Sanjak and Sandjak (other variants: sinjaq, sanjaq) are the most common English transcriptions of the Turkish word sancak, which literally means "a banner, flag". Transcription is the conversion into written typewritten or printed form of a Spoken language source such as the proceedings of a court hearing Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. A banner is a Flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol logo slogan or other message ^[1] In Arabic the sanjaks were also called liwas. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

History

Sanjaks originally were the first level subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish They arose in the mid-14th century as military districts that were part of a military-feudal system. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed In addition to the paid professional army, the Ottoman army had corps of cavalry soldiers (called spahis or sipahi) who performed military service in return for estates granted by the Sultan (larger estates were called zaim or zeamet, smaller ones timar). Sipahi ( Ottoman Turkish: ota سپاهی also transliterated as Spahi, Sepahi, and Spakh; traditionally rendered as Spahia Spahis gathered for war according to the Sanjak in which they lived, and were led by an official called a Sanjak-beg or Sanjakbey (roughly equivalent to "district governor"). Bey is a Turkish title for "chieftain" traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups

With the formation of new first-level divisions, the beylerbeyliks (later eyalets and vilayets), in the late 14th century, sanjaks were mostly second level divisions. The subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire were Administrative divisions of the State organisation of the Ottoman Empire based on military administration but The subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire were Administrative divisions of the State organisation of the Ottoman Empire based on military administration but A wilāyah (ولاية or vilâyet (in Persian and Ottoman Turkish) is an administrative division usually

The number of Sanjaks in the Empire varied greatly. The Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century saw the number climb to over 400, but more usually it was around 150. The Tanzimat ( Ottoman Turkish: تنظيمات meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

Not all sanjaks were part of a province; some were in newly conquered areas that had yet to be assigned to a province and others such as Benghazi and Çatalca remained independent of the province system with their leaders reporting directly to the Porte. Benghazi or Bengasi ( Arabic بنغازي, transliterated Banġāzī,) is the second largest city in Libya and the History Rural area farmland providing food and dairy produce for the city Ottoman Porte (also Sublime Porte, High Porte, or in Ottoman Turkish, Bab-ı Ali) used to refer to the Divan (court

The contemporary name of the Balkan region of Sandžak derives from its former status as the Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar. Sandžak ( Serbian: Санџак Sandžak or Рашка Raška; Bosnian: Sandžak; Albanian: Sanxhak or The Sanjak of Novi Pazar ( Serbian, Bosnian: Новопазарски санџак Novopazarski sandžak; Turkish: Yeni Pazar sancağı

References

See also

• Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire
• Sandžak
• Sanjak of Novi Pazar