sulṭān

A form of sultan — The holder of a secular office, formally subordinate to, but de facto the power behind the throne of, the caliph.

Meanings

nounsulṭān (plural sulṭāns)

plural sulṭāns

  1. rareRare spelling of sultan.

    These buildings are from the time of different sulṭāns and are buildings of extreme grandeur and glory.

    2020, Shiblī Nuʿmānī, translated by Gregory Maxwell Bruce, Turkey, Egypt, and Syria: A Travelogue, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 47
    5 more examples

    According to the custom of Tīmūriya sulṭāns on such occasions, I had seated myself on a raised seat (tūshāk); […]

    1922, Zahiru’d-dīn Muḥammad Bābur Pādshāh Ghāzī, translated by Annette Susannah Beveridge, The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur) […], volume I, London: […] Luzac & Co., […], pages 58–59

    The Turkish sulṭān was mentioned in the khuṭba it is true, but dependence was not expressed in any form indicating submissions. To avert all eventualities, England on April 30, 1888 concluded treaties of protection with the sulṭāns of Bāl Ḥāf and Bīr ʿAlī in which the latter in return for an annual payment bound themselves to enter into no relations with foreign powers without English approval.

    1934, A[dolf] Grohmann, “Wāḥidī”, in M[artijn] Th[eodoor] Houtsma, A[rent] J[an] Wensinck, H[amilton] A[lexander] R[osskeen] Gibb, W[illi] Heffening, E[variste] Lévi-Provençal, editors, The Encyclopaedia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, […], volume IV (S–Z), Leiden: Late E. J. Brill Ltd […]; London: Luzac & Cᵒ […], page 1090, column 2

    Later Saljūq sulṭāns were on occasion obliged to resort to desperate expedients in an attempt to control over-mighty muqṭaʿs.

    1988, David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040–1797 (A History of the Near East), London; New York, N.Y.: Longman, →ISBN, page 38

    Ṭughril Khān was a shrewd politician as he tried to pacify the Delhi sulṭāns by regularly sending gifts to them, although in practice he often behaved as if he was an independent ruler.

    2016, Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq, Epigraphy and Islamic Culture: Inscriptions of the Early Muslim Rulers of Bengal (1205–1494) (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series), Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 96

    In return for their patronage, the various Seljuk sulṭāns and local commanders sought legitimacy for their rule through charismatic Sufi leaders, some of whom claimed to hold both temporal and spiritual power.

    2018, Lloyd Ridgeon, Awhad al-Dīn Kirmānī and the Controversy of the Sufi Gaze (Routledge Sufi Series), Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN

Origin

Transliteration of Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sulṭān. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sul%E1%B9%AD%C4%81n

MLA

“sulṭān.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sul%E1%B9%AD%C4%81n. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sulṭān,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sul%E1%B9%AD%C4%81n.

Source: sulṭān on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.