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

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 T'u-chüeh and subsequent Turkish rulers."[1]

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"[2] 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."[3]

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.[4]

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

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

References

Mernissi, Fatima (1993). The Forgotten Queens of Islam. University of Minnesota Press. p. 21.
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

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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[FM-1] Mernissi, Fatima (1993). The Forgotten Queens of Islam. University of Minnesota Press. p. 21.

[2] 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

[3] Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 602–603.

[4] Clauson, p. 602.