The word originated from Persian “balatchan”, borrowed by Turkish as “bala han”, and from Turkish to Russian as “balagan”, since there’s no “h” in Russian it is always replaced with “g”.
In Persian in meant “balcony” (which is the same word, same meaning), and also “attic”. In some Slavic language the word still has that original meaning.
In Russian it meant “storage place”, and from there (they say theatre plays were performed in those storage places, which were called “balagan”), and from here it was taken to indicate “mess”, “disorder.”
The first Russian immigrants to Israel (end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century) brought this word with them and thus it became integral part of Hebrew, through Russian.
(Details retrieved from my admired Hebrew teacher, claiming he is not the original author of this research.)
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