Definition of "khanate"

By the middle of the nineteenth century Central Asia was rarely out of the headlines, as one by one the ancient caravan towns and khanates of the former Silk Road fell to Russian arms.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, pages 5–6

Sviatoslav had his own imperial ambitions, which led him to take an aggressive interest in the Christian khanate of Bulgaria.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 505