a cavalry soldier in the Ottoman army, usually of high rank in Ottoman society, and recipient of property revenues in lieu of salary. [in India, sepoy].

Sipahi (Ottoman Turkish: سپاهی; also transliterated as Spahia or Spahiu in albanian, Spahi, Sepahi, and Spakh) was the name of an Ottoman cavalry corps. In the form of "Spahi" it was the title given to several cavalry units serving in the French and Italian colonial armies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.