Yusuf B Gursey
2013-08-04 00:05:01 UTC
Actually, if you post this query in sci.lang, you'll get a full and
accurate answer from Yusuf Gursey (who will likely quote Encyclopaedia
of Islam for you).
accurate answer from Yusuf Gursey (who will likely quote Encyclopaedia
of Islam for you).
Bernard Lewis' "The Political Vocabulary of Islam" that explains some
of the titles in the proccess of explaining the ones that have survived
The strange thing is that the Bulgar Khanate predates the Mongol hordes,
so, that's what started me on this quest...
it's not strange at all, as it was a title used by the steppe peoplesso, that's what started me on this quest...
(mostly Turkic and Mongol) long before.
the Danube Bulghar rulers are known Byzantine records as *kanasubegi
which is etymologized as Turkic xa:n sü begi "khan" + beg (prince,
commander) of the army , but the intervening "a" has not been
satisfactorialy explained so far, although various Turkologists have
offered their solutions and some historians have recently resorted to
non-Turkic etymologies (I don't buy Omeljan Pritsak's claim of a
nominative in proto-Turkic). the steppe tradition allows use of
multiple titles, among the Khazars and some other Turkic peoples the
offices of the supreme, sacral, ruler (qaghan, which I will get to) and
that of army commander and day to day ruler were seperate, so perhaps
the Bulghar rulers wanted to show that they combined the offices. the
Volga Bulghars took the title of (in Arab records) of yIlta:wa:r Turkic
ilteber etymologized as "nation vanquisher" a relatively modest title,
as they were tributaries to the Khazars, their enemies and when they
adopted Islam and sought Caliphal protection took the Arabic title of
malik "king, monarch".
xa:n is definitely found in Old Turkic. it was a title of aristocratic
descent, while qa:*gh*a:n (so written in Old Turkic), was the title
used by the supreme ruler of the steppe empires. this dates firmly to
the Ruan Ruan (Pinyin), better known as the Asiatic Avars, but some
have argued from Chinese records to date it to the Xiong-nu (Asiatic
Huns). princes and other family members of the ruling house of the
qaghan bore it, and at times rulers of lesser states with enough clout
and claims of lineage took the title as well. claiming the title qaghan
was a more serious matter and if you couldn't match the neighboring
qaghan militarily it would mean serious trouble. after Chinggis, only
descendants of Chinggis from the male line could claim the title Khan
among Mongols and Eastern Turks, but the Ottomans took the title for
their own line, and produced the (legendary) history of the Turks
published by Rashiduddin al-Tabib for the Muslim (convert) Mongol
Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan that listed the tribe of the Ottomans, the
QayI, as the highest Turkmen / Oghuz tribe,a nd had their own
chronicler state in so many words how noble their lineage was, that it
was the noble lineage of all the Turks (in this historiography,
approved by Ghazan, the Mongols were a branch of Turks that had
diverged eons ago) and in so many words were nobler than the lineage of
Chinggis, in Turkish Jengiz (modern orthography Cengiz). but they
recognized the title of "khan" for the Chinggisid Khan of Crimea, even
after he became an Ottoman vassal. the Crimean Khan also was allowed to
mint his own money under his name (something very siginificant in
Muslim tradition) and his lineage was to take over if the Ottomans
failed to produce an heir (something that was highly unlikely in the
Harem, and with all the cousins that were allowed in the line later,
but it was nearly put into effect by some plotters in the early 19th
cent.). in Central Asia, even Timur didn't take up the title of Khan,
as he was not a descendant of Chinggis, and maintained legitimacy by a
Chinggised puppet, Mahmud Khan. in Persian he is reffered as Amir
(ami:r, Emir), he married a Chinggisid princess and took to the title
Gur (Mongolian gur, (imperial) son in law) cf. Turkish Damad (persian
da:ma:d "son in law"), a title of prestige when applied to the dyansty
among Ottoman Turks as well. hence, in Uzbek: Gur Emir. subsequent
Timurids have the title Beg (cf. Ulugh Beg, the astronomer king).
xa:n was also a title given to deities, prophets in Old Turkic. Buddha >
Bud becomes Bur in the Chang'an (later and now Xi'an) dialect of mid
1st millenium Chinese and so Old Turkic burxa:n "Buddha" later also
"god", "God" or "idol" and in Middle Mongolian "Buddha" (used in
Ilkhanid Persian writings in that sense as well), continuing to the
present day.
Old Turkic inscriptions have qa*gh*an for the supreme ruler of the
steppes. Chinese sources give this title for the previous group, the
Ruan Ruan and rulers of China at the time from the same Xienbi
confederacy have that title as well (the Chinese ruler of the Mulan
story has that title, and his adversaries, which Mulan defeats are Ruan
Ruan, non-Sinified "barbarian" Xienbi). Clauson sees that title in the
Xiongnu. in Arabic sources have it as xa:qa:n but /q/ may represent the
voiced back velar stop g (rare in Turkic, the back allophone of /g/ was
normally spirint), which is the reflex of bedouin dialects Arabic, and
is listed among voiced consonants by Sibawayhi. the [x] and [*gh*] and
[q] are not carefully distinguished in Uighur script, Old Turkic runes
don't represent [x] (and some argue Altaicists and Turkologists argue
for three velar phonemes in the proto-language, all with back and front
allophones) and reconstructs *xa:ga:n. Turkish remembered this by its
Arabic spelling and survived as xa:qa:n (so in Ottoman script) >
ha:ka:n (modern orthgraphy Hakan), with the back allophone of /k/, but
also retaining length. When Old Turkic Empire (the Tu"rku"t or Tu"rk
Empire), this was adopted by their rulers, when they withdrew from
their brief rule in the Russian Steppe, the Khazars made a smooth
transition to rule and it seems they had a dynastic relation. The Tu"rk
had chased European Avars (it is said that they had adopted the Middle
Persian name of the Ruan Ruan Avar (there is some dispute as to their
ethnicity, most scholars assume Bulghar / Hunnic Turkic, one
recosntruction of an inscription is Asiatic Turkic, which Anatolian
Turkish developed out of) to Pannonia (Hungary) and were angry at their
adoption of the title Qaghan (in European sources Caganus) and the
Tu"rk asked the Byzantines for an alliance against them. the Kievan Rus
also used the title, and Omeljan Pritsak suspects a dyanstic alliance
between them and the Khazars.
the Uighurs were claiming to be the successor state of the Tu"rk and
they were the fist to recognize the supremacy of Chinggis and conferred
upon him the title. in Mongolian, the title qa:*gh*a:n appears as
qa:'a:n in Arabic script Middle Mongolian (Uighur script Classical
Mongolian is archaicizing and retains the velar fricative, at least in
writing). this is a regular development of Mongolian. further
developments in Mongolian are the spirintization of the velar stop and
the dropping of the hiatus so it later gets conflated with xa:n in
later Mongolian.
- Khanate (e.g., the Bulgar Khanate)
see above.- Ilkanate (e.g., the Persian Ilkanate)
the Mongols of Iran, descendants of Hu"legu" (Hulagu) claimed the titlei:lx:an, bearing also "xa:n after their names. a naive etymology is
Turkic il (or él) "tribe" (but the political terms between the subject
people and the subject lands are fickle so in Turkish il, el refers
land) and xa:n or homophonous Turkic "peace" + "Khan". more likely the
Old Turkic ilig (a minor title) + xa:n. the Turkic rulers of Kashgar
(now in Xinjiang, China) who became Muslim independent of Arab
conquest, bore the title iligxa:n or ilekxa:n. their dialect was not
different from later Old Uighur, with Arabic instead of Chinese and
Sanskirt influence in literature.
- Caliphate (e.g., the Abbasid Caliphate)
that which is ruled by the (or a) Caliph, Arabic xali:fa(t) which means"successor" xali:f + the morphological feminine (probably as an
honorific). the short answer is that a Caliph is the successor of
Muhammad and head of the Muslim community. what it actually is depends
on the period in question and the sectarian veiwpoint, it is the single
most important cause of sectarian division in Islam. Islam has a
relatively simple theology the essential of which is tersely stated in
the Shahada, the slightly expanded "Amantu" (I believe in .,.) or the
short 4 verse Ikhlas Surah (Chapter 112) of the Qur'an. whether the
Qur'an is created or not is also question that later came up but this
can cut across the sectarian lines. the three divisions of Islam,
Sunni, Shia and Kharijite (repesented in moderate Ibadi form and never
numerous, the state religion in Oman and present as Berber pockets in
N. Africa) disagree on the caliphate, and the near identical issue of
the Imamate (Imam is the the leader of the Islamic community) and its
consequences.
right now the question of the Caliphate has been dropped by the world
Islamic community, although some seek to revive it, with various
intepretations.
I will leave it for a seperate post.
see also Enc. of Islam II "Khalifa" and "Imam".
- Sultinate (e.g., the Delhi Sultanate)
Arabic salTana(t) , that lead by sulTa:n . sulTa:n was originally averbal noun noun meaning"power" but later it became a title. the
Abbasid Caliphs started devolving their powers handing local authority,
sulTa(t) in Arabic, to rulers invested with the title Sultan. the first
significant sultanate was that Aghlabids in former Roman province of
Africa ('ifriqiyya in Arabic), a bloated modern day Tunisia. The other
were the Persian speaking Samanids in Central Asia (later this area was
Turkified). Literary New Persian first developed there, while in Iran
direct Arab rule using Arabic and the Zoroastrian priests using Middle
Persian stiffled the development the literary use of the vernacular.
these states prolifierated as time went on, at the expense of the
authority of the caliph. they issued coins on the caliph's name but
also included their own name, the Friday Sermon, the Khutbah, was read
in the name of the caliph followed by their own name and title. then at
the beginning of the 11th century the Abbasid caliph was plagued by the
rise in power of a renegade Shia sultanate, the Buwayhids also known
as the Bu:yids and pro-Shia at his doorstep and suspicions of intrigue
from the Turkish soldiery at home. he called for intervention for a
Turkmen chieftain, Toghril, whose family, the Saljukids had adopted
Islam and was getting Arab support in his bid for power amongst the
Oghuz who had not been completely Islamized (the Ottomans were later to
make some propaganda about the Saljukid's lower status in the Turkmen
pecking order). Toghril restored Sunni Islam but at the price of the
Caliph having to acknowledge him as de facto ruler with many flattering
titles and he demanded and go the title Sultan. this made the title
Sultan one of great prestige. nevertheless, they were still in theory
just caretakers for the Caliph although the effective rulers. another
caveat was that Saljuks themselves devolved power to various princes,
begs atabegs (imperial tutors) or local rulers of various titles in a
feudal fashion. when the Crusaders came they found the arrangements
familiar and in that regard felt at home and exploited those alliances
to their advantage.
after the Mongol invasion, the Abbasid Caliphate was wiped out, but
members of the family sought refuge in Egypt then ruled by a succession
of manumated military slaves of Kypchak Turkic origin. the Abbasid line
kept the title of Caliph, gave prestige to the Mamluks that were not of
noble origin (only Baybars felt the need to concoct a pedigree for
himself), conferred them the title of Sultan and also handed out the
title to Mamluk allies which gave them diplomatic prestige.
nevertehless, Islamized and Turkified Mongols and Turkmen rulers
adopted the title for themeselves not waiting for caliphal investiture,
and the Muslim Mongols, rivals of the Mongols in the Middle East, added
that to their titles. these were usually strongly central rulers and
the title Sultan meant the equivalent of "Emperor".
Turkic titles or titles that Turkish had fully assimilated that were
not from Arabic or literary Persian were postposed according to Turkic
(and Mongolian) grammar. but Arabic and (with occasional exceptions)
literary Persian titles were preposed as they were in Arabic and
Persian. but for "Sultan" a postposed "Sultan" invariant for Arabic
gender was invented for Turkish reseverved for princes, princesses,
Queen Mothers or concubines that produced an heir or that the Sultan
married in public (which was very rare). in Islamic law offspring of
freemen and concubines are free with full status and inheritance
rights except in rare cases where the master would deny paternity. this
was not true for the Mongols who looked at the pedigree of the
matrilineal line as well. but later on, certainly in the 19th and early
20th cent. the title for princes was Efendi (postposed) from Greek
authente:s Byzantine [avthentis]. when the Sultanate was abolished and
the last Sultan escaped on a British warship a very short while after
in 1922, the next in line became caliph without any power (he was
sympathizer of the nationalists, fairly liberal in outlook and quite
unusual for a Muslim leader at the time an accomplished artistic
painter - his paintings can now be seen in Turkish museums), Abdülmecid
(II) carried the title Efendi postposed.
the first two Ottoman rulers had the title "Beg", the third (Murad I)
declared himself Sultan, and the fourth, was recognized as Sultan by
the nominal Abbasid Caliph in Egypt. this was also about the
time the ottoman rulers adopted the title "Khan" as well and this was
present in tughra (a Turkic word of obscure origin) or imperial
monogram in stylized Arabic script (the design being unique to the
Oghuz Turks which Anatolian Turks belong but adopted by the Kypchak
Mamluks as well).
Mehmed the Conqueror called himself Mehmed Khan, the Supreme Sultan and
the Great Khaqan (having the Turks and the rest of the Turkic world in
mind). After the conquest of Constantinople / Istanbul he also declared
himself Qaysar (qaySar), Arabic for Caesar, which he took seriously and
attmepted an expedition in Italy having Rome in mind. subsequent
Ottoman Sultans did not have use for Qaysar, except when dealing with
the Greek Patriarch. his victory proclamation over the Turkmen Uzun
Hasan in his eastern front was in Eastern Turkic and in Uighur script,
harking to the steppe tradition.
ottoman rulers after Selim I (the Grim, a controversial figure in
current Turkish politics), after his victory over the Azeri Turkophone
ruler Shah Ismail also adopted the title Shah. Sultan, Khakan, Shah,
Shahinshah were titles born by both the Ottomans and the rulers of
Iran, though the Ottomans were better known as soi rulers (of Turkmen
origin except the occasional Kurd or Afghan) better known as Shah. the
Ottoman rulers were popularly known by the Turks as "padishah" Persian
for "monarch".
Ottomans avoided Turkic and Arabic or Persian titles when reffering to
Christian rulers, except when flattering, either willingly or in
humiliating treaties under duress. Christian kings were called kIral,
kral from Slavic from German Karl (Charlemagne) or carefully
diplomatically chosen titles like Çar (char) for Czar. nowadays Turkish
uses kral for "king" regardless of religion.
modern Arab rulers avoid the title Sultan except in Oman. the Sultan of
Morocco became "king" in the post war period. the Khedive of Egypt
briefly declared himself "Sultan" during WWI when he broke all ties
with the Ottomans and he was under British domination, but soon changed
to "king". the Arabic word for "king" is malik, which is also the
generic term "monarch". malik in medieval times was not a high title.
"sultan" in the meaning of a local ruler survives in South Asia, the
title of the ruler of Brunei, various states of Malaysia and in
Northern Nigeria.
- Emirate (e.g., the Sicilian Emirate)
'ami:r means "commander" in Classical Arabic, from 'amr meaningcommand. from that we have "Admiral". 'ami:r al-baHr "commander of the
sea". 'ami:r al-mu'mini:n "Commander of the Faithful" is a caliphal
title. in this meaning we have the self declared "Islamic Amirate of
Afghanistan" by the Taliban, the leader having the title
ami:rulmu'mini:n (in the nominative), but it is understood that this is
limited to Afghanistan. it was also the title of local rulers. Modern
Arabic uses it to translate "Prince" with the feminine 'ami:ra(t) for
"Princess" and the rulers of Gulf countries are undestood to have that
rank. the words are also used for European Princes and Princesses,
including those of the British Royal Family. Arabs don't mind calling
European rulers with Arabic titles.
Reading Wikipedia to make some sense out of the complexity, is
this focused summary close enough yet?
Khanate (Mongol kingdom?)
the Mongol Empire was called Yeke Monggol Ulus in Middle Mongolian andthis focused summary close enough yet?
Khanate (Mongol kingdom?)
Ulugh Mongol Ulus in Eastern Turkic, "Great Mongol Nation" ulus being
borowing from Old Turkic ulush, denoting a land but came to mean both
"people" and "land" hence "nation" in Mongolian. yeke became jeke (with
affricate). it was ruled by the Qa'an (see above, known to European
travelers as "the Great Khan"), but divided into speheres of control
amongst the descendants of the sons of Chinggis with the title Khan.
eventually the states became independent with the Qa'an being confined
to China and eventually overthrown.
Ilkanate (Khanate tributary)
see aboive.Caliphate (Islamic theocracy?)
deal with next.Sultinate (Arab dictatorship?)
see above. not neccesarily Arab.the Ottomans and the Safavids of Iran didn't call themselves sultanates
or whatever limited to some geographic area or ethnic background as
these entities had universal ambitions.
they reffered themselves with Arabic term dawla(t) etymologically said
to be from a "turn of rule" and said to be related to dawr "turn,
revolving". this implied a dynasty, what belonged to the "dawla(t)"
belonged to dynasty and as modern political science developed this
meant "state"
the land of the Empire was called mema^lik-i maHru^se-i osmaniyye "the
(well) protected Ottoman domains (or kingdoms)". this is Persian
annexation of Arabic words so for Safavid Iran just replace the last
word with safaviyya and some change in pronounciation of the vowels.
but the western border became fixed in the 17th century in a long
lasting treaty with the Ottomans with only minor adjustments to the
present. Iran was also unsuccesful in expanding eastwards having spread
Shia Islam within its borders and increasingly became resigned to
"Iran" in official usage as well, in the 19th cent. being known as
mama:lik-i maHru^sa-i i:ra:n (using the "classical" transcription of
vowels), "the (well) protected domains of Iran".
Emirate (Muslim kingdom?)
"principality" ; except in very recent cases like the "Islamic Emirateof Afghanistan".
kingdom in Arabic is mamlaka(t) which is a noun of place corresponding
to malik "king" and mulk "rule, dominion" ma:lik "lord, owner", milk
"property, real estate, ownership". but in Turkish, Persian (memleket,
mamlakat) etc. has now shifted "country". formerly it reffered to lower
hereditary subdivisions of an empire. perhaps that is why it survives
in colloquial Turkish in the frequent conversational meaning of "one's
home region or province".
pre-Islamic central Arabia was not conducive to formation of stable
kingdoms though occassionally kings and kingdoms popped up. Arab
kingdoms were found in the periphary, in Southern Greater Syria,
Southern Meopotamia (Iraq), and in increasingly Arabized South Arabia
(Yemen, Oman). just before Muhammad the Arab Persian client kings, the
Lakhmids exerted some influence but Central Arabia was mostly
independent, the oases being ruled by senates formed from local bigwigs
agreeing on a commander, 'ami:r . as class society developed later this
became hereditary.