CHAM, or KHAN, the title given to the sovereign
princes of Tartary.
The word, in the Persian, signifies mighty lord; in
the Sclavonic, emperor. Sperlingius, in his Differta-
tion on the Danish term of Majesty, koning, king, thinks
the Tartarian cham may be well derived from it; add-
No 68.
ing, that in the north they say kan, konnen, konze, kon-
ning, &c. The term cham is also applied, among the
Persians, to the great lords of the court, and the go-
vernors of provinces.