Sanjak

Banners were a common organization of nomadic groups on the Eurasian Steppe including the early Turks, Mongols, and Manchus and were used as the name for the initial first-level territorial divisions at the formation of the Ottoman Empire.

The name originally meant "flag" or "banner", derived from Proto-Turkic reconstructed as *sančgak ("lance", "spear") from the streamers attached by Turkish riders.

Shared banners were a common organization for Eurasian nomads, were used similarly by the Byzantine Empire's banda, and continue to be used as the name for administrative divisions in Inner Mongolia and Tuva.

Alternative English spellings include sanjac, sanjack, sandjak, sanjaq, sinjaq, sangiaq, and zanzack, although these are now all obsolete or archaic.

By the 16th century, these presented a rational administrative pattern of territories, based usually around the town or settlement from which the sanjak took its name, and with a population of perhaps 100,000.

It seems more likely that before the mid-15th century, the most important factor in determining the pattern of sanjaks was the existence of former lordships and principalities, and of areas where marcher lords had acquired territories for themselves and their followers.

In addition, however, Ayn Ali noted that there were five ‘sovereign sanjaks’, which their lords disposed of ‘as private property’, and which were outside the system of provincial government.

In the second half of the 16th century, Kilis came under the hereditary governorship of the Janbulad family, while Adana remained under the rule of the pre-Ottoman dynasty of Ramazanoghlu.

In Lebanon, Ayn Ali refers to the Druze chieftains with the note: ‘there are non-Muslim lords in the mountains.’ There were other autonomous enclaves in the Empire, whether or not they received formal recognition as sanjaks but, by the 16th century, these were exceptional.

[7] The mutesarrif was appointed by Imperial decree and represented the vali, corresponding with the government through him except in some special circumstances where the sanjak was independent.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, the liwa was used by some of its Arab successor states as an administrative divisions until it was gradually replaced by other terms like mintaqah.

The unofficial geocultural region of Sandžak in Serbia and Montenegro derives its name from the former Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar.