PASHA', or PACHA, a title used in the Ottoman empire, and applied to governors of provinces, or military and naval commanders of high rank. The name is said to be derived from two Persian words—pa, foot or support, and ruler—and signifies " the support of the ruler." The title was limited in the early period of the Ottoman empire to the princes of the blood, but was subsequently extended to the grand-vizier, the members of the divan, the seraskier, capitan-pasha, the begler-begs, and other civil and military authorities. The distinctive badge of a pasha is a horse's tail, waving from from the end of a staff, crowned with a gilt ball; in war this badge is always carried before him when he goes abroad, and is at other times planted in front of his tent. The three grades of pashas are distinguished by the number of the horse-tails on their stand ards; those of the highest rank are pashas of three tails, and include, in general, the highest functionaries, civil and military. All pashas of this class have the title of vizier; and the grand-vizier is. par excellence, a pasha of three tails. The pashas of two tails are
the governors of provinces, who generally are called by the simple title of "pasha." The lowest rank of pasha is the pasha of one tail; the sanjaks, or lowest class of provin cial governors, are of this rank. The pasha of a province has authority over the military force, the revenue, and the administration of justice. His authority was formerly abso lute, but recently a check was imposed on him by the appointment of local councils. 'lime pasha is in his own person the military leader and administrator of justice for the province nilder his charge, and holds office during the pleasure of the sultan—a most precarious tenure, as the sultan can at•any moment, in the exercise of his despotic power, exile, imprison, or put him to death; and this has frequently been done at eases where the pasha's power has excited the apprehension, or his wealth the avarice of his royal master.