Padishah

Padishah is a superlative sovereign title of Persian origin.
A form of the word is known already from Middle Persian as pātaxšā or pādixšā. Middle Persian pād may stem from Avestan paⁱti, and is akin to Pati. Xšāy 'to rule' and xšāyaθiya 'king' are both from Old Persian.
It was adopted by several monarchs claiming the highest rank, roughly equivalent to the ancient Persian notion of "Great King" and to the Western high king, and later adopted by post-Achaemenid and the Mughal emperors of India. However, in some periods it was used more generally for autonomous Muslim rulers, as in the Hudud al-'Alam of the 10th century, where even some petty princes of Afghanistan are called pādshā/''pādshāʼi/pādshāy''.

Extent

The rulers on the following thrones – the first two effectively commanding major West Asian empires – were styled Padishah:

The Shahanshah of Iran, originating mainly with the Safavids
The Padishah of the Ottoman Empire
The Badshah of the Mughal Empire
Some Seljuk rulers, like Grand Seljuk Ahmad Sanjar, Sultan of Rum Kaykhusraw I, and Sultan of Rum Kayqubad I.
Mongol Ilkhan Ghazan took the title Padshah-i Islam after he converted to Islam in 1295, possibly in order to undermine the religious prestige of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The title Ilkhan, that came into use –1265, may be an equivalent of Padishah, if it is taken to mean 'sovereign khan'.
Miangul Golshahzada Abdul Wadud of the Pakistani North-West Frontier State of Swat, who called himself badshah from November 1918 to March 1926.
Ahmad Shah Durrani, who founded the Durrani Empire in 1747 with the title Pādshah-i Afghanistan in Persian and Badcha Da Afghanistan in the Pashto language. The Sadduzai were overthrown in 1823 but there was a brief restoration by Shah Shujah in 1839 with the help of British India. The title became dormant from his assassination in 1842 until 1926 when Amanullah Khan resurrected it and was finally abandoned with the abdication of Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973 following a coup; at other times the Afghan monarchy used the style Emir or Malik.
The last Basha bey of Tunisia, Muhammad VIII al-Amin, adopted the sovereign style padshah 20 March 1956 – 25 July 1957.
The female monarch Razia of the Delhi Sultanate used the masculine title padshah.

The compound Pādshah-i-Ghazi is only recorded for two individual rulers:

Ahmad Shah Durrani, Emperor of the Durrani Empire
Rustam-i-Dauran, Aristu-i-Zaman, Asaf Jah IV, Muzaffar ul-Mamaluk, Nizam ul-Mulk, Nizam ud-Daula, Nawab Mir Farkhunda 'Ali Khan Bahadur , Sipah Salar, Fath Jang, Ayn waffadar Fidvi-i-Senliena, Iqtidar-i-Kishwarsitan Muhammad Akbar Shah Padshah-i-Ghazi, Nizam of Hyderabad

The Sikhs use the term Padishah for God and the 10 gurus. Padishah is also used for the 10th and last Guru of Sikhs Guru Gobind Singh.

Like many titles, the word Padishah was also often used as a name, either by nobles with other styles, or even by commoners.
Padshah Begum is the title of consorts of padishahs.

Ottoman Empire

In the Ottoman Empire the title padishah was exclusively reserved for the Ottoman emperor, as the Ottoman chancery rarely and unwillingly addressed foreign monarchs as padishahs. The Habsburg emperors were consequently denied this title and addressed merely as the "kings of Vienna". With the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606, it was the first time that the Sublime Porte recognized Rudolf II as equal of the padishah. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774, gave similar concessions to the Russian Empire.

In Ottoman sources

According to Ahmedi's İskendernâme, one of the earliest Ottoman sources, alongside the titles sultan and beg, Orhan and Murad I bore the title padishah as well.