Serdar (Ottoman rank)

Serdar (Ottoman Turkish: سردار; from "Sardar") was a military rank in the Ottoman Empire and a noble rank in Montenegro and Serbia.[1] Serdars often served on the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The term is often translated as 'commander' in English texts.[2]

Military ranks of the Ottoman Empire
Officers
Non-commissioned officers

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

References
  1. Somel, Selcuk Aksin (2003-02-13). Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Scarecrow Press. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-8108-6606-5.
  2. Kármán, Gábor; Kunčević, Lovro (2013-06-20). The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25440-4.


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