Khatun

Khatun ( – <u>Kh</u>ātūn, ) is a female title of nobility and alternative to male "khan" prominently used in the First Turkish Empire and in the subsequent Mongol Empire. It is equivalent to "queen" or "empress" approximately.

Although the title gained prominence among the Turko-Mongol tribes of Inner Asia, it is – like the titles Tarkhan, Beg and Yabghu&mdash;not of Turko-Mongol, but of Indo-European Sogdian origin.Fatima Mernissi, "The Forgotten Queens of Islam", University of Minnesota Press, 1993. pg 21: "...&nbsp;Khatun 'is a title of Sogdian origin borne by the wives and female relatives of the Tu-chueh and subsequent Turkish Rulers ..."Leslie P. Peirce, "The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire", Oxford University Press, 1993. pg 312: "...&nbsp;On the title Khatun, see Boyle, 'Khatun', 1933, according to whom it was of Soghdian origin and was borne by wives and female relations of various Turkish Rulers. ..."

Before the advent...
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