‖ chagan Hist.
(kaˈgɑːn)
[ad. late L. chagānus, cagānus, in Byz. Gr. χαγᾶνος, ad. Old Turkish khāqān king, sovereign; see cham and khan.]
An ancient form of the word khan; applied (after the mediæval Latin and Greek chroniclers) to the sovereign of the Avars in the 6th and 7th centuries.
| 1776–81 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlii. (1875) 719 The Avars..the chagan, the peculiar title of their king. Ibid. xlvi. (1875) 800 When the Roman envoys approached the presence of the chagan. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIV. 73/2 The Khazars..their kings were called Chagan or more correctly Khaghan, which was the name of the old Mongol kings a thousand years before the appearance of the Khazars. Ibid. 74/2 The Russians in 1016..made their khaghan Georges Tzula a prisoner. |