Editing Sultan (section)

== History of the term ==
{{See also|Timeline of 11th-century Muslim history}}

The word derives from the Arabic and Semitic root ''salaṭa'' "to be hard, strong". The noun ''sulṭān'' initially designated a kind of moral authority or spiritual power (as opposed to political power), and it is used in this sense several times in the [[Quran|Qur'an]].<ref name=":052">{{Cite book|last1=Kramers|first1=J.H.|title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition|last2=Bosworth|first2=C.E.|last3=Schumann|first3=O.|last4=Kane|first4=Ousmane|publisher=Brill|year=2012|editor-last=Bearman|editor-first=P.|chapter=Sulṭān|editor-last2=Bianquis|editor-first2=Th.|editor-last3=Bosworth|editor-first3=C.E.|editor-last4=van Donzel|editor-first4=E.|editor-last5=Heinrichs|editor-first5=W.P.}}</ref>

In the [[History of Islam|early Muslim world]], ultimate power and authority was theoretically held by the caliph, who was considered the leader of the caliphate. The increasing political fragmentation of the Muslim world after the 8th century, however, challenged this consensus. Local governors with administrative authority held the title of ''amīr'' ({{lang|ar|أمير}}, traditionally "commander" or "[[emir]]", later also "prince") and were appointed by the caliph, but in the 9th century some of these became ''[[de facto]]'' independent rulers who founded their own dynasties, such as the [[Aghlabids]] and [[Tulunids]].<ref name=":0522">{{Cite book|last=Duri|first=A.A.|title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition|publisher=Brill|year=2012|editor-last=Bearman|editor-first=P.|chapter=Amīr|editor-last2=Bianquis|editor-first2=Th.|editor-last3=Bosworth|editor-first3=C.E.|editor-last4=van Donzel|editor-first4=E.|editor-last5=Heinrichs|editor-first5=W.P.}}</ref> Towards the late 10th century, the term "sultan" begins to be used to denote an individual ruler with practically sovereign authority,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Islamic World: Past and Present|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|editor-last=Esposito|editor-first=John L.|chapter=Sultan}}</ref> although the early evolution of the term is complicated and difficult to establish.<ref name=":052" />

The first major figure to clearly grant himself this title was the [[Ghaznavids|Ghaznavid]] ruler [[Mahmud of Ghazni|Mahmud]] (r. 998–1030 CE) who controlled an empire over present-day [[Afghanistan]] and the surrounding region.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":052" /> Soon after, the [[Great Seljuks]] adopted this title after defeating the Ghaznavid Empire and taking control of an even larger territory which included [[Baghdad]], the capital of the [[Abbasid caliphs]]. The early Seljuk leader [[Tughril Bey]] was the first leader to adopt the epithet "sultan" on his [[coin]]age.<ref name=":052" /> While the Seljuks acknowledged the caliphs in Baghdad formally as the universal leader of the [[Muslim community]], their own political power clearly overshadowed the latter. This led to various Muslim scholars – notably [[Al-Juwayni]] and [[Al-Ghazali]] – attempting to develop theoretical justifications for the political authority of the Seljuk sultans within the framework of the formal supreme authority of the recognized caliphs. In general, the theories maintained that all legitimate authority derived from the caliph, but that it was delegated to sovereign rulers whom the caliph recognized. Al-Ghazali, for example, argued that while the caliph was the guarantor of Islamic law (''[[Sharia|shari'a]]''), coercive power was required to enforce the law in practice and the leader who exercised that power directly was the sultan.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Turan|first=Ebru|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|editor-last=Esposito|editor-first=John L.|chapter=Sultan}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The position of sultan continued to grow in importance during the period of the [[crusades]], when leaders who held the title of "sultan" (such as [[Saladin|Salah ad-Din]] and the [[Ayyubid dynasty]]) led the confrontation against the [[crusader states]] in the [[Levant]].<ref name=":052" /> Views about the office of the sultan further developed during the crisis that followed the [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|destruction of Baghdad]] by the [[Mongol Empire|Mongols]] in 1258, which eliminated the remnants of Abbasid political power. Henceforth, the surviving descendants of the Abbasid caliphs lived in [[Cairo]] under the protection of the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] and were still nominally recognized by the latter. However, from this time on they effectively had no authority and were not universally recognized across the Sunni Muslim world.<ref name=":1" /> As protectors of the line of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mamluks recognized themselves as sultans and the Muslim scholar Khalil al-Zahiri argued that only they could hold that title.<ref name=":052" /> Nonetheless, in practice, many Muslim rulers of this period were now using the title as well. Mongol rulers (who had since converted to Islam) and other Turkish rulers were among those who did so.<ref name=":052" />

The position of sultan and caliph began to blend together in the 16th century when the [[Ottoman Empire]] conquered the Mamluk Empire and became the indisputable leading Sunni Muslim power across most of the [[Middle East]], [[North Africa]], and [[Eastern Europe]]. The 16th-century Ottoman scholar and jurist, [[Ebüssuûd Mehmet Efendi]], recognized the [[Ottoman sultan]] ([[Suleiman the Magnificent]] at the time) as the caliph and universal leader of all Muslims.<ref name=":1" /> This conflation of sultan and caliph became more clearly emphasized in the 19th century during the Ottoman Empire's territorial decline, when Ottoman authorities sought to cast the sultan as the leader of the entire Muslim community in the face of European ([[Christianity|Christian]]) [[History of colonialism|colonial expansion]].<ref name=":2" /> As part of this narrative, it was claimed that when Sultan [[Selim I]] captured Cairo in 1517, the last descendant of the Abbasids in Cairo formally passed on the position of caliph to him.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Finkel|first=Caroline|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923|publisher=John Murray Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1848547858}}</ref> This combination thus elevated the sultan's religious or spiritual authority, in addition to his formal political authority.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

During this later period, the title of sultan was still used outside the Ottoman Empire as well, as with the examples of the [[Somali aristocrats]], [[Malay styles and titles|Malay nobles]] and the [[sultans of Morocco]] (such as the [[Alaouite dynasty]] founded in the 17th century).<ref name=":052" /> It was, however, not used as a sovereign title by [[Shia Islam|Shi'a]] Muslim rulers. The [[Safavid dynasty]] of [[Iran]], who controlled the largest Shi'a Muslim state of this era, mainly used the [[Persian language|Persian]] title ''[[shah]]'', a tradition which continued under subsequent dynasties. The term ''sultan'', by contrast, was mainly given to provincial governors within their realm.<ref name=":052" />