Sultan

This article is about sultans in general. For the Turkish Sultans, see List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire. For other uses, see Sultan (disambiguation).
Royal and noble ranks in Iran, Turkey, Caucasus, the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan
King / Emperor
Shah
Sultan
Sultana
Padishah
Royal Prince
Mirza
Shahzade / Şehzade
Sultanzade
Noble Prince
Sahibzada
Nobleman
Nawab
Baig
Begzada
Royal house
Damat
Governmental
Lala
Agha
Atabeg
Hazinedar
Sultan Mehmed II is considered one of the most famous Ottoman sultans.

Sultan (/ˈsʌltən/; Arabic: سلطان sulṭān, pronounced [sʊlˈtˤɑːn, solˈtˤɑːn]) is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e., the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), albeit without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate.

The dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate (سلطنة salṭanah).

A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is sultana or sultanah; however, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans. In a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall (in French, similar constructions of the type madame la maréchale are quite common). The rare female leaders in Muslim history are correctly known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" and sultan's chief wife in many sultanate in Indonesia and Malaysia is known as "permaisuri". Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Pengiran Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess.

Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law, the term is gradually being replaced by king (i.e. malik in Arabic) and Datu in Maranao.

Compound ruler titles

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV attended by a eunuch and two pages.

These are generally secondary titles, either lofty 'poetry' or with a message, e.g.:

Former sultans and sultanates

Anatolia and Central Asia

Caucasus

Levant and Arabian peninsula

H.M. Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, the current Sultan of Oman from the Al Said dynasty.
Audhali, Fadhli, Haushabi, Kathiri, Lahej, Lower Aulaqi, Lower Yafa, Mahra, Qu'aiti, Subeihi, Upper Aulaqi, Upper Yafa and the Wahidi sultanates

North Africa

Horn of Africa

Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean

Maliki

This was the alternative native style (apparently derived from malik, the Arabic word for "king") of the sultans of the Kilwa Sultanate, in Tanganyika (presently the continental part of Tanzania).

Swahili Coast

Mfalume is the (Ki)Swahili title of various native Muslim rulers, generally rendered in Arabic and in western languages as Sultan:

Sultani

This was the native ruler's title in the Tanzanian state of Uhehe a female sultan

West and Central Africa

Southern Asia

Sultan Ali Khan Bahadur, grandson of Nawab H.H Noor ul Umrah and son of Nawab Shujaath Ali Khan

Southeast and East Asia

Hamengkubuwono X, the incumbent Sultan of Yogyakarta
Pakubuwono XII, last undisputed Susuhunan of Surakarta
Sultan Saifuddin of Tidore

In Indonesia (formerly in the Dutch East Indies):

In Malaysia:

In Brunei:

In China:

In the Philippines:

In Thailand:

Contemporary sovereign sultanates

In some parts of the Middle East and North Africa, there still exist regional sultans or people who are descendants of sultans and who are styled as such.

Princely and aristocratic titles

The Valide Sultan (Empress mother) of the Ottoman Empire

By the beginning of the 16th century, title sultan carried by both men's and women's of the Ottoman dynasty, was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably khatun for women and bey for men). This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative.

Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as "sultan", but Ottomans themselves used "padişah" (emperor) or "hünkar" to refer to their ruler. The emperor’s formal title consisted of "sultan" together with "khan" (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan’s children were also entitled "sultan", with imperial princes (Şehzade) carrying the title before their given name, with imperial princesses carrying it after. Example, Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan, son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, living mother and main consort of reigning sultan also carried the title after their given names, for example, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, Suleiman’s mother and first valide sultan, and Hürrem Sultan, Suleiman’s chief consort and first haseki sultan. The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between Sultanate of Women, as the position of main consort eroded over the course of 17th century, the main consort lost the title "sultan", which replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title "sultan".[1]

In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty (a direct descendants of Genghis Khan) elected by clans, i.e. a kind of princes. The best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai.

Military rank

In a number of post-caliphal states under Mongol or Turkic rule, there was a feudal type of military hierarchy. These administrations were often decimal (mainly in larger empires), using originally princely titles such as khan, malik, amir as mere rank denominations.

In the Persian empire, the rank of sultan was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West; socially in the fifth-rank class, styled 'Ali Jah.

See also

Other ruling titles

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sultans.
  1. Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507673-7.
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