Khatun

Khatun is a title of the female counterpart to a khan or a khagan of the Turkic Khaganates and in the subsequent Mongol Empire.

Etymology and history
Before the advent of Islam in Central Asia, Khatun was the title of the queen of Bukhara. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Khatun [is] a title of Sogdian origin borne by the wives and female relatives of the Göktürks and subsequent Turkish rulers."

According to Bruno De Nicola in Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206–1335, the linguistic origins of the term "khatun" are unknown, though possibly of Old Turkic or Sogdian origin. De Nicola states that prior to the spread of the Mongols across Central Asia, Khatun meant 'lady' or 'noblewoman' and is found in broad usage in medieval Persian and Arabic texts.

Peter Benjamin Golden observed that the title qatun appeared among the Göktürks as the title for the khagan's wife and was borrowed from Sogdian xwāten "wife of the ruler" Earlier, British Orientalist Gerard Clauson (1891–1974) defined xa:tun as "'lady' and the like" and says there is "no reasonable doubt that it is taken from Sogdian xwt'yn (xwatēn), in Sogdian xwt'y ('lord, ruler') and xwt'yn 'lord's or ruler's wife'), "which is precisely the meaning of xa:tun in the early period."

Modern usage
In Uzbek, the language spoken in modern-day Bukhara, in Uzbekistan, the word is spelled xotin and has come to simply refer to any woman. In Turkish, it is written hatun. The general Turkish word for 'woman', kadın, is a doublet derived from the same origin.

Notable Khatuns

 * Qutluğ Säbäg Qatun, queen regent of the Second Turkic Khaganate
 * Börte, wife of Genghis Khan
 * Töregene Khatun (d. 1246), wife of Ogedei Khan, regent of the Mongol Empire from 1241 to 1246
 * Ebuskun, wife of Mutukan
 * Boraqchin, wife of Batu khan
 * Oghul Qaimish, wife of Guyuk Khan
 * Chabi, wife of Kublai Khan
 * Doquz Khatun, wife of Hulagu Khan
 * Gurju Khatun, wife of Kaykhusraw II
 * Buluqhan Khatun, wife of Abaqa Khan
 * Kokejin/Bairam egchi, wife of Zhenjin
 * Bulugan, wife of Temur Khan
 * Dagi khatun, wife of Darmabala
 * Radnashiri, wife of Ayurbarwada khan
 * Despina Khatun, wife of Uzun Hasan
 * Samur Khatun, daughter of Elbeg khan
 * Mandukhai Khatun, wife of Dayan Khan
 * Erketü Qatun, wife of Altan Khan
 * Syeda Momena Khatun, daughter of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah
 * Anu Khatun, wife of Sengge and Galdan Boshugtu Khan
 * Momine Khatun, mother of Atabeg Jahan Pahlavan. The mausoleum in Nakhichevan was built by Jahan Pahlavan in honor of her.
 * Rabia Bala Hatun (died 1324), wife of Sultan Osman I
 * Gülçiçek Hatun (fl. 14th century), wife of Sultan Murad I
 * Devlet Hatun (died 1411), wife of Sultan Bayezid I
 * Gülfem Hatun (died 1561/1562), consort of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
 * Canfeda Hatun (died 1600) was a lady-in-waiting to Nurbanu Sultan
 * Şemsiruhsar Hatun (died 1613), consort of Sultan Murad III
 * Melike Mama Hatun Saltukid female ruler (reigned between 1191 and 1200)
 * Nene Hatun (1857–1955), Turkish folk heroine
 * Halime Hatun (?–c.1281), the wife of Ertugrul Ghazi

Valide Hatun
Valide Hatun was the title held by the "legal mother" of a ruling Sultan of the Ottoman Empire before the 16th century.

By the beginning of the 16th century, the title hatun for sultan's mother, princesses, and sultan's main consort was replaced by "sultan" and they started to carry it after their given names. This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Consequently, the title valide hatun also turned into valide sultan.

Given name

 * Ayşe Hatun Önal, Turkish model
 * Hatun Sürücü, German murder victim
 * Khatun Sapnara, Bangladeshi-born British judge