Tekfur

Tekfur () was a title used in the late Seljuk and early Ottoman periods to refer to independent or semi-independent minor Christian rulers or local Byzantine governors in Asia Minor and Thrace.

== Origin and meaning == The origin of the title is uncertain. It has been suggested that it derives from the Byzantine imperial name Nikephoros, via Arabic Nikfor. It is sometimes also said that it derives from the Armenian takavor, "king". The term and its variants (tekvur, tekur, tekir, etc.) began to be used by historians writing in Persian or Turkish in the 13th century, to refer to "denote Byzantine lords or governors of towns and fortresses in Anatolia (Bithynia, Pontus) and Thrace. It often denoted Byzantine frontier warfare leaders, commanders of akritai, but also Byzantine princes and emperors themselves", e.g. in the case of the Tekfur Sarayı, the Turkish name of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus in Constantinople (mod. Istanbul).