From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bey
[a]
also spelled as
Baig,
Bayg
,
Beigh
,
Beig
,
Bek
,
Baeg
or
Beg
is a
Turkic
title for a
chieftain
, and an
honorific
title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of variously sized areas in the numerous Turkic kingdoms, emirates, sultanates and empires in
Central Asia
,
South Asia
, and the
Middle East
, such as the
Ottomans
,
Timurids
or the various
khanates
and
emirates
in
Central Asia
and the
Eurasian Steppe
. The feminine equivalent title was
begum
. The regions or provinces where "beys" ruled or which they administered were called
beylik
, roughly meaning "governorate" and/or "region" (the equivalent of
county
in other parts of Europe). However the exact scope of power handed to the beks (alternative spelling to beys) varied with each country, thus there was no clear-cut system, rigidly applied to all countries defining all the possible power and prestige that came along with the title.
In modern times, the word is still used formally as a social title for men. It is cited after the name and is used generally with first names and not with last names.
The word entered English from
Turkish
bey
,
[1]
itself derived from
Old Turkic
beg
,
[2]
which - in the form
bag
- has been mentioned as early as in the
Orkhon inscriptions
(8th century AD) and is usually translated as "tribal leader".
[3]
[4]
The actual origin of the word is still disputed, though it is mostly agreed that it was a loan-word,
[3]
in Old Turkic.
[5]
This Turkic word is usually considered a borrowing from an Iranian language.
[4]
[6]
However, German Turkologist
Gerhard Doerfer
assessed the derivation from Iranian as superficially attractive but quite uncertain,
[4]
and pointed out the possibility that the word may be genuinely
Turkic
.
[3]
- ↑
Ottoman Turkish
:
??
,
romanized:
be?
,
Turkish
:
bey
,
Azerbaijani
:
b?y
,
Turkmen
:
beg
,
Uzbek
:
бек
,
Kazakh
:
би/бек
,
Kyrgyz
:
бий/бек
,
Tatar
:
б?к
,
romanized:
bak
,
Shor
:
пий/пек
,
Albanian
:
beu/bej
,
Croatian
:
beg
,
Serbian
:
beg
,
Persian
:
???
,
romanized:
beyg
/
beig
,
Tajik
:
бек
,
Arabic
:
???, ??
,
romanized:
b?h, bek
- ↑
"Bey"
.
Merriam-Webster Online
. Retrieved
22 March
2008
.
- ↑
"Bey"
.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
. Archived from
the original
on 8 March 2008
. Retrieved
22 March
2008
.
- ↑
3.0
3.1
3.2
"Beg"
. Encyclopædia Iranica
. Retrieved
7 May
2011
.
- ↑
4.0
4.1
4.2
"Baga"
. Encyclopædia Iranica
. Retrieved
22 August
2011
.
- ↑
"Bey"
in
Ni?anyan Dictionary
- ↑
Alemko Gluhak (
1993
),
Hrvatski etimolo?ki rje?nik
, August Cesarec: Zagreb, pp.123-124