- Khatun
Khatun (PerB|خاتون - "Khātūn") is a female title of nobility and alternative to male "
khan " prominently used in the First Turkish Empire and in the subsequentMongol Empire . It is equivalent to "queen " or "empress " approximately.Although the title gained prominence among the Turko-Mongol tribes of
Inner Asia , it is - like the titlesTarkhan ,Beg andYabghu - not of Altaic, but of Indo-European (in this caseMiddle Iranian )Sogdian origin.Carter Vaughn Findley, "Turks in World History", Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 45: "... Many elements of Non-Turkic origin also became part of Türk statecraft [...] for example, as in the case of khatun [...] and beg [...] both terms being of Sogdian origin and ever since in common use in Turkish. ..."] Fatima Mernissi, "The Forgotten Queens of Islam", University of Minnesota Press, 1993. pg 21: "... Khatun 'is a title of Sogdian origin borne by the wives and female relatives of the Tu-chueh and subsequent Turkish Rulers ..."] [Leslie P. Peirce, "The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire", Oxford University Press, 1993. pg 312: "... On the title Khatun, see Boyle, 'Khatun', 1933, according to whom it was of Soghdian origin and was borne by wives and female relations of various Turkish Rulers. ..."]Before the advent of
Islam in Central Asia, Khatun was the title of the Queen ofBukhara . According to theEncyclopaedia of Islam :Khatuns
*
Toregene Khatun See also
* Khan
*Khanum References
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