khan

khan

hallitsija, kaani After Genghis Khan, a ruler over various Turkish, Tatar and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages.
An Ottoman sultan.
A noble or man of rank in various Muslim countries of Central Asia, including Afghanistan.
A caravanserai; a resting-place for a travelling caravan.
1923, (w), translating The Thousand Nights and One Night:

‘Guess the name of that,’ she said, pointing to her delicate parts. The porter tried this name and that and ended by asking her to tell him and cease her slapping. ‘The khān of Abu-Mansur,’ she replied.

At each of these stations there is a hostelry which they call a khan, where travellers alight with their beasts, and outside each khan is a public watering-place and a shop at which the traveller may buy what he requires for himself and his beast.