"Arab Muslim titles?" Topic

Well iam collecting titles-ranks-appoiments from medieval arab muslim nations from 8-14c and so

far i have collected these which may NOT be spelling correct,final and in no particular order:

SULTAN
VIZIER
MALIK
CALIPH
AMIR SIPAHSALAR
AMIR AL-UMARA
AMIR
BEY
SHEIK
RAIS
QAID
AMIR ISFASALAR
AMIR NAJIB or KABIR
AMIR AL-MUMENIN
RAIS
ATABAK AL-ASAKIR
AMIR TABLKHANAH
AMIR NAYIB
AMIR
MUGGADAM AL-HALQA
QADI
SAYYID
EFFENDI
ARIF
NAZIR
KHALIFAH
MARZBAN

so my question is what size of army can they command as usual?
from books(Osprey) Amir was commander of 5000..Qaid a 1000..is there commander of 10 000,500 or

100?
Amir of Amirs or great-grand Amir?little confusing..

what is rough equivalent of these titles in western terms?

Thx and sorry for bad English.

Amir just means "Commander" so your examples with suffixes just mean "Commander of…". Amir Al-Mumenin is a transliteration of a title which means Commander of the Faithful, that is, an religious/political honorific which would usually be applied to a national ruler. Similarly Sultan, Vizier, Caliph and Sheikh are not miltary ranks at all but political titles, often hereditary. Furthermore the meaning of many of your titles would be different in, say, Algeria and Afghanistan. Qadi and Khalifa are religious titles. Bey, Effendi and Rais are of Turkish rather than Arabic origin. The Muslim world is not, has never been, a homogenous entity. Islam is a religion which is followed by a number of different national cultures. To be honest you are on a hiding to nothing with this list espeically if you are also covering a period of 600 years as well as dozens of different nations. You'd be better off looking at a particular nation and a particular time rather than trying to cover the whole of the Middle Ages.

Allah – The Big Boss

Cheers

Pro…

Various appointments in the Ottoman Empire entitled the recipient to style themselves "Pasha", too.

Editor of TMP is one such appointment.

humwawa has already said it. These terms lose most of their meaning if you separate them from their historical context. And many of these words don't have an equivalent in western terms.

If you're looking for specific meanings, you have to look at specific realms and periods. Needless to say, 600 years is far too big a timeframe. It is a fairly common misconception in the West that the Islamic world is or was a monolithic, uniform, unchanging entity. It was just a varied and multi-faceted as medieval Europe.

To give an analogy, just look at the bewildering variety of titles and ranks that are to be found in Europe in the 8th to 14th centuries, which changed in their meaning all the time, or might be specific to certain countries, or might have several different meanings at the same time.

E.g., you won't find a lot of Earls outside Britain, or Margraves outside Germany. Also, many terms are highly ambiguous, such as 'lord' or 'prince'. Or consider how titles like 'duke' have changed in meaning. And think of all those honorific titles such as 'Defender of the Faith' or 'Erztruchsess'. And of course, the title of a European nobleman would often tell you very little about his actual importance or influence.

Many of the terms in your list have a dozen or more possible translations, depending on circumstances. Several of them really just mean 'leader' or 'person of high rank' if separated from their context. Some could have a military connotation, but not necessarily so. Others, like 'qadi' (judge), don't.

There are several Turkish and Persian words in your list; of course, there was an exchange of loan words between the three languages, so the etymological origin of a word doesn't necessarily mean much. 'Rais' or ra'is is a genuine Arabic word, btw.

That should be "It was just as varied and…"

"Al" or as it remains in Spanish to this day "El." Someone who knows the languages better can explain their significance. I always think of them as a combo of the German "von" and the English "Sir." Although, I'm not sure they are hereditary titles. I am fairly sure they are titles but not ranks or administrative offices.

"al-" is the definite article in Arabic. It means "the". You sometimes see "ar-", "as-" or others, because the 'L' is assimilated by some consonants in speech.

" 'Rais' or ra'is is a genuine Arabic word, btw. "

I stand corrected!

humwawa has already said it. These terms lose most of their meaning if you separate them from their historical context. And many of these words don't have an equivalent in western terms.

Not more can be really added to this summation. You have a list of titles that mean different things in different contexts.

For instance, in the army of Nurredin, the Isfahsallar was one of the commanding generals (Isfahsallar is a Persian loan-word). In the army of Saladin, the 'Amir isfahsallar' appears to have been downgraded, to the point that the 'Amir kabir' out-ranked the isfahsallar. This is within about 1-2 generations in the same region (Syria). Across different regions and different eras, there is no consistency.

What I might add, is that Islamic armies did not (if I can make a generalisation) adopt a formal hierarchical structure- akin to Roman or Byzantine armies. They operated on much more flexible, ad hoc, and often more adaptive lines.

There is for instance, no 'intermediate' formation between the 'tulb' (80-200 men) and 'askar' in the Ayyubid army. Even an askar can vary in meaning from the elite troops of a ruler (often reported at 500 men) to several thousand men from a specific region. Terms are ambiguous and depend on context.

Hence, you will not find titles that match to specific formation or unit sizes, precisely because such 'sizes' usually didn't exist.

Chthonic regards

B
users.actrix.co.nz/moyle

Great info so far..so Amir is "Commander" with "of" suffix..
yes i see now..600 years is waaay to far for collecting..
I was having Crusader era and reconquista arab-muslim titles on my mind..
sorry for confusion..

so what was the meaning of those Amirs with suffix?

I have collected honorific titles from Saladin,Nur al-din and Zangi
from vorious sources and indeed sometimes confusing..

thx

The origin of Effendi is actually Greek

SULTAN; Originally a Military rank, later becoming the equivalent to a Monarch.
VIZIER; Minister
MALIK; ‘To own' equiv. King
CALIPH; Chief temporal and spiritual leader of the Muslim commune, the umma. The old, pre-national state nomenclature to the commander of all Muslims, in war and in peace.
AMIR SIPAHSALAR; Commander of a Sipahi (feudal cavalry) formation (Ottoman Rank)
AMIR AL-UMARA; Commander in chief, i.e. the Amir of all other Amirs (Umara is the plural of Amir, Arabic)
AMIR ; Commander (Arabic rank)
BEY; A man who has given his oath (the Baya'a) to an Amir equivalent to a knight. (usually the connotation is to feudal armored cavalry, although later the connotation included any man in the service of an Amir/Emir)
SHEIK; Can be a religious rank, but more often means a tribal chieftain
RAIS; from the Arabic for ‘Boss' usually applied to maritime ship captains.
QAID; North African nomenclature meaning ‘Judge' or Magistrate
AMIR ISFASALAR meaning unclear
AMIR NAJIB or KABIR Chief Amir
AMIR AL-MUMENIN; Another reference to Caliph
ATABAK AL-ASAKIR; Abbasid Rank military/administrative meaning Chief of Staff, or in Medieval terms ‘Grand Marshall of (France)' the man in charge of the ‘Askar' or the military ‘host' (medieval term) Askari (soldier) is derived from the word Askar. (Arabic)
AMIR TABLKHANAH; Mamluk rank meaning a commander of 40 Mamluks and their retinue (a retinue could include up to 3-5 men) ‘Tablakhana' means a band, and what this title means is that he is an Amir important enough to have the privilege of having his own musical accompaniement. Other versions are Amir Miya (Amir of 100) Amir Alf (Amir of 1000)
AMIR NAYIB; Second in command, a Na'ib is a trusted lieutenant
MUGGADAM AL-HALQA; Expeditor of the Halqa, another way of saying a superior commander to an Amir (Muqqadam) The Halqa was the household of the Royal Mamluks as opposed to the regular ‘line' Mamluks The Halqa was the Royal Guard of the Sultan in Mamluk Egypt. They usually did not exceed 2,000 men.
QADI Arabic, Middle East Judge, Magistrate
SAYYID; Eminent Sir, or gentleman in its generic form, In some areas of the Moslem world (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India) it is the name used to identify a descendent of the Prophet Mohamed. For the Middle East and North Africa, the designation is usually Cherif (Sharif) the ‘noble' i.e. a descendent of the Prophet Mohamed.

EFFENDI; A ‘ahl el qalam' (Men of the Pen) term usually used to identify a member of the administrative elite, in the 17th-18th century in the Ottoman State. I.e. Men of the Pen were often Judges, Magistrates, (religious men as these functions were held by the Ulama, or doctors of religious (Shariah) jusrisprudence) Qadi el Askar; Religious ‘Commissar' in any Ottoman province, second only to the governor (Waly, or Vali; Viceroy) Later in the 19th century this term was used to identity a civil servant of the state and also in a more specialized term; ‘Effendina' the Viceroy of the province, i.e. head of the administrative elite. The Ahl el Seif; Men of the Sword were the military establishment, i.e. Amir etc.
ARIF; Unknown.
NAZIR; Steward, or trustee, a man chosen to be in place as a substitute in place of a land owner or a military commander, a temporary replacement.
KHALIFAH Another word for the Caliph
MARZBAN Unknown. Probably Persian
The Muslims usually did not have a hereditary system, so these are really not titles but rather ranks. Most appellations were reduced to a military terminology. A Mamluk Sultan was usually followed by the next primus inter pares, and not usually the son of the former sultan (Mamluk Egypt 1285-1517) Sheikh on the other hand i.e. tribal chieftains usually stayed in the family although not necessarily to the son of the former chieftain. This was more by tribal custom, and not Muslim practice.