Khatun

Khatun^[a] (/xəˈtuːn/ khə-TOON) is a title of the female counterpart to a khan or a khagan of the Mongol Empire.

Etymology and history

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

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]

Notable Khatuns

Sara Khatun, mother of Uzun Hasan
Qutluğ Säbäg Qatun, wife of Bilge Qaghan and regent of the Second Turkic Khaganate
Börte, first wife of Genghis Khan
Töregene Khatun, wife of Ögedei Khan and regent of the Mongol Empire
Ebuskun, wife of Mutukan and regent of the Chagatai Khanate
Boraqchin, chief wife of Batu Khan and regent of the Golden Horde
Oghul Qaimish, wife of Güyük Khan and regent of the Mongol Empire
Chabi, second wife of Kublai Khan
Dayfa Khatun, Ayyubid princess and regent of Aleppo
Doquz Khatun, wife of Tolui and Hulegu Khan
Gurju Khatun, chief wife of Kaykhusraw II
Buluqhan Khatun, chief wife of Abaqa Khan
Bulugan, second wife of Temür Khan
Dagi Khatun, wife of Darmabala and empress dowager of the Yuan dynasty
Radnashiri, wife of Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan
Despina Khatun, wife of Uzun Hasan
Samur Gunj, daughter of Elbeg Nigülesügchi Khan
Mandukhai, wife of Dayan Khan
Erketü Qatun, wife of Altan Khan
Syeda Momena Khatun, daughter of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah
Queen Anu, wife of Sengge and Galdan Boshugtu Khan
Malhun Hatun, first wife of Osman I
Rabia Bala Hatun, second wife of Osman I
Gülçiçek Hatun, concubine of Murad I
Devlet Hatun, concubine of Bayezid I
Gülfem Hatun, lady-in-waiting in the harem of Suleiman the Magnificent
Canfeda Hatun, lady-in-waiting to Nurbanu Sultan
Zarife Hatun, concubine of Ibrahim
Melike Mama Hatun, ruler of the Saltukids
Nene Hatun, Turkish folk heroine

Valide Hatun

Valide hatun was the title held by the mother of an Ottoman sultan before the 16th century.

By the beginning of the 16th century, the hatun title for imperial princesses, the sultan's mother and the sultan's chief consort was replaced by sultan. This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative.^[6] Consequently, the valide hatun title turned into valide sultan.

List of Valide Hatun

Name	Birth name	Origin	Consort of	Became valide	Ceased to be valide	Death	Sultan
Nilüfer Hatun نیلوفر خاتون	unknown	Greek	Orhan I	March 1362 son's ascension	1363		Murad I (son)
Gülçiçek Hatun كلچیچك خاتون	Maria	Greek	Murad I	16 June 1389 son's ascension	c. 1400		Bayezid I (son)
Devlet Hatun دولت خاتون	unknown	unknown	Bayezid I	5 July 1413 son's ascension	26 May 1421 son's death	1422	Mehmed I (son)
Emine Hatun امینہ خاتون	Emine	Dulkadirid	Mehmed I	26 May 1421 son's ascension	August 1444 son's abdication		Murad II (son)
Emine Hatun امینہ خاتون	Emine	Dulkadirid	Mehmed I	September 1446 son's reinstatement	1449		Murad II (son)
Hüma Hatun هما خاتون	Stella or Esther	disputed	Murad II	August 1444 son's first ascension	September 1446		Mehmed II (son)
Mara Despina Hatun	Mara	Serbian	Murad II	1457 her return to the Ottoman court	3 May 1481 stepson's death		Mehmed II (stepson)
Gülbahar Hatun گل بھار مکرمه خاتون	unknown	Greek or Albanian	Mehmed II	3 May 1481 son's ascension	1492		Bayezid II (son)

Given name

Ayşe Hatun Önal, Turkish model
Hatun Sürücü, German murder victim
Khatun Sapnara, Bangladeshi-born British judge

References

Notes

^ Old Turkic: 𐰴𐰍𐰣, romanized: katun, Ottoman Turkish: خاتون, romanized: hatun; Uzbek: xotun; Persian: خاتون, romanized: xâtun; Tajik: хотун; Mongolian: хатун/ᠬᠠᠲᠤᠨ; Urdu: خاتون, romanized: xatun; Hindi: ख़ातून, romanized: khātūn; Bengali: খাতুন, romanized: khatun; Sylheti: ꠈꠣꠔꠥꠘ; Turkish: hatun; Azerbaijani: xatun; Punjabi: ਖਾਤੂਨ (Gurmukhi), خاتون (Shahmukhi)

Citations

^ 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., page 5
^ Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 602–603. ISBN 978-0-19-864112-4.
^ Clauson, p. 602.
^ Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. ISBN 0-19-507673-7.

Sources

Works cited

Clauson, Gerard; Róna-Tas, András (1981). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Index. Universitas Szegediensis de Attila Jószef Nominata.