Khatun
Khatun (Old Turkic: 𐰴𐰍𐰣, romanized: Katun, Ottoman Turkish: خاتون, romanized: Hatun or قادین romanized: Kadın, Uzbek: xotin, Persian: خاتون khātūn; Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠲᠤᠨ, khatun, хатан khatan; Urdu: خاتون, Hindi: ख़ातून khātūn; Bengali: খাতুন; Sylheti: ꠈꠣꠔꠥꠘ; Turkish: hatun; Azerbaijani: xatun) is a female title of nobility and counterpart to "khan" or "Khagan" prominently used in the Turkic Khaganates and in the subsequent Mongol Empire.
Etymology and history[edit]
Before the advent of Islam in Central Asia, Khatun was the title of the queen of Bukhara. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Khatun [is] a title of Sogdian origin borne by the wives and female relatives of the Göktürks and subsequent Turkish rulers."[1]
According to Bruno De Nicola in Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206-1335, the linguistic origins of the term “khatun” are unknown, though possibly of Old Turkic or Sogdian origin. De Nicola states that prior to the spread of the Mongols across Central Asia, Khatun meant ‘lady’ or ‘noblewoman’ and is found in broad usage in medieval Persian and Arabic texts.[2]
Peter Benjamin Golden observed that the title qatun appeared among the Göktürks as the title for the khagan's wife and was borrowed from Sogdian xwāten "wife of the ruler"[3] Earlier, British Orientalist Gerard Clauson (1891–1974) defined xa:tun as "'lady' and the like" and says there is "no reasonable doubt that it is taken from Sogdian xwt'yn (xwatēn), in Sogdian xwt'y ('lord, ruler') and xwt'yn 'lord's or ruler's wife'), "which is precisely the meaning of xa:tun in the early period."[4]
Modern usage[edit]
In Uzbek, the language spoken in modern-day Bukhara, in Uzbekistan, the word is spelled xotin and has come to simply refer to any woman. In Turkish, it is written hatun. The general Turkish word for 'woman', kadın, is a doublet derived from the same origin.[5]
In Hindi and Urdu, the word khatun is used commonly to refer to any woman. The female title khanum is also used as the feminine counterpart of khan.
Notable Khatuns[edit]
- Börte, wife of Genghis Khan
- Buluqhan Khatun, wife of Abaqa Khan
- Bulugan, wife of Temur Khan
- Chabi, wife of Kublai Khan
- Despina Khatun
- Doquz Khatun, wife of Hulagu Khan
- Erketü Qatun, wife of Altan Khan
- Mandukhai Khatun, wife of Dayan Khan
- Momine Khatun
- Oghul Qaimish, wife of Guyuk Khan
- Po Beg
- Radnashiri, wife of Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan
- Sapnara Khatun, judge and first non-white to be elected to the British Family Law Bar Association Committee. In 2006, she was appointed as a Recorder of the British Crown.
- Töregene Khatun, wife of Ogedei Khan
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Mernissi, Fatima (1993). The Forgotten Queens of Islam. University of Minnesota Press. p. 21.
- ^ De Nicola, Bruno (2017). Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206-1335. Edinburgh University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781474415477.
- ^ Peter Benjamin Golden (1998), "Turks and Iranians: An historical sketch" in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (2015). The Turkic Languages. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-82534-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link), page 5
- ^ Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 602–603.
- ^ Clauson, p. 602.
Works cited[edit]
- Clauson, Gerard; Róna-Tas, András (1981). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Index. Universitas Szegediensis de Attila Jószef Nominata.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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