ܕܰܗܩܳܢܳܐ dhqnʾ dahqānā or ܕܝܗܩܢܐ dyhqnʾ the chiefman or magistrate of a village; landed proprietors, gentry
MP dehgān [dʾhkʾn'], which—according to CPD 26—is the same as MP dahigān [dhywkʾn'] countryman, farmer (ibid. 24); NP dihgān farmer, sower (Steingass 549; Horn 131); NP dehqān, dihqān, duhqān chief man or magistrate of a village, prince or head of the farmers among the Persians (ibid. 548); OIr. *dahyu-kāna-; cf. Gr. ἀδειγάνες (magistrates; Polybius 5, 54, 10) ● am 2, 584, 11; Th Marg 1, 120, 4; Ming 1, 212, 5; RHRB 151, 899; Jšdd act 36, 19; Cat Berl 1, 360a ◆ LS 143b; Nöldeke 1879, 446 f.; Lagarde GA p. 184; Id. AS § 603; PS Suppl. 84
According to Steingass, NP dehqān, dihqān, duhqān are the Arabized forms of NP dihxān or dihgān; but Gignoux (personal communication) does not believe that NP dihxān lord or head-man of a village (Steingass 548) has ever existed; the passages would be: *dayu-kāna- > dahigān > dehgān > dehqān (Arabized form). On this title see Mancini 1987, 54; Gnoli 1998, 134.