Clauson (1972)
An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish
p. 630
F xa:n
a title at first practically syn. w. xağan, q.v., but later used mainly for a subordinate ruler; for the etymological connection between the two see xağan. There is no reasonable doubt that the original and normal pronunciation was xa:n. An early l.-w. in Mong. (Haenisch 59, Kow. 718); no longer a royal title, but still used as a title of honour in many Moslem countries, not all Turkish-speaking. Türkü viii xan does not occur in I or II, but occurs six times in T in contexts where xağan, which also occurs in T, might have been expected, e.g. (the Türkü people) xanı:n bulmayın ‘because they had no xan of their own’ (parted from the Chinese and appointed a xan; then) xanı:n kodup ‘abandoned their xan’ (and submitted again) T 2: viii ff. xan olu:rupan ‘a ruler, taking the throne’ IrkB 28; o.o. do. 34, 63: Man. el(l)igler xanlar ‘kings and rulers’ M III 19, 14; el(l)ig Bögö Xan ‘king Bögö Xan’ TT II 6, 33; a.o. do. 10, 88: Yen. Tüpü:t xanka: ‘to the king of Tibet’ Mal. 29, 8; Kara: Xan do. 30, 4; 37, 1, prob. the eponymous founder of the Karakhanid dynasty; a.o.o.: Uyğ. viii xan occurs six times in Şu. referring to foreign rulers, including Tavğaç xan ‘the Emperor of China’ W 3: ix xanka: tap ‘serve (your) ruler’ Suci 9; a.o. do. 1: viii ff. Man.-A uluğ el(l)ig teŋri xan Ezrwa ‘Zurvân the great king, the ruler of the gods’ M I 25, 32; Kaşu xan ‘the ruler of Kaşu’ do. 27, 6: Chr. el(l)ig xan Maşıxa teŋrike ‘to the divine king (Hend.) the Messiah’ U I 6, 16-17; a.o. do. 7, 2: Bud. erklig xan lit. ‘independent ruler’, the title of the lord of the underworld, Sanskrit Yama U II 33, 7 (this title had a long history in Turkish Buddhism and still survives in Mong. as erlig kan); (el(l)ig beg U III 68, 4-8), el(l)ig beg xan do. 11, xan do. 16; many o.o. in which it is often combined, or alternates, with el(l)ig: Civ. erklig xan eşiği ‘the threshold of Yama’ TT VII 13, 33-4; o.o. do. 29, 11; 30, 15; TT I 60 (busuş): xiv Chin.-Uyğ. Dict. chün ‘ruler, prince’ (Giles 3,269) xan Ligeti 161: Xak. xi xa:n al-maliku’l-a‘ẓam minhum ‘their (the Turks’) supreme ruler’; anyone who is descended from Afrāsiyāb is given this title, wa huwa’l-xāqān; both the long and the short forms are used Kaş. III 157; over 20 o.o. translated al-malik: Çağ. xv ff. xan means ‘emperor’ (pādişāh) and for this reason they call the emperors of the Turks xan; since the Sultans of Rūm are descended from the Türkmen people (el) they call themselves xan; after they captured Arabistan and the Hijāz they added to xan the title of sultān, which means ‘emperor’ in Ar. Now in Persia governors and notables of the realm (ḥukkām wa a‘yān-i dawlat) are called xan; there can be no other reason than this for the fact that when the Sultans of Rūm as a sign of respect for their own amirs and notables gave them an imperial (pādişāhī) title they called them paşa which is a shortened form of pādişāh. After the empire of Iran passed to the Safawi dynasty they too, contrary to the wishes of the Sultans of Rūm, called the notables of their realm xan and lower placed persons sultān. After the Sultanate of Hind passed to the house of Gurgān they called themselves pādişāh, and the notables and chiefs of the realm they distinguished by the title of xan San. 222v. 1: Kom. xiv kan/xan ‘emperor’ CCI; ‘king’ CCG; Gr.: Kıp. xiii (in the list of Proper Names) temür xan ‘iron king’ Hou. 30, 7: xiv kan (‘blood’, also used for) al-malik İd. 74: xv sultān kan Tuh. 18b. 8; malik kan do. 32b. 3; 41b. 6.