Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎506v] (137/238)

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China, the Avars, and the Franks.
“Subduer,” the “Peaceful,” and the “Reuniting” Khaghans.
All these words must have great potential value in the
hands of competent Turkish, Mongol, or Manchu scholars,
and such may always obtain the Chinese sounds from me
for the asking.
The remarks of Cervantes, who lived long amongst the
Turks of the Mediterranean, are here very much to the
point: Es costumbre entre los Turcos ponerse nombres de
alguna virtud que en ellos haya. This is almost word for
word what the Chinese say of the Geougen : “ The Khans
and statesmen of the Geougen are designated according to
their deeds and abilities, just as Chinese Emperors are so
designated posthumously; but the Geougen appellations,
on the contrary, were only used during life.” The Prince’s
wife was called Khaghatun, which title, when in 550-552
the Turks overthrew the Geougen, was also applied to the
Queen of the Turks, and is the more modern word Khatun.
There are other evidences suggesting that the Geougen
organization, such as it was, was bodily taken over, or at
least partly imitated, by the Turks. For instance, the
titles Bagha, Teghin, and Tarkhan, which frequently occur
in the carved stone Turko-Chinese inscriptions in Sogdo-
Aramaean writing discovered and deciphered within the
past fifteen years, and which also occur as regularly in
Chinese history, are found to have been used by the
Geougen at least a century before the name “ Turk ”
(taken from the appearance of the peak under whose
shadow they dwelt) was applied to a petty Hiung-nu tribe.
In the same way such Chinese imitation words as tudun,
bayen, djigm, djilifat, and others not yet satisfactorily
fitted with proved alphabetical Tartar originals, are proved
to have been derived by the Turks from either the
Geougen or from a common source ; more especially the
word bayen was used alike by the Geougen and Turks, by
the European Avars, and by the Mongols. On the other
hand, the entire absence from Geougen history of common
Turkish words like jabgu and chor, found both in Chinese