, are extremely important in our faith.

Yeah?

And they're like the tent poles of what became Islam and the spread of Islam around the world, so.

Mm-hm.

No, this is, this is extremely, very powerful and very... I had no idea.