Note 170 — Chapter VI · THE GYPSY IN AFRICA

Gházi (plural Ghawázi) would mean in Arab “one who fights for the Faith,” or “a conqueror of infidels.” Europe has learned this much during the Russo-Turkish war (1877); but our papers ridiculously misused the term “Ghazi Mukhtar,” for Mukhtar Páshá Gházi is worse than any amount of “Sir Smith.” According to some authorities, the Egyptian Gypsies took this title to gratify their Oriental crave for grandiloquence. But, I would remark, in Persian it is synonymous with rope-dancer or courtisan; and perhaps both are derived from the Ghagar “Ghaziyah,” meaning a woman (?).