Beylik of Dulkadir

Etymology

The meaning of Dulkadir is unclear. It was later Arabized or reinterpreted according to folk tradition as ar, which means 'powerful' or 'mighty'. According to 16th-century German historian Johannes Leunclavius, Dulkadir was a corruption of the Turkic name Torghud. Franz Babinger considered it very probable, as the name was likely derived from some Turkish name, further suggesting that this would also mean the dynasty of Dulkadir is related to the Turkoman Turghudlu tribe. On the other hand, Annemarie von Gabain proposed tulga-dar () as the original Turkic word it sprang from. According to Turkologist Louis Bazin, the name may be rooted in the term "dolga," which means "to hurt" or "to agonize". Historian Faruk Sümer suggested that Dulkadir could be the Turkmen pronunciation of the Muslim given name Abdul Qadir, parallel to how the Ilkhanate ruler Abu Sa'id () was known as "Busad" by his Turkmen subjects. Another historian, Refet Yinanç, supported Sümer's view.

Medieval Armenian authors referred to the Dulkadirids as hy, hy, hy, hy, or hy. While Persian sources spelled Dulkadir as Zulkadir, Arabic sources spelled it as Dulgadir or Tulgadir. Ottoman sources used a combination of Zulkadir and Dulkadir.

History

The principality was founded by Zayn al-Din Qaraja, a Turkoman chieftain, likely from the Bayat tribe, who established himself in the region of Elbistan in 1335, taking the town in 1337 and obtaining the title of na'ib from the Mamluk Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad. In 1515, after the Battle of Turnadağ, the principality was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I and his grand vizier Hadım Sinan Pasha and converted into a sanjak.

Society

Gender relations

Fifteenth-century Burgundian traveler Bertrandon de la Broquière attested to female soldiers living in Dulkadir. Bohemian traveler Hans Dernschwam mentioned that the local women rode horses well comparable to men, whereas the women in Constantinople were low profile in contrast. However, the Dulkadir Kanunname (code of law) maintained a militantly masculine approach to gender relations similar to its Ottoman counterpart.

List of rulers

References

Bibliography