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ALI

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 661 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALI , known as ALI See also:

PASHA (1741-1822), See also:Turkish pasha of See also:Iannina, surnamed Arslan, " the See also:Lion," was See also:born at Tepeleni, a See also:village in See also:Albania at the See also:foot of the Klissura mountains. He was one of the Toske tribe, and his ancestors had for some See also:time held the hereditary See also:office of See also:bey of Tepeleni. His See also:father, a See also:man of mild and peaceful disposition, was killed when Ali was fourteen years old by neighbouring chiefs who seized his territories. His See also:mother Khamko, a woman of extraordinary See also:character, thereupon herself formed and led a brigand See also:band, and studied to inspire the boy with her own fierce and indomitable See also:temper, with a view to revenge and the recovery of the lost See also:property. In this See also:wild school Ali proved an See also:apt See also:pupil. A See also:hundred tales, for the most See also:part probably mythical, are told of his See also:powers and cunning during the years he spent among the mountains as a brigand See also:leader. At last, by a picturesque stratagem, he gained See also:possession of Tepeleni and took vengeance on his enemies. To secure himself from rivals in his own See also:family, he is said to have murdered his See also:brother and imprisoned his mother on a See also:charge of attempting to See also:poison him. With a view to establishing his authority he now made overtures to the See also:Porte and was commissioned to chastise the rebellious pasha of See also:Scutari, whom he defeated and killed. He also, on pretext of his disloyalty, put to See also:death See also:Selim, pasha of Delvinon. Ali was now confirmed in the possession of all his father's territory and was also appointed See also:lieutenant to the derwend-pasha of See also:Rumelia, whose See also:duty it was to suppress See also:brigandage and See also:highway See also:robbery. This gave him an opportunity for amassing See also:wealth by sharing the See also:booty of the robbers in return for leaving them alone.

The disgrace that See also:

fell in consequence on his See also:superior, Ali escaped by the use of lavish bribes at See also:Constantinople. In 1787 he took part in the See also:war with See also:Russia, and was rewarded by being made pasha of Trikala in See also:Thessaly and derwend-pasha of Rumelia. It now suited his policy to suppress the brigands, which he did by enlisting most of them under his own banner. His See also:power was now already considerable; and in 1788 he added to it by securing his nomination to the pashalik of Iannina by a characteristic See also:trick. The illiterate brigand, whose boyish ambition had not looked beyond the recovery of his father's beylick, was now established as one of the most powerful viziers under the See also:Ottoman See also:government. Success only stimulated his insatiable ambition. He earned the confidence of the Porte by the cruel discipline he maintained in his own sanjak, and the See also:regular flow of See also:tribute and bribes which he directed to Constantinople; while he See also:bent all his energies to extending his territories at the expense of his neighbours. The methods he adopted would have done See also:credit to Cesare See also:Borgia; they may be studied in detail in the lurid pages of Pouqueville. Soon, by one means or another, his power was supreme in all central Albania. Two See also:main barriers still obstructed the realization of his ambition,which now embraced See also:Greece and Thessaly, as well as Albania, and the See also:establishment in the Mediterranean of a See also:sea-power which should See also:rival that of the See also:dey of See also:Algiers. The first of these was the resistance of the little See also:Christian See also:hill community of Suli; the second the Venetian occupation of the See also:coast, within a mile of which—by See also:convention with the Porte—no Ottoman soldier might penetrate. It needed three several attacks before, in 1803, Ali conquered the Suliot stronghold.

Events in western See also:

Europe gave him an earlier opportunity of becoming See also:master of most of the coast towns. Ali had watched with See also:interest the career of See also:Bonaparte in See also:Italy, and the treaty of Campo Formio (1797), which blotted the Venetian See also:republic from the See also:map of Europe, gave him the opportunity he desired. In response to his advances commissaries of the See also:French republic visited him at Iannina and, affecting a sudden zeal for republican principles, he easily obtained permission to suppress the " aristocratic " tribes on the coast. His plans in Albania were interrupted by the war against Pasvan Oglu, the rebellious pasha of Widdin, in which Ali once more did See also:good service. Meanwhile See also:international politics had See also:developed in a way that necessitated a See also:change in Ali's attitude. See also:Napoleon's occupation of the Ionian Islands and his relations with Ali had alarmed Russia, which feared that French See also:influence would be substituted for her own in the See also:Balkan See also:peninsula; and on the 5th of See also:September 1998 a formal See also:alliance, to which See also:Great See also:Britain soon after acceded, was signed on behalf of the See also:emperor See also:Paul and the See also:sultan. Once more Ali turned Turk and fought against his See also:recent See also:friends with such success that in the end he remained in possession of See also:Butrinto, Prevesa and Vonitza on the coast, was created pasha " of three tails " by the sultan, and received the congratulations of See also:Nelson. But the See also:campaign of See also:Austerlitz followed, then the See also:peace of See also:Pressburg which guaranteed to Napoleon the former dominions of See also:Venice, and finally the treaty of See also:Tilsit, which involved, among other things, the withdrawal of the Russians from the Ionian Islands and the Albanian coast. Amid all the momentous changes the part of All was a difficult one. He had, moreover, to contend with domestic enemies, and with difficulty defeated a See also:league formed against him by some Mussulman tribes, under See also:Ibrahim of See also:Berat and Mustapha of Delvinon, and the Suliots. He knew, however, how to retain the confidence of the sultan, who not only confirmed him in the possession of the whole of Albania from See also:Epirus to See also:Montenegro, but even in 1799 appointed him vali of Rumelia, an office which he held just See also:long enough to enable him to return to Iannina laden with the spoils of Thessaly. He was now at the height of his power.

In 1803 the Suliot stronghold fell; and. he was undisputed master of Epirus, Albania and Thessaly, while the pashalik of the Morea was held by his son Veli, and that of See also:

Lepanto by his son Mukhtar. Only the little See also:town of See also:Parga held out against him on the coast; and in See also:order to obtain this he once more in 1807 entered into an alliance with Napoleon. The French emperor, however, preferred to keep Parga, as a convenient See also:gate into the Balkan peninsula, and it remained in French occupation until See also:March 1814, when the Pargiots See also:rose against the See also:garrison and handed the fortress over to the See also:British to See also:save it from falling into the hands of Ali, who had bought the town from the French See also:commander, Cozi Nikolo, and was closely investing it. The cordial relations between Napoleon and the pasha of Iannina had not long continued. All was angered by the refusal to surrender Parga and justly suspicious of the ambitions which this refusal implied; he could not feel himself secure with the Ionian Islands and the Dalmatian coast in the hands of a power whose plans in the See also:East were notorious, and he was glad enough to avail himself of Napoleon's reverses in 1812 to help to rid himself of so dangerous a neighbor. His services to the See also:allies received their See also:reward. Still bent on obtaining Parga, he sent a See also:special See also:mission to See also:London, backed by a See also:letter from See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Liston, the British See also:ambassador at Constantinople, calling the See also:attention of the government to the pasha's supereminent qualities " and his services against the French. After some hesitation it was decided to evacuate Parga and See also:hand it over to the Ottoman government, i.e. All Pasha. The convention by which this was effected was ultimately signed on the 17th of May 1817, being ratified by the sultan on the 24th of See also:April 1819. By its terms the Pargiots were to receive an See also:asylum in the islands, the Ottoman government undertaking to pay See also:compensation for their property. Ali had no difficulty in finding the See also:money; the garrison, as soon as it was received, marched out with the bulk of the inhabitants; and the last citadel of freedom in the Balkans fell to the See also:tyrant of Iannina.l Ali's authority in the great part of the peninsula subject to him now overshadowed that of the sultan; and Mahmud II., whose whole policy had been directed to destroying the overgrown power of the provincial pashas, began to seek a pretext for overthrowing the Lion of Iannina,whose all-devouring ambition seemed to threaten his own See also:throne.

The occasion came in 1820 when Ali, emboldened by impunity, violated the sanctity of Stamboul itself by attempting to procure the See also:

murder of his enemy Pacho Bey in the very precincts of the See also:palace. A See also:decree of disposition was now issued against the sacrilegious vali, who had dared " to See also:fire shots in Constantinople, the See also:residence of the See also:caliph, and the centre of See also:security." Its See also:execution was entrusted to Khurshid Pasha, with the bulk of the Ottoman forces. For two years Ali, now bver eighty years of See also:age, held his own, in spite of the defection of his vassals and even of his sons. At last, in the See also:spring of 1822, after a prolonged See also:siege in his See also:island fortress at Iannina, which even the outbreak of the See also:Greek revolt had not served to raise, the intrepid old man was forced to See also:sue for terms. He asked and received an interview with Khurshid, was received courteously and dismissed with the most friendly assurances. As he turned to leave the See also:grand See also:vizier's See also:tent he was stabbed in the back; his See also:head was cut off and sent to Constantinople. Notwithstanding their See also:treason to their father, his sons met with the same See also:fate. In spite of the ferocious characteristics which have been suggested in the above See also:sketch, Ali Pasha is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable, as he is one of the most picturesque, figures in See also:modern See also:history; and as such he was recognized in his own See also:day. His See also:court at Iannina was the centre of a sort of barbarous culture, in which astrologers, alchemists and Greek poets played their part, and was often visited by travellers. Amongst others, See also:Byron came, and has See also:left a See also:record of his impressions in " Childe Harold's See also:Pilgrimage," less interesting and vivid than the See also:prose accounts of Pouqueville, T. S. See also:Hughes and See also:William M.

See also:

Leake. Leake (iii. 2S9) reports a reproof addressed by Ali to the French renegade Ibrahim See also:Effendi, who had ventured to remonstrate against some particular See also:act of ferocity: " At See also:present you are too See also:young at my court to know how to comport yourself... . You are not yet acquainted with the Greeks and Albanians: when I hang up one of these wretches on the See also:plane-See also:tree, brother robs brother under the very branches: if I See also:burn one of them alive, the son is ready to steal his father's ashes to sell them for money. They are destined to be ruled by me; and no one but Ali is able to restrain their evil propensities." This is perhaps as good an See also:apology as could be made for his character and 1 In his See also:report on the Ionian Treaty presented to See also:Lord Castlereagh at the See also:congress of See also:Vienna in See also:December 1814, Sir See also:Richard See also:Church strongly advocated, not only the retention of Parga, but that Vonitza, Prevesa and Butrinto also should be taken from Ali Pasha and placed under British See also:protection, a measure he considered necessary for the safety of the Ionian Islands. " Ali Pasha," he wrote, " is now busy See also:building forts along his coast and strengthening his castles in the interior. In See also:January 1814 he had 14,000 peasants at See also:work on the See also:castle of Argiro See also:Castro, and about 15oo erecting a fort at See also:Porto See also:Palermo, nearly opposite See also:Corfu." In 1810 he had erected a fort directly opposite See also:Santa Maura commanding the See also:harbour. The fate of Parga created intense feeling at the time in See also:England, and was cited by Liberals as a crowning instance of the perfidy of the government and of Castlereagh's subservience to reactionary tendencies abroad. The step, however, was not lightly taken. In occupying the town the British See also:general had expressly refrained from pledging Great Britain to remain there; and the government held that any permanent occupation of a See also:post on the mainland carried with it risks of complications out of all proportion to any possible benefit. methods. To the wild See also:people over whom he ruled none was needed.

He had their respect, if not their love; he is the See also:

hero of a thousand See also:ballads; and his portrait still hangs among the ikons in the cottages of the Greek mountaineers. All accounts agree in describing him in later See also:life as a man of handsome presence, with a See also:venerable See also:white See also:beard, piercing See also:black eyes and a benevolent See also:cast of countenance, the effect of which was heightened in conversation by a See also:voice of singular sweetness.

End of Article: ALI

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