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Pasha

Title for high-ranking military or political officials in the Ottoman Empire

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Etymology

The English word pasha comes from Turkish pasha (pāşā; also basha (bāşā)). The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the origin of the English borrowing to the mid-17th century. The etymology of the Turkish word itself has been a matter of debate. Contrary to titles like emir (amīr) and bey (sir), which were established in usage much earlier, the title pasha came into Ottoman usage right after the reign of Osman I (d. 1324), though it had been used before the Ottomans by some Anatolian Turkish rulers of the same era. Old Turkish had no fixed distinction between /b/ and /p/, and the word was spelled başa still in the 15th century.

According to Online Etymology Dictionary, the Turkish pasha or basha was itself from Turkish baş / bash (باش 'head, chief'), itself from Old Persian pati- ('master', from Proto-Indo-European *poti) and the root of the Persian word shah, شاه. According to Oxford Dictionaries, the Turkish word from which it was borrowed was formed as a result of the combination of the Pahlavi words pati- 'lord', and shah (𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠). According to Josef W. Meri and Jere L. Bacharach, the word is "more than likely derived from the Persian Padishah" (پادشاه). The same view is held by Nicholas Ostler, who mentions that the word was formed as a shortening of the Persian word padishah. Jean Deny also attributed its origin to padishah, while repeating a suggestion by Gerhard Doerfer that it was influenced by Turkic baskak (bāsqāq), meaning 'agent, tax collector'.

Some theories have posited a Turkish or Turkic origin of the word, claiming it derived from başağa (bāş āghā), which denoted a 'principal elder brother' or 'prince's elder son' in the pre-Ottoman period. According to etymologist Sevan Nişanyan, the word is derived from Turkish beşe (بچّه 'boy, prince'), which is cognate with Persian bačče (بچّه). Some earlier Turkish lexicographers, such as Ahmed Vefik Paşa and Mehmed Salahi, argued it was most likely derived from Turkish başa or Turkish beşe, the latter meaning 'elder brother' and being a title given to some Ottoman provincial officials and janissaries.

As first used in western Europe, the title appeared in writing with an initial b. The English forms bashaw, bassaw, bucha, etc., general in the 16th and 17th century, derive through the medieval Latin and Italian word bassa. Due to the Ottoman presence in the Arab world, the title became used frequently in Arabic, though pronounced basha due to the absence of the /p/ sound in Arabic.

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