JBO'C's Historical Reference

Khan

Khan is a word in the Altaic languages that signifies leader or a leader. It can be a supreme leader like Ghengis Khan. It can also be a leader like the IL Khans that ruled Persia in the IL Khanid period. In that sense the IL Khan is equivalent to a Shah. IL is a people so it is a leader of a people. Just as the Qashqai are an IL or people and their tribal chief is the IL Khan.

Ghengis Khan

A 1911 account:

KHAN, Kiln (Pers. khan, prince, of Tatar origin). 1. A title of uncertain origin, often borne by Oriental rulers, especially in Central Asia. Its earliest mention is by Gregory of Tours (560), who designates the chief of the Huns (Avars) as Chagnus. Among Mohammedans (Moslems) it seems to have been first used in the thirteenth century at the time of the Mongol Genghis Khan, and it persisted down to the time of the last Oriental ruler of the Crimea, Shahin Giray (1783). Since the time of Bayazid I (1389) and Mohammed I (1402), the title has been added to the other titles of the Osmanli sultans. It was not used by the Seljuks (1037-1300). Khan is also joined to a personal name so as to form a composite word. In Shiite lands it means simply a man of rank, equivalent to Turkish Beg or Bey. Some of the titles compounded with Khan are: (1) Kha-Khan, used long before the twelfth century to designate the leader of the Tou-Kiou Turks, the Ouigurs, Mongols, Chinese (Yuen dynasty), and Mandshus. (2) IL-Khan (provincial khan), to indicate their inferiority to the Kha-Khans; used by the Mongol ruler Hulagu and his successors in Persia (1256-1336). (3) Tar-Khan, a subaltern prince. (4) Gur-Khan (universal lord), used by the Turks of Kara-Khitay, by Tamerlane (1335-1405), and Ulug Beg (1447). (5) Ir-Khan, used by certain Turkish tribes. The word "khanate," for the territorial divisions of Genghis Khan's empire, is a European formation. Consult De Lacouperie, Khan, Kha-Khan, and Other Tribes (1885).

2. The homonym "khan" (Persian khanah, house) is frequently applied in translations of Oriental texts and works on the East to unfurnished inns, erected either by the government or private individuals for travelers, and for whose accommodations either no charge or a small fee is required. See Caravanserai.

From The New International Encyclopaedia edited by Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby 1911

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