Editing Sultan (section)

==Princely and aristocratic titles==
[[File:Nicolas de Nicolay- La grande dame turcque.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|The [[valide sultan]] (sultana mother) of the [[Ottoman Empire]] ]]
By the beginning of the 16th century, the title sultan was carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty and was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably ''khatun'' for women and ''bey'' for men). This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative.

Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as "sultan", but Ottomans themselves used "padişah" (emperor) or "hünkar" to refer to their ruler. The emperor's formal title consisted of "sultan" together with "khan" (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan's children were also entitled "sultan", with imperial princes (Şehzade) carrying the title before their given name, and imperial princesses carrying it after. For example: [[Şehzade Mehmed|Şehzade Sultan Mehmed]] and [[Mihrimah Sultan (daughter of Suleiman I)|Mihrimah Sultan]], son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, the living mother and main consort of the reigning sultan also carried the title after their given names, for example: [[Hafsa Sultan]], Suleiman's mother and first [[valide sultan]], and [[Hürrem Sultan]], Suleiman's chief consort and first [[haseki sultan]]. The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between the [[Sultanate of Women]], as the position of main consort eroded over the course of the 17th century, with the main consort losing the title of "sultan", which was replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title "sultan".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire |last=Peirce |first=Leslie P. |publication-place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-19-507673-7 }}</ref>

In [[Kazakh Khanate]] a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty (a direct descendants of [[Genghis Khan]]) elected by clans, i.e. a kind of prince. The best of sultans was elected as [[khan (title)|khan]] by people at [[Kurultai]].{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}