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0419 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 419 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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LOAN-WORDS IN TIBETAN   593

valid for the Turkish epoch under the 'rang. According to the rang Annals (rail ht, Ch. 217 B, p. 8), the officials of the Kirgiz were divided into six classes, the sixth being called tarkan. The other offices are designated by purely Chinese names, and refer to civil and military grades. Among the Kirgiz, therefore, tarkan denoted a high military rank and function.

The title has been traced by E. CHAVANNES and SYLVAIN LÉVI in the Itinerary of Wu Krum (751-79o). The Chinese author relates that the kingdom of Ki-pin (Gandhâ,ra and territory adjoining in the west) sent in 75o, as envoy to the court of China, the great director Sa-po ta-kan

a A   (or f), anciently `Sat or Sar-pa dar-kan (cf. Journal
asiatique, 1895, II, p. 345). Chavannes and Lévi have recognized a Turkish dynasty in the then reigning house of Ki-pin, and have regarded the title ta-kan also as Turkish, without, however, identifying it (ibid., p. 379) . In 1903 Chavannes noted the identity of the Chinese transcription with Turkish tarkan (Documents sur les Tou-kiue occidentaux, p. 239). The Chinese transcription *dar-kan does not allow us to presuppose a Turkish model darkan; but the Old-Turkish form was indeed tarkan, as is also confirmed by New Persian tarxdn and Armenian trarxan (HÜBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 266). Tarsa, the Persian designation of the Christians, is transcribed in Chinese by the same character, A` to-so, anciently *dar-sa. The complex phonetic phenomenon which is here involved will be discussed by me in another place. Wherever the Chinese mention the title, it regularly refers to Turkish personages : thus the pilgrim Haan Tsai is accompanied by an officer Mo-tu tarkan, assigned to him by the Turkish Kagan (WATTERS, On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. I, pp. 75, 77) ; for examples in the Chinese Annals, see HIRTH, l.c.

In the Vita S. Clementis (XVI), a Bori-tarkanos appears as commander of Belgrad; this may be Turkish büri ("wolf "). Among the Bulgars, Bulias tarkdnos (Old Turkish boila tarkan) was one of the titles of the oldest two princes (cf. MARQUART, l.c., pp. 41, 42). As a Hunnic title, tarxan occurs in the Armenian History of Albania by Moses Kalankatvaci (HÜBSCHMANN, l.c., p. 516). The word has survived in the name of the Russian city Astrakhan, originally Haj or Hajji Tar-khan, as it was still called by Ibn Batûta (ed. DEFRÉMERY, Vol. II, pp. 410, 458), who adds that tarkhan among the Turks designates a place exempt from any taxation. PEGOLETTI calls the city Gintarchan (YULE, Cathay, Vol. III, p. 146) . Our word does not occur in Marco Polo, as supposed by H. Beveridge, nor do the Mongols know it in the form tarkan, but they have only darkan or darxan (KOVALEVSKI, p. 1676), which has two different meanings,—" workman, artist, " and