Dolat

Dolat is a term used in Persian, Urdu, and related languages, written as دولت in their scripts. It denotes wealth, fortune, or prosperity and is also employed in broader political contexts to refer to the state or government, reflecting an historical association between material resources and political authority in Persianate cultures.

Etymology: The word traces to the Arabic dawla, meaning state, dynasty, or turn, which entered Persian and the Hindustani languages with the sense of power and duration. In these languages, dolat developed the sense of material wealth as well as the resources of a ruler or polity.

Usage: In everyday language, dolat means wealth or riches—both personal financial resources and the more general sense of prosperity. In historical, literary, or political discourse, it can reference the wealth, power, or resources of a realm or dynasty, or the prosperity of a country. The term appears in idiomatic expressions about fortune and governance and is often found in classical poetry and prose. In modern writing, transliterations such as daulat or dolat are common, depending on language and script.

Variants and regional usage: Transliterations vary by language and tradition, with dolat, daulat, and daulat being common. The concept is closely related to other terms in the region that denote statehood or wealth, such as the Turkish devlet (state), which shares the same root from dawla.

See also: Daulat (disambiguation), Dawla, Devlet.