ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3199
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3199
************************************

05 Jan 2007
From: Ursula Whitcher 

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You said that you were interested in building a complex name for a
Mongol man whose given name was <Arghun> and whose father's name was
<Arslan>, <Batu>, <Dhunan>, <Sacha>, or <Onggur>.  We'll begin by
discussing your given name and the choices for your father's name, and
then talk about ways to combine your name and your father's name into a
more complex description.

The most well-known <Arghun> was the fourth Ilkhan (the Ilkhanids were a
Mongol dynasty which ruled much of the Middle East); he was the grandson
of Hulagu, and great-grandson of Ghengis Khan. [1,15]  Another ethnic
Mongol, <Dhu al-Nun Beg Arghun>, was governor of Kandahar in the late
fifteenth century. [2]  Like many Mongol names, <Arghun> may be
Turkic in origin.  The eleventh century Seljuk ruler Alp Arslan had a
son named <Arslan-Arghu:n>, and may also have had a brother by the same
name.  (Here the colon indicates that the vowel is long; this is our
standard alternative to writing a macron, or horizontal bar, above the
vowel.) [3,4]

Forms of the names <Arslan>, <Batu>, <Dhunan>, <Sacha>, and <Onggur>
appear in the Secret History of the Mongols, a medieval Mongol work
which survives in a version written in Chinese characters.  More precise
renderings of these names are <Arslan>, <Batu>, <Qunan>, <Sac^a>, and
<O"nggu"r>, respectively.  (Here we've used the caret <^> to represent a
small 'v' over the preceding letter, and the quotes <"> to represent an
umlaut or pair of dots over the preceding letter.) [5,6,9]  <Arslan> is
another etymologically Turkic name; it was popular throughout much of
the Middle East in your period. [7,14]  We also found <Batu> in the
Latinized form <Bati> in a thirteenth-century document. [8]

In The Secret History, men are occasionally identified as their fathers'
sons. In Middle Mongolian, this can be done by giving the father's name
followed by a possessive suffix and the word <ko"begu"n> 'son'.
[9,10,13]  Our knowledge of Middle Mongolian grammar is by no means
complete, but we believe the following are the correct descriptions for
each father's name you are interested in: [11,12,13]

      Arslan-u ko"begu"n Arghun
      Batu-yin ko"begu"n Arghun
      Qunan-u ko"begu"n Arghun
      Sac^a-yin ko"begu"n Arghun
      O"nggu"r-u"n ko"begu"n Arghun

We hope this letter has been helpful.  If any part of it is unclear, or
if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to write to us
again.  Walraven van Nijmegen, Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael,
Maridonna Benvenuti, and Arval Benicoeur assisted in researching and
writing this letter.

For the Academy,

Ursula Georges
5 January 2007

References:

[1] Encyclopaedia of Islam, (WWW: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2006), s.v.
<Ilkhanids>.
http://www.brillonline.nl
(requires subscription)

[2] Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. <Arghu:n>.

[3] Lajos Bese, "Some Turkic Personal Names in the Secret History of the
Mongols", Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae vol. 32 no.
3, pp. 353-369 (1978).

[4] Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. <Arslan-arghu:n>.

[5] Heather Davenport, "Names from the Secret History of the Mongols",
(WWW: Lao Hats, 1999-2006.)
http://www.laohats.com/Names%20from%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20the%20Mongols.htm

[6] Baras-aghur Naran, "On the Documentation and Construction of Period
Mongolian Names", (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel.)
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/baras-aghur/mongolian.html

[7] Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. <Arslan>.

[8] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Mongol Names in 13th Century Latin", (WWW:
Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2000.)
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/tartar/

[9] Igor de Rachewiltz, _The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian
Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century_, (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill
NV, 2004).

[10] "The Secret History of the Mongols: Text, Translation, and Notes,"
(WWW: Lingua Mongolia, 2005).
http://www.linguamongolia.co.uk/The%20Secret%20History%20of%20the%20Mongols.pdf 


[11] "Vowel Harmony", (WWW: Emyr Pugh, Lingua Mongolia, 2006).
http://www.linguamongolia.co.uk/vhar1.html

[12] "Case", (WWW: Emyr Pugh, Lingua Mongolia, 2006).
http://www.linguamongolia.co.uk/case1.html

[13] Luigi Kapaj, "Researching Mongol Names in the SCA", (WWW: The
Silver Horde, 2004).
http://silverhorde.viahistoria.com/main.html?research/ResearchingMongolNames.html

[14] Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 3084.
http://www.s-gabriel.org/3084

[15] Mehmet Eti, "Some hints to be learned about Ilkhanid coinage",
(WWW: privately published.)
http://mehmeteti.150m.com/ilkhanids/hpags-pa.htm