A ghazi (Arabic: غازي, Arabic pronunciation: [ɣaːziː], plural ġuzāt) is an individual who participated in ghazw (غزو, ġazw), meaning military expeditions or raiding. The latter term was applied in early Islamic literature to expeditions led by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and later taken up by Turkic military leaders to describe their wars of conquest.[1]
In the context of the wars between Russia and the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus, starting as early as the late 18th century's Sheikh Mansur's resistance to Russian expansion, the word usually appears in the form gazavat (газават).[2]
In English-language literature, the ghazw often appears as razzia, a borrowing through French from Maghrebi Arabic.
In modern Turkish, gazi is used to refer to veterans, and also as a title for Turkic Muslim champions such as Ertuğrul and Osman I.[3][4]