TAR KHAN is an old Turkish dignity, and dis tinguishes such persons as were free froin taxation. In the oldest Turkish docutnenta tarku means a letter of protection, a letter of nobility, and in Mongolian (Kowalewsky, p. 1760a), tarklia lakhu means to grant any one a privilege. Amongst the Turanian populations it is a word designating a rank, and amongst the Armenians of Georgia it indicates a freeman. Narshakhi and Tabari write it Terkhun, and suppose it to be a proper name. The Tar Khan title was bestowed by Chengiz Khan on two youths, Bata and Kashlak, who overheard Aung or Prester John making arrangements to destroy Chengiz Khan. From these are said to have descended the Tar Khan dynasties of Khor asan and Turkestan.
The Tar Khan dynasty of Sind are said to have been so denominated by Thntir, having sprung from Eku Timur. When Tuktamish Khan wart advancing against Timur, he was gallantly opposed by the great-grandson of. Arghun Khan, Eku
Timur, who fell in the unequal conflict. Timur, who witnessed the conflict, bestowed the title of Tar Kha.n on his surviving relatives. The origin of this titular term seems, however, doubtful, but it is an ancient one, as Tar Khan of Farghana hospitably entertained the last monarch of Persia in A.D. 703. Tar Khans are mentioned as officers under the Khakan of the Khazar, to the west of the Caspian Sea. Their rule extended tO A.D. 1591-92, and with them expired the independence of Sind as a kingdom, its history from that date merging into that of the empire of Timur. Scions of the Tar Khan family still reside at Nasrpur and Thatta.—Elliet, Mt. of India, p. 500 ; Arminius Vambery's Bokhara, p. 27.