Ottoman commander with short Thai girl (6)
I believe the answer is:
agatha
'girl' is the definition.
'ottoman commander with short thai' is the wordplay.
'ottoman commander' becomes 'aga' (I've seen this before).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'thai' with its last letter taken off is 'tha'.
'aga'+'tha'='AGATHA'
(Other definitions for agatha that I've seen before include "...... Christie, author" , "- Christie, twentieth century crime novelist" , "- - Christie (lit.)" , "Wodehouse aunt" , "- Christie, detective novelist" .)