Sultan of Sultans
Royal title
Sultan of Sultans is the literal English translation of the Ottoman Turkish imperial title sulṭānü's-selāṭīn. As with various other laudatory titles of Semitic origin, such as "King of Kings", Sultan of Sultans can express a claim of imperial rank up to and including universal legitimate sovereignty. Although the notion and title of an emperor is largely alien to Islamic tradition, the Ottoman dynasty, which employed the title of "Sultan of Sultans" in its official full style, had perhaps the best claim to usage due to its territorial extent and great length. The Ottomans also adopted the traditional Byzantine imperial title Caesar for their own ruler (the Padishah).
The title Sultan of Sultans was used for the Delhi Sultan Altamsh (Iltutmish) in the inscription of Sultan Ghari. The title was first used by the sultan of the Delhi Sultanate in the Persian context. The sultans of the Delhi Sultanate used this title to signify their rule over North India as hundreds of Indian rajas ruled under their suzerainty. But they also considered themselves beneath the caliph however they were independent.
Similarly, the sultans of Bengal also used this title. Examples of that are Rukunuddin Kaikaus and Saifuddin Hamza Shah.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sultan of Sultans” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.