Both men and women endowed vakfs, charitable foundations that bore their founder’s name and could endure for centuries. When I started reading a table of the names of women who endowed vakfs in the city of Ankara in the 14th through 16th centuries, I expected to find the usual [name] bint [father’s name] pattern, but instead I found… madness.
It started slow, with plenty of women described simply as “Lady [name]”:
- Cansuz Hatun
- Devlet Hatun
- Emine Hatun
- Samade Hatun
But some of the women’s names were male:
- Bahtiyar Hatun
- Beyrek Hatun
- İskender Hatun
- Mirsad Hatun
- Pir Nebi Hatun
Maybe they were a variation on the names that meant “[male name]’s lady”?
- Bahşı Hatunu
- Hacı Ahmed Hatunu
- İmam Hatunu
But there were also names that meant “a lady called [male name]”:
- Kadı Ayas nam Hatun, a lady called Judge Ayas
- Oğul Paşa nam Hatun, a lady called Pasha’s Son
- Örenkuş nam Hatun, a lady called Örenkuş
Did some women go by their husband’s name, the way English and American women used to be Mrs. Robert Smith? Did some women have male names?
Then titles went wonky:
- Ayşe Bacı, Sister Ayşe, a female religious title
- Bacı Hatun – Now Bacı is a personal name
- Bacı Bula – Now Bacı is a personal name and the title is Bula, which literally means “older sister” but is also an early title for certain ranks of court ladies
- Katun Bula
- Fadik Bula – Okay, I’m getting the hang of Bula
- Hatun Bula – You’re joking, right?
- Bula Hatun – FML.
There were multiple ways to say a woman was a daughter:
- Ayşe Hatun binti Halil Baba, Lady Ayşe daughter of Halil Baba
- Hamamcı Cafer kızı Usul, Bathhouse-Keeper Cafer’s daughter Usul
- Ni’medan kızı, Ni’medan’s daughter
Or a wife:
- Müezzin Hatunu
- Kamir Çomlu karı
- İskender Hatun?
- Kadı Ayas nam Hatun?
Or a sister:
- Abdülkerim ve kızkarındaşı Hatice, Abdülkerim and his sister Hatice
- Sefer Hemşire, Sefer’s Sister
There were personal names that were probably nicknames:
- Şerbet Hatun, Lady Sherbet
- Küçük Hatun, Lady Little
There were personal names that referred to where the woman came from:
- Mısırlı Hatun, Egyptian Lady
- Rum Hatun, Turkish-Greek Lady
- Haymanalı Hacı Hatun, Lady Pilgrim-from-Haymana
And there were names that further research showed were misleading:
- Efendi Hatun, which looks like “Lady Sir” but is short for Eftendise
- Ayni Hatun, referred to elsewhere as Süleyman kızı Aynişah
- Sultan Hatun – Sultan is a common female name, but this particular Sultan Hatun is Melike Hatun, daughter of a 13th-century Seljuk sultan. She’s not a lady named Sultan (“imperial”), she is literally Imperial Lady.