The title “sultan” comes from the Arabic language and means something between “power” and “authority”. When there was no single Muslim state, the Arab Caliphate, the sultans were those rulers who created the largest and strongest powers on its fragments. The powers of sultans were not only secular, but also spiritual. True, they were not limited to the entire Islamic world, but only to their own possessions.
Nevertheless, for the sovereigns of the Ottoman Empire, this title was not the main and not the main one. It was used for Muslim, mainly Arab subjects, to whom this title was much more familiar than the Turkic-Persian table of ranks. It became equally well known in the West, where it was customary to call the monarchs of that country in this way.
And how did the Ottoman, ahem, sultans call themselves?
Their state began with five hundred warriors-exiles, who in the 13th century fled from the Mongols to the west. Whether by chance or on purpose, they showed up on a battlefield where the Seljuk ruler of Rum was attacking his enemies. They supported him, and were rewarded with lands first in eastern Anatolia and then in the west, near the border with the Greeks. From that time on, their leader Ertogrul, who was a simple, ignorant warrior, was given the title of Uj Bey.
In the understanding of the Seljuks of that time, Uj was a kind of no man’s land on the border, which had yet to be conquered and settled. Here the main military clashes took place, and such possessions were considered quite dangerous. Bey is an analog of the Slavic title “prince” or the Western titles “count” or “duke”. Thus, uj bey is roughly the same as margrave.
Bey Osman, the second ruler of his dynasty and the man from whom it takes its name, was semi-independent of the last Rum sultans, but still paid tribute to the Mongols. It was only after the fall of Hulaguid power that a new separate state appeared on the political map — the Ottoman Beylik, in our way — a principality.
Even Turkish authors say that the early period of Ottoman history is a kind of “black hole”. The Ottomans began keeping their own chronicles only in the second half of the 15th century, when their country had already become a powerful Islamic state. The events that were recorded in the chronicles were a hundred or more years away from them in time. Therefore, it is very difficult to draw a line between fact and myth, and to say when the Ottoman monarchs had a new literature.
Officially, it was only the conqueror of Constantinople, Murad II, who first applied the name Devlet-i Aliya (“great state” — in the sense of “empire”) to the Ottoman beylik. And he also began to carry Muslim titles similar to the European title of king or emperor.
As already mentioned, the title “sultan” was used mainly for Arab subjects and became popular in the West. However, in remembrance of their nomadic heritage, the Turks used the title “khan” (more precisely, “khan of khans”), the Persian title “hunkar” (analogous to our “sovereign”) and the Persian title “padishah” (i.e., “supreme king” or “king of kings”). It was this title, reminiscent of the strong Iranian cultural heritage, that was their main one. It was also worn by other Eastern rulers who claimed the dignity of emperor — the monarchs of the Safavid Empire, the Gurids, the Ghurids, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals and the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan.
However, after the victory over the Mamluks of Egypt, the Ottoman Padishah received the ancient title of Caliph, which directly alluded to his spiritual supremacy over the entire Muslim world. It was this, and not the title of sultan, that indicated his universal status.
Therefore, when the notional Ibrahim Pasha addressed his lord, he referred to him by the word hunkar — “sovereign”. When he was referred to as the head of the state, the word padishah or sultan was used. But the second one was used only as an additional synonym.