sultan kingMaḥmūd of Ghazna (rened ad 998–1030) was the first Muslim ruler to be called sultan by his contemporaries, and under the Seljuqs of Anatolia and Iran it became a regular title.Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. Orinally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority, rulership, derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning authority or power. Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full soverenty (i.e., not having dependence on any hher ruler) without claiming the overall caliphate, or to r…