[ noun ] country or territory ruled by a sultan <noun.location>
Sultanate \Sul"tan*ate\, n. [Cf. F. sultanat.] The rule or dominion of a sultan; sultanship.
As is customary in the Maldives, a former hereditary sultanate that became independent from Britain in 1965, he was the only candidate and the ballot was a yes-or-no vote.
But money is usually no object to the absolute monarch of the oil-rich sultanate.
Iraq, which said it set up a provisional Kuwaiti government, warned foreign governments it would turn the rich sultanate into a "graveyard" if they came to Kuwait's aid.
Deputy Prime Minister Qais al-Zuwawi, in announcing that the budget had been approved, stressed that the sultanate's economy remained strong.
The economy of the tiny sultanate is a relatively simple affair.
The oil-rich sultanate on the north coast of Borneo is expanding its navy with new patrol boats and buying its first fixed-wing combat aircraft _ 16 British-built Hawks.
Brunei, with money no object because of its oil riches, is buying patrol boats and the the sultanate's first combat planes, 16 British-built Hawks.