Tarkhan

Tarkhan (Old Turkic Tarqan;Mongolian: Darqan or Darkhan;Persian: ترخان‎‎; Chinese: 達干; Arabic: طرخان‎‎; alternative spellings Tarkan, Tarkhaan, Tarqan, Tarchan, Turxan, Tarcan, "Turpan aka Turfan" "Tárkány, Tarján, Torgyán or Turgan) is an ancient Central Asian title used by various Turkic peoples, Indo-Europeans (i.e. Iranian, Tokharian, Punjabi), and by the proto-Mongols, Hungarians and Mongols. Its use was common among the successors of the Mongol Empire.

The origin of the word is not known. Various historians identify the word as either East Iranian (Sogdian, or Khotanese Saka),Turkic (incl. Hunnic and Xiongnu), or Mongolian.

Although Richard N. Frye reports that the word "was probably foreign to Sogdian", hence considered to be a loanword from Turkic, Gerhard Doerfer points out that even in Turkic languages, its plural is not Turkic (sing. tarxan --> plur. tarxat), suggesting a non-Turkic origin. L. Ligeti comes to the same conclusion, saying that "tarxan and tegin [prince] form the wholly un-Turkish plurals tarxat and tegit" and that the word was unknown to medieval western Turkic languages, such as Bulgar. Taking this into consideration, the word seems to be derived from medieval Mongolian darqat (plural suffix -at), itself perhaps derived from the earlier Sogdian word *tarxant ("free of taxes"). Contradicts this the fact that one of the Magyar (Hungarian) tribes was called Tarjan (Ταριάνου) according to Constantin VII's De Administrando Imperio, dated centuries earlier. Also this name is commonly used for settlements throughout Hungary, and used as a family name. A. Alemany gives the additional elaboration that the related East Iranian Scythian (and Alanic) word *tarxan still survives in Ossetic tærxon ("argument, trial") and tærxon kænyn ("to judge").Harold Walter Bailey also proposes an Iranian (Khotanese Saka) root for the word, L. Rogers bears in mind that the word may have originated among the Xiongnu and Huns where it was associated with a title for nobility. Edwin G. Pulleyblank also suggests that both, Turkic tarqan and Mongolian darxan/daruyu, may preserve an original Hunnic word.

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