Posted 03 November 2001 - 05:12 PM
So, "aslan" means "lion" in Armenian also. Maybe it is Armenian (or Farsi or other) anyway, because I doubt there were lions in Central Asia... I do, however, remember there being the statue of a beast somewhere around the whereabouts of those inscriptions in Mongolia... I don't remember what it was - will have a look to see if it was actually a lion!
Lion is written as "aslan" or "arslan"... And it is funny that it's like writing "ass" or "arse" in English... LOL.
It is used as a proper name by Turks, and Circassians (and perhaps 'most everyone else in the northern Caucasus) do, too, although I don't know if it is the same "aslan" (meaning-wise)... Aslan Maskhadov is a Chechen example.
If the Circassians got it from Turks (either by migratory tribes or contact with the Ottomans), it wouldn't surprise me, because Circassians also used "Tengiz," the Turkish word for sea (deniz) as a proper name (before we in the republic made a move toward more Turkish names and less Farsi and Arabic)... I know about that name because I also read it in Fazyl Iskender's "Sandro of Chegem"... And Turkish was pretty much understood by the elderly there.
It can also be the case that "aslan" is a Caucasian word (shared by Armenians and Circassians and who else) and the Turks got it from them. It seems more likely to me, almost.
That said, it would seem odd that the earliest Turkish conquerors in Anatolia adapted the word so readily as to actually have names like Kılıçarslan and Alparslan.
But... Where were we? Oh yes.