[Turk. (Arab.) valī. Cf. WALI.] A civil governor of a Turkish province or vilayet.
The form valiè occurs in the transl. of Chardin’s Coronat. Solyman (1686), 34.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. V. iii. 139. Vachtanga … ought … to have succeeded him in the dignity of vali of Georgia.
1875. R. Wilson, trans. Figuier’s Hum. Race, 284. A vali and council is at the head of the administration of each government or ‘vilayet.’
1897. Outing, XXIX. 387. The Vali,… like nearly all Turkish officials,… had discarded the Turkish costume.
1903. Times, 5 Sept., 8/6. The corrupt and inefficient government of the Vali of Beirut.
Hence Valiship, the office or position of a vali.
1907. Times, 17 Jan., 3/6. It may have been right to depose Kiamil from his Valiship.
