Khatun

Khatun (/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."

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.

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" 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."

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.

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
• Tamar 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
• 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. Consequently, the valide hatun title turned into valide sultan.

List of Valide Hatun

See also: Category:Valide hatuns

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)
				September 1446 son's reinstatement	1449
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

See also

• Khanum
• Begum
• Baig
• Begzada
• List of Mongol khatuns

References

Sources

Works cited