// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the khatun say to her hat? You're ruling my head.

For other uses, see Khatun (disambiguation).

For people associated with the name Khatun, see Khatun (name).

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

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 Turkic 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 said there is "no reasonable doubt that it is taken from Sogdian xwt'yn (xwatēn)", with "Sogdian xwt'y (lord, ruler) and xwt'yn (lord's or ruler's wife)" being "precisely the meaning of xa:tun in the early period".

Modern usage

In Uzbek, the language spoken in modern-day Bukhara, 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

• Qutluğ Säbäg Qatun, consort of Bilge Qaghan and regent of the Second Turkic Khaganate
• Narjis Khatun, mother of Muhammad al-Mahdi
• Tekina Khatun, mother of Timur
• Terken Khatun, chief consort of Malik-Shah I and regent of the Seljuk Empire
• Melike Mama Hatun, ruler of the Saltukids
• Börte, first wife of Genghis Khan
• Sulafa Khatun, only female ruler of Margha
• Töregene Khatun, chief consort of Ögedei Khan and regent of the Mongol Empire
• Ebuskun, consort of Mutukan and regent of the Chagatai Khanate
• Boraqchin, chief consort of Batu Khan and regent of the Golden Horde
• Oghul Qaimish, consort 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, consort of Tolui and Hulegu Khan
• Tamar Gurju Khatun, chief consort of Kaykhusraw II
• Buluqhan Khatun, chief consort of Abaqa Khan
• Bulugan, second wife of Temür Khan
• Dagi Khatun, consort of Darmabala and empress dowager of the Yuan dynasty
• Radnashiri, consort of Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan
• Despina Khatun, consort of Uzun Hasan
• Samur Gunj, daughter of Elbeg Nigülesügchi Khan
• Sara Khatun, mother of Uzun Hasan
• Mandukhai, consort of Dayan Khan
• Erketü Qatun, consort of Altan Khan
• Syeda Momena Khatun, daughter of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah
• Queen Anu, consort of Sengge and Galdan Boshugtu Khan
• Rabia Bala Hatun, 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
• 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	Byzantine Greek	Orhan I	March 1362 son's ascension	1363		Murad I (son)
Gülçiçek Hatun كلچیچك خاتون	unknown	Byzantine 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	Turkish	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	unknown	disputed	Murad II	August 1444 son's first ascension	September 1446		Mehmed II (son)
Gülbahar Hatun گل بھار مکرمه خاتون	unknown	Greek, Albanian or Serbian	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

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

Further reading

• Boyle, J.A. (1978). "K̲h̲ātūn". In van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Bosworth, C. E. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume IV: Iran–Kha. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-05745-6. OCLC 758278456.