Sentence:  ... the reigning <WSD>Dey</WSD> of Algiers (half of whose twenty-eight predecessors are said to have met violent ends) lost his temper with the French consul, struck him in the face with a fly-whisk, and called him ‘a wicked, faithless, idol-worshipping rascal'. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The ruler of the Regency of Algiers (now Algeria) under the Ottoman Empire.