Pasha or Paşa in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman Empire political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitaries and others. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is similar to a British peerage or knighthood, and was also one of the highest titles in pre-republican Egypt.

Within the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Sultan had the right to bestow the title of Pasha. It was through this custom that the title came to be used in Egypt, which was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. The rise to power in Egypt in 1805 by Muhammad Ali, an Albanian military commander, effectively established Egypt as a de facto independent state, however, it still owed technical fealty to the Ottoman Sultan. Muhammad Ali harboured ambitions of supplanting the Osman Dynasty in Constantinople, and sought to style his Egyptian realm as a successor sultanate to the Ottoman Empire. As such, he bore the title of Pasha, in addition to the official title of Wāli, and the self-declared title of Khedive.

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