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Institutions and Social Structures

Sultanate

Political and Legal Institutions

A sultanate is the state and territory ruled by a sultan, as well as the sultan's own office. Sultan is a title with several historical meanings, originally an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority or rulership. The title later came to denote a ruler who claimed nearly full sovereignty without claiming the overall caliphate, or a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Sultanates and caliphates are related but distinct Islamic political institutions; many historical sultans ruled with nominal religious deference to a caliph while holding real temporal power themselves.

Sultanate is a specific historical form of monarchical rule under a sultan, used across many historical Muslim polities from the medieval Seljuk period onward.

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Source Sultan (Wikipedia)Article texttier 2
Quote, Article text
The first major figure to clearly grant himself this title was the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (r. 998–1030 CE) who controlled an empire over present-day Afghanistan and the surrounding region.
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1. Sultan (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    the state and territories ruled by a sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate
  • English Wikipedia, intro text
    The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by a sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate (سلطنة salṭanah).
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