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Article: Sultan
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SULTAN
SULTAN.
Sultan, which originally meant 'power' or 'authority', evolved by the tenth century to its present meaning of the holder of that authority, such as a ruler, lord, or monarch. The most spectacular sultans of history were those of the Ottoman dynasty, who ruled most of the territory of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as large parts of eastern Europe, from 1300 to 1923.
Origins of the term are somewhat obscure. Probably Akkadian, and Syriac, the word appears in Arabic in the Koran with the meaning of empowering of someone over another, and connoting magical or moral authority such as possessed by prophets, or by Satan. In early Islamic societies, "sultan" came to ...