Sultan to as a sultanate ( "). The term is distinct from king ( "), despite both referring to a sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular "king", which is used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. A feminine form of "sultan", used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah and this title has been used legally for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. However, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses "sultan" for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar—which is influenced by Persian
Sultan al-Atrash Damascus and raise the Arab revolt flag on the government house on September 29, 1918. Sultan was a good friend of the Hashemite Emir Faisal, leader of the Arab forces in the revolt, and was awarded the title of Emir and the rank of a General in the Syrian army, the equivalent of the title of Pasha. Faisal, later king of Iraq, helped Sultan a lot during his years in exile. The newly independent kingdom of Syria didn't survive for long, as it was occupied by France after the Battle of Maysalun on July 24, 1920. Sultan was gathering his