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 dissertation on the Danish term of majesty, koning, king, thinks the Tartarian cham may be well derived from it; adding, that in the north they say kan, konnen, konge, kon-
ning, &c. The term cham is also applied, among the Persians, to the great lords of the court, and the governors of provinces.