A kavass or cavass is an Ottoman Turkish term for an armed guard fulfilling various roles, often in the service of local notables and European foreigners of high status or means.
[3] Kavass is often spelled in English as kawas or kawass, especially in geographical contexts where Arabic exerts an influence on the author.
The kavass was mainly known as a type of 19th-century Ottoman guard and escort, serving local and foreign dignitaries such as ambassadors and consuls.
[1][4] In the Holy Land (Ottoman Palestine) for instance, the right to employ kawasses was a prerogative of the Christian patriarchs[a] and was only extended to the chief rabbi of the Palestinian Jews in 1842, along with his recognition as the official representative of the community (see millet system).
[citation needed] The 1911 entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica defines the kavass as "an armed police-officer; also for a courier such as it is usual to engage when travelling in Turkey.