PACHA

(Pronounced pasha; contracted from the Persian padi shah,/oo^ of the shah.) A title of honour, given in the origin of the Turkish empire to the ministers and chief a istants of the sultan, whether military or learned. (See Fon Hammer's History of the Turkish Empire, vol. i. p. 137.) In proce of time attributed particularly to the governors of provinces, styled pachaliks. The well-known distinction of rank between the two cla es of pachas consists in the number of horse-tails which are carried before them as standards, the higher having three and the lower two. There were until recently 25 pachaliks, subdivided into sang i acates, besides various independent jurisdictions scattered over the empire. [s. 879]