Basha

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Basha (disambiguation) .

Basha was a traditional title in the army of the Negus Negest ( Emperor ) of Ethiopia . It was taken over by the Ottomans from the Eritrean port city of Massaua in the 16th century . A distinction was made between the higher title of Turk Basha and the lower title of Basha , which led about 100 men. They were leaders of detachments originally recruited from Muslims and armed with firearms. The Turk Basha was very important until the 20th century.

Due to the complicated transcription from Amharic , the spelling of Ethiopian proper names can be different in different publications.