Re: [tied] Help with ban_Banat

I learn from J. V. A. Fine's "The Early Medieval Balkans" that in
1142 Beloš the Serbian uncle and regent for the Hungarian child-king
Geza II "took the title of Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia (a position
later often given to a younger son of the Hungarian king who was not
heir to the throne)". So if my American Heritage Dictionary's Turkish
etymology is right, the Turks were presumably Avars, which I think (my
Serbo-Croatian is a bit weak) Konushevchi told us in his posting.
As for the Persian 'ba:n',which Piotr has trouble finding a root
for, is it late enough that it could have been Persian < Turkish?
I should have mentioned that the AHD doesn't give the definition of
'ban' we've been talking about. In fact it doesn't give a definition
at all; it just refers the reader to a table under "Currency" where we
find that in Romania 1 leu = 100 bani. Did high denomination coins in
Romania or thereabout once have lion's heads and smaller coins ruler's
heads? Marius? Alex?
Dan Milton