"Pahl. šupān, újp. šobān 'pásztor, csordás'... A VI. század második feléből származó Kārnāmak ī Artaxšīr ī Pābakān c. középperzsa műben pl. 'nomádok pásztorai' összetételben (kurtān šupānān) szerepel (Garnik Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, in: Iran and the Caucasus XIII, 2009, 23)"

Serbian Жупа adopted into Hungarian (ispán) and rendered in Greek as ζουπανία ... However, others suggested the opposite evolution; župa as a back formation from župan, a title brought from Central Asia to Eastern Europe by Avars and Bulgars. One hypothesis assumes an Iranian origin ... šubān in Parthian and šupān and šubān in Persian; all these words meaning "shepherd". The 11th century scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded the Middle Turkic word čupan denoting a minor official, which was considered evidence for a borrowing from Iranian to Turkic languages.