sanjak

plural sanjaks · alternative zanzack · alternative sanjac · alternative sancak

1. governmentA district, a prefecture, particularly (historical) a second-level administrative division of the Ottoman Empire.First known use 16th c.

   1 more example

   This lymphatic monster had once blocked the distinguished pharynx of Lord Blatherard Osmo, who at the time occupied the Novy Pazar desk at the Foreign Office, an obscure penance for the previous century of British policy on the Eastern Question, for on this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe.

   1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

2. historicalobsoleteinexactSynonym of sanjakbey: the officer supervising a sanjak.First known use 16th–19th c.

   ... the Duke ... enforced all the whole Armie to retire to the Campe, with the losse of five or six thousand, with the Bashaw of Buda, and foure or five Zanzacks, with divers other great Commanders, two hundred Prisoners, and nine peeces of Ordnance.

   1630, John Smith, True Travels, Kupperman, published 1988, page 45

   Synonyms: sanjakbey