This page is about districts of the Ottoman Empire; for a region in Serbia and Montenegro, see Sandžak.Sanjak and Sandjak are the most common English transliterations of the Turkish word Sançak, which literally means "banner". Sanjaks were military districts of the Ottoman Empire, part of the military-feudal system of the Empire. In addition to the paid professional army, the Ottoman army had corps of cavalry soldiers (called spahi or sipahi) who performed military service in return for estates granted by the sultan (larger estates were called zaim, smaller ones timar). Spahis gathered for war according to the Sanjak in which they lived, and were led by an official called a Sanjak-beg or Sanjakbey (roughly equivalent to "district governor").
