Vali

Ottoman provincial governor. The term vali is the Turkish and Persian rendition of the Arabic wali, referring to someone who has been deputized to exercise authority. It meant "governor." The Mamluks assigned valis to their smallest administrative units, whereas in Iran and later in the Ottoman empire, a vali was the governor of the largest type of administrative unit. In the Ottoman empire, a vali was head of a vilayet, or province. See also Kaza, Liwa, and Vilayet.