Agha (Turkic title and term)

Agha is a Turkic word for an elder, a master or a chief. It became a title for many officers of the Ottoman state and for the chiefs of its palace eunuchs, and the Persian form sometimes meant "eunuch".

In eastern Turkic, agha meant "elder brother", often set against ini, "younger brother". In Yakut it meant "father", and in Koybal-Karaghasi "grandfather" and "uncle". Among the Mongols it was already an honorific, used for the princesses of the imperial family. In Ottoman Turkish agha meant "chief", "master", "senior" (as in the market official called the çarşı aghası) and "landowner", and it was the title of the head servant of a household. ¹

As a title, until the reform period and in some cases later, agha was given to many men in state service, mostly in military or non-secretarial posts, in contrast to efendi. The most notable were the Yeniçeri Aghasi (the Janissary commander) and most officers of the standing army, the Üzengi or Rikab aghalari, and most officers of the "Inside" and "Outside" services of the sultan's household. The kethüda of the Grand Vizier was also called agha, though his duties were administrative. The palace eunuchs were headed by the Kapı Aghası, the white eunuchs' chief, and by the Dar al-Saada Aghası or Kızlar Aghası, the black eunuchs' chief, and eunuchs attending the Valide Sultan and the princesses were also agha. Eunuchs in the service of officials and the well-to-do were thus called harem or khadim aghalari. ¹

After the Janissaries were abolished in 1826, and under Mahmud II's new Asakir-i Mansure, illiterate officers up to the rank of kaim-makam were called agha, while literate officers of the same rank were addressed as efendi. The usage remained among the people until the end of the Ottoman Empire. Before the constitution, a rank between yüzbaşı and binbaşı was called kol aghasi, "commander of a wing". In Persian, agha (also written akā) sometimes meant "eunuch", as in the case of the first Qajar, Agha Muhammad Shah. ¹