According to

ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of hi ...

, the Jāwashīghar was an official in the

Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

government under the command of the

Kündür According to ibn Fadlan, the Kündür was an official in the Khazar government under the command of the Khagan Bek. Ibn Fadlan did not describe the duties of this officer, nor does any extant source. The Magyars had a dual-kingship system in which p ...

Khagan, in turn under

Khagan Bek ''Khagan Bek'' is the title used by the bek (generalissimo) of the Khazars. History Khazar kingship was divided between the Khagan and the Bek or Khagan Bek. Contemporary Arab historians related that the Khagan was purely a spiritual ruler or figu ...

's command. Ibn Fyadlan did not describe the duties of this officer. This title had been transcribed in different ways: ''Jāwshïghr'' or ''Jawshïghïr'' ( Togan, 1939), ''Jāwshīghr'' ( Canard, McKeithen 1979), ''Jawshighir'' (

Frye Frye is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Channing Frye (born 1983), basketball player * Charlie Frye (born 1981), football player for the Oakland Raiders *Don Frye (born 1965), mixed martial arts fighter *Donna Frye (born 1952), ...

, 2005), ''Jawshīghīr'' (Lunde & Stone, 2011) and ''Jāwash(y)īghar'' (Golden, 1980). Scholarly theories to etymologize the title include: * Douglas M. Dunlop (1954) hypothesized that the name derives from the phrase '' Chavush Uyghur'' or "Marshal of the

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...

"; *Golden (2005:214) proposed that ''Jāwshīghr'' might've been garbled from ''Jawašğır'' from ''javaš'' (

Common Turkic Common Turkic, or Shaz Turkic, is a taxon in some classifications of the Turkic languages that includes all of them except the Oghuric languages. Classification Lars Johanson's proposal contains the following subgroups: * Southwestern Common ...

''yavaš'') "gentle, mild" plus agentive suffix ''-ğır''/''ğur'', thus "the one who makes peace" (cf. Uygh. Buddh. ''yavaš qıl'' "to make peace" (Clauson, 1972:880)); *Erdal (2007:80-81) reconstructed ''Čavïš-yïgar'', meaning "the 'marshal' bringing together all the ''čavïš'' ho marshalled the ranks in battle and were in charge of order at court; *Klyashtorny (1997:22-23) reconstructed ''Čavšunqar ( beg)'' "head of the royal falcon-hunting" (''čav'' means

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

and ''šunqar''

gyrfalcon The gyrfalcon ( or ) (), the largest of the falcon species, is a bird of prey. The abbreviation gyr is also used. It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra, and the islands of northern North America and the Eurosiberian region. It is mainly a resid ...

) and pointed to the

Karakhanid The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...

title ''čavlï-beg''.

Sources

*Kevin Alan Brook. ''The Jews of Khazaria.'' 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. * Douglas M. Dunlop, ''The History of the Jewish Khazars,'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954. * Peter B. Golden, ''Khazar Studies'', Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980. *Peter B. Golden, "Khazarica: Notes on Some Khazar Terms", in ''Turkic Languages'', ed. Lars Johanson, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005 *

Ahmad ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of hi ...

, ''Mission to the Volga'', translated by James Montgomery, foreword by Tom Severin, 2017, NYU Press, 2017. *

Marcel Erdal Marcel Erdal (born July 8, 1945) is a linguist and Turkologist, professor and head of the Turcology department at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. He graduated from Robert College (Istanbul) in 1963. Publications * ''The Turkic Nagy-Szent-Mi ...

, "The Khazar Language" in ''The World of the Khazars''. Brill, 2007. pp. 75-108 *Sergey Klyashtorny, "About One Khazar Title in ibn Faḍlān" in ''Manuscripta Orientalia'' 3.3, Thesa, 1997. Khazar titles {{Khazaria