Sultan

Sultan (/ˈsʌltən/; Arabic: سلطان‎‎ sulṭān, pronounced [sʊlˈtˤɑːn, solˈtˤɑːn]) is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e., the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), albeit without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate.

The dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate (سلطنة salṭanah).

A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah and this title used legally used for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. But Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, because Turkish grammar uses the same words for women and men. However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans. In a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall (in French, similar constructions of the type madame la maréchale are quite common). The female leaders in Muslim history are correctly known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" and sultan's chief wife in many sultanate in Indonesia and Malaysia is known as "permaisuri" or "Tunku Ampuan", "Raja Perempuan" or "Tengku Ampuan". Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Raja Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess.

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