the zo(ō)apan of Buyla inscription on a buckled bowl of a heterogeneous and chronologically uncertain (7th or 8th century) Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós; the supan in Lusatian and Latin language (7th century): the ζουπανος (zoupanos) on a silver bowl found at Veliki Preslav, capital of First Bulgarian Empire (893–972), and zhupan in Greek stone inscriptions and Cyrillic alphabet (Codex Suprasliensis); the zuppanis in Latin charter of St. George's church at Putalj by Croatian duke Trpimir in 852 AD; the Slavic, generally considered of White Croats, title of king's deputy mentioned by Ibn Rusta in the 10th century, the sūt.ğ or sūb.ğ, of which corrupted text some transcribe as sūbanğ (probably Turkic sū beḫ); according to Constantine VII in his 10th century work De Administrando Imperio, Croats, Serbs and other Slavic nations of Dalmatia had the ζουπάνους (zoupanous), "Princes, as they say, these nations had none, but only župans, elders, as is the rule in the other Slavonic regions"; also the Croatian state was divided in 11 ζουπανίας (zoupanias) administrative regions, with additional three ruled by βοάνος (boanos) or μπάνος (b/mpanos) (Ban); and is individually mentioned ζουπανου (zoupanou) Beloje of Travunia; later among Serbs it also temporary became a title for supreme leader ζουπανος μεγας (zoupanos megas, Grand Župan); in Czech sources supani (1187). Etymology In Belarusian, Czech, Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian allegedly from župan was shortened to pan, meaning "master, mister, sir". Franz Altheim derived the title from Iranian etymon *fsu-pāna- that evolved to šuβān in Parthian, šupān and šubān in Persian; all these words meaning "shepherd". Gerhard Doerfer suggested possible Iranian origin for Mahmud al-Kashgari's čupan linking it with New Persian čōpan, a variant form of šubān, with usual change of š- to č-. Omeljan Pritsak in Iranian *fsu-pāna saw "shepherd of (human) cattle" in Avar service, using the Slavic masses as cannon fodder. Some scholars derived it from alleged Old Iranian ašurpan/aszurpan, meaning "great lord, noblemen". It is considered that the title origin can be traced to the Slavic and Iranian cultural interrelation in the Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the first centuries AD. Karl Brugmann derived the Common Slavic *županъ from župa "district, small administrative region", < *geupā, comparing this word with Skt. gopā- (herdsman, guardian), derived from gopaya (to guard, protect), of gup-, or even go-pā (cow-herd), Avestan gufra- (deep, hidden), among others. Oleg Trubachyov derived it from *gupana (from gopaya, the guard of cattle). A Central