Serdar (Ottoman rank)
{{Short description|Military rank in the Ottoman Empire}}
{{Military ranks of Ottoman}}
Serdar ({{langx|ota|سردار}}; from "Sardar") was a military rank in the Ottoman Empire and a noble rank in Montenegro and Serbia.{{Cite book |last=Somel |first=Selcuk Aksin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGZQL41tg_oC |title=Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire |date=2003-02-13 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-6606-5 |pages=268 |language=en}} Serdars often served on the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The term is often translated as 'commander' in English texts and originally comes from the Persian language.{{Cite book |last1=Kármán |first1=Gábor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80lLuG3KRGIC |title=The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |last2=Kunčević |first2=Lovro |date=2013-06-20 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-25440-4 |language=en}}
The title Serdar was also used in the Principality of Montenegro and the Principality of Serbia as an honorary non-noble title below that of vojvoda. Janko Vukotić, the former prime minister of Montenegro, held the title of serdar.
Uses
- Serdar is a popular male name in Turkey.
- Serdar is a popular male name in Turkmenistan.
- Serdar-ı Ekrem or (Serdar-ı Azam) means the commander-in-chief with the highest rank, and thus, it sometimes refers to the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
- Serdar is also used as a noun (especially to give a nostalgic feeling) with its original meaning (i.e. commander-in-chief) in Turkish. For example, "Ordunun serdarı yiğit savaşçılarına saldırı emrini verdi" means "The commander-in-chief of the force ordered his brave fighters to attack."
- The word has been adapted in English with its original or related spellings, i.e. serdar, sardar, sirdar, all meaning commander-in-chief of an army. However, these words are not used in everyday terminology.
- Serdar, a variant of Sirdar and Sardar, a long-standing rank in Western and Southern Asia – was assigned to the British Commander-in-Chief of the British-controlled Egyptian Army in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Sirdar resided at the Sirdaria, a three-block-long property in Zamalek which was also the home of British military intelligence in Egypt.
See also
- Serdar or Gyzylarbat is a city in the Balkan province of Turkmenistan.
References
{{Reflist}}{{Organisation of the Ottoman Empire}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serdar (Ottoman Rank)}}
Category:Government of the Ottoman Empire
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