That these outsiders were drawn to Ali’s court was a testament to the perception of him as a ruler. At the height of his power around 1812, when he received most of his influential visitors, he ruled over an area with a population of 1.5 million, including Albania as far north as Durazzo (which he never took), Tirana and Elbassan, and southern Macedonia and Greece from Thessalonika southwards with the exception of Attica and the islands. It was this territorial clout, testing of the Sultan’s authority, that added fascination to the flamboyant tales about him, but Ali wanted to be taken seriously as a player on the international stage. With the European powers eager to seize any opportunity that would give them advantage in the Mediterranean, Greece ripe for revolt and the Sultan fearful of inroads into this vulnerable and difficult region, Ali was nicely placed. Though Ali Pasha of Ioannina was no petty warlord only of interest to the outside world through the entertaining romance of his lifestyle, the rapid growth of his legend would soon obscure the hard realpolitik of his life.
Fig. 21: The region around Tepelene.
This storytelling and myth-making was so pervasive that even the date of Ali Pasha’s birth remains obscure. Pouqueville and Ibrahim Manzur give it as 1740 (the date followed by most early biographies) whereas other sources, including diplomatic correspondence, give it as late as 1752, with a number of dates occurring in between. Hughes favours around 1750, saying Ali was reluctant to talk about his date of birth, always affecting to be younger than he really was. His place of birth is more certain: Beçisht, a hamlet high on a mountain slope on the opposite bank of the River Vjosë to Tepelene, close by a Tekke or convent for dervishes. Tepelene was then a small town lying in the shadow of Mt Trebushín, surrounded by vineyards, which according to Leake produced ‘a poor red wine’, and on the higher land, wheat and barley, while ‘kalambókki’1 were grown on the banks of the river. The local agas2 enjoyed a degree of independence, but despite some municipal organization there was little communal harmony and a general lack of social order. Frequent quarrels broke out, requiring its wealthy landed proprietors to live in a cluster of fortified houses. In Leake’s opinion it was a mere ‘village’ consisting of ‘not more than eighty or ninety Musulman families, with a small detached suburb of Christians’ and of ‘no great embellishment to the scene’.
Ali’s lineage is as hazy as his birth. It is generally agreed that his forebears were Christians who embraced Islam, but when is uncertain. Finlay says that to Osmanlis (Ottoman Turks) and strangers he claimed he was descended from a Turk from Brusa3 who had received a grant of land or revenue (ziamet) in compensation for services rendered, probably military, from Sultan Bayazid I (1389–1402) and his family converted not long after. Such claims were common practice, a way of claiming legitimacy to landholdings by incumbent beys4 who attested they had received their sanjaks or fiefdoms as rewards, rather than the more likely case that their conversion was merely a matter of expediency. Ali’s biographer, Ahmet Moufit, great-grandson of his sister, Shainitza (Siachnisa), produces an alternative earliest known ancestor, Nazif, a Mevlevi dervish5 from Kütahya in western Asia Minor who settled in Tepelene in the early 1600s. An unlikely later date for conversion has been put at 1716, when Ali’s paternal grandfather, Mukhtar Bey, took part in the siege of Corfu during the seventh Ottoman-Venetian War (1714–18). Mukhtar’s father already had a Muslim name, Mustafa Yussuf. Mustafa, or Mutza (Moutzo) Housso from the region of Argyrocastro twenty-five miles to the south of Tepelene, had achieved enough fame as a brigand, warrior and clan chief to receive the accolade of being remembered in a folk ballad, and the clan took the name Moutzohoussates after him. He then gained respectability by obtaining the title of bey and possibly official recognition as deputy governor of Tepelene, a sub-district of the sanjak of Avlona.
Mukhtar continued in his father’s footsteps, treading the well-worn fine line between loyal subject and outlaw, fighting both for and against the Turks; it was during a loyal moment that he lost his life fighting for the Sultan. The Venetians were losing the war in the Morea but under the inspired leadership of their German commander at Corfu, Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, they were holding the Ionian Islands. If Muktar did convert to Islam at this moment it did not protect him. Praised for his bravery, he also earned himself the title ‘martyr of the faith’ in Turkish sources. Whether Mukhtar gave his life for Allah or not, Ali’s religious leanings would be a matter of continued debate. His laxness in religious observance and tolerance in dealing with his Christian subjects was, paradoxically, seen as a stick to beat him with by Western observers. Leake has a general dig at Islam through Ali with a comment on the lacklustre adherence of the Albanian Muslims to ritual and doctrine. In contrast the Orthodox Christians were seen as lost in rounds of pointless fasting and primitive superstition. Ali’s faith may not have been fervent (he was happy to partake in drinking wine), but he kept alive his ancestral connection to the Mevlevi and Bektashi orders of dervishes. If this was a tactic it was astute, the dervishes were popular amongst the Albanians, the janissaries and within the Imperial Court.
The Bektashi Order took a more liberal approach to Islam, which Leake thought suited Ali. He made endowments to tekkes and for visiting dervishes whom he made particularly welcome at Ioannina. Ali’s adherence to Bektashism is further borne out by the image of the zulfiqar on his personal banner. This device was the legendary scissor-like cleft sword given by Muhammad to his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph. This warrior caliph became particularly revered by Shia and Sufi Muslims and Ali Pasha’s seal also bore the inscription in Persian ‘let there be hope for Ali-Asker’, another reference to him. Wandering holy men, usually Bektashis, were said to be gifted with the ability to tell the future and Manzour states that in later life Ali kept a Persian mystic, Cheik Ali, at court to whom he became devoted. His dabbling in Sufism may have been criticized as naive but as with much in his life, expediency was seen his uppermost concern. Manzour tells of a strange instance in 1818 when Ali coerced or persuaded a whole Christian village within his home region to convert to Islam. The likelihood is that this was in some way a mutually acceptable arrangement whereby the village avoided the haraç or capitation tax that non-Muslims were forced to pay and Ali would have gained some loyal followers from the boys taken to Ioannina to be educated within prominent Muslim families. Such actions would enhance his reputation within Muslim circles and the Turkish sources play up his actions as a defender of Islam in his fight against the Suliotes, but he was not particularly anti-Christian or self-consciously Muslim. When Ali came to wield power, he showed no favouritism to either community, being equally harsh to both.
If religion was of secondary importance, brigandage plays a central role in Ali’s story, but it was not a way of life unique to the Balkans. The Scottish borders had supplied the difficult terrain for the cross-border activities of the reivers up until the seventeenth century, and similarly Italy was renowned for its banditi who exploited the borders between the rival states, but in Greece, and Albania in particular, brigandage had become endemic. The harsh landscape afforded little profit from maintaining flocks, but gave ample opportunity and security for raiding one’s neighbours. In such a landscape, the methods of the brigands where akin to those used by irregular or partisan soldiers. Raids, ambush, pillage and plunder, the capture and ransom of prisoners and extortion, were tactics that could prove useful under different circumstances. Tribal chiefs maintained their own locally recruited fighting bands through the success of such enterprises. Hughes observed that fighters could disband at a moment’s notice if they felt like it, so a steady supply of booty was essential to maintain loyalty. Becoming a bey was, as in Mukhtar’s case, the recognition of the hereditary leadership of a tribe or clan and its fighters. On his death, some of his followers and his title went to Ali’s father, Veli Bey, who, as a testament to the state of constant instability that prevailed, then had to ruthlessly impose his own authority as clan leader. Despite contradictory accounts, it is c
lear that rivalry had broken out between Veli and his cousin Islam Bey over the division of the inheritance which included exacting feudal control over a number of wealthy and well-manned Albanian Christian villages.
Fig. 22: Wandering Bektashi dervish (1809, anon).
According to the Greek Chronicle of Epirus (1864) and Turkish archive sources it was Islam that achieved initial success. As was customary by this time, de facto assumption of power was officially recognized retrospectively by the Porte and he was given the title of pasha of the two tails and made governor of the sanjak of Delvino, only to be dismissed after proving inefficient and unpopular, handing Veli his opportunity. In the summer of 1759, Veli attacked, murdering his cousin and destroying his residence. According to Hobhouse, as Veli was the third son he could only claim his inheritance in Tepelene by force, so he attacked the town with his klephts and burned his brothers alive. Three years later it was Veli’s turn to be acknowledged by the Porte. He was given the title of mir-i-miran, bey of beys, and promoted to pasha of the two tails and mutasarrif (a governor directly appointed by the Porte) of Delvino, and probably holding the sanjak of Avlona as well. Hughes interestingly puts Veli’s appointment down to his good relations with the Greeks and the intercession on his behalf by the influential Greeks of the Phanar district of Constantinople. But he was another who did not enjoy his success for long; his actions also made enemies and he was driven out of Tepelene and died soon after. Finlay, perhaps citing a more colourful account, has Veli murdered by his rival chiefs after he had poisoned his two elder brothers to take over the position as local governor. The use of poison is a recurring theme in the disposal of rivals and it was even said he accidentally poisoned himself. However he died, he died young, and when Ali was something between 10 and 15 years old.
It is disputed as to whether Ali’s forebears ever achieved the status of pasha. Ismail Kemal Bey, Albanian nationalist and founder of independent Albania, claims in his memoirs (1920) that Ali came from an obscure family, whereas in the opinion of Denis Skiotis, Ali was born into the highest rank of Muslim Albanian society. Contrary to the picture painted of him as being a barely educated ruffian he was given a formal schooling in Islam and the art of government. Pouqueville quotes Jerome de la Lance, an Italian doctor who sought refuge at Ali’s court, as saying he was a poor pupil who preferred outdoor activities with musket or sabre and Sir William Eton, a resident authority on matters Ottoman, claimed he had no Turkish. That he learnt both Turkish and Greek as corroborated by Leake is the more likely reality. The scribes at Ali’s court were to use Turkish to write to central government, and Greek to communicate with the local populace. Ali may well have been, as the Greek primate of Argyrocastro told the Habsburg court, the descendant of the noblest family across the region, but by the time he succeeded his father, his rivals had already stripped the family of much of its land and wealth. Less flatteringly Peter Oluf Brønsted described Veli as a pasha of ‘the third rank’ who left Ali little finance or influence. But he did at least leave two wives and three children, two boys and a girl. Their exact relationships are again obscure.
Ali’s life was thrown into turmoil following his father’s death. His mother, Esmihan Hanim, showing commendable grit, was forced to take control of his father’s band to retain their position. Her ruthless spirit was seen as unnatural by commentators and she was demonized in contemporary accounts in consequence. That such decisive action may have been necessary was marred by the detail that she was said to have ruthlessly poisoned Ali’s rival half-brother and his mother to ensure Ali’s inheritance. Esmihan, or Hamko in Albanian, was without question a doughty woman. Her lack of femininity was further compromised by her willingness to throw off the veil and fearlessly lead her followers into battle. Hamko’s ‘tigerish’ behaviour was thought by Ali’s biographers to be a source of his own streak of cruelty and his great respect for her was perceived as weakness. Ali said she had made him ‘a man and a Vizier’, and given his youth and the adversity of his fatherless situation he must have relied on her strength and guidance. Ali had to adapt quickly to revive the fortunes of his clan, and this could not be achieved by force alone. Hamko, who was the daughter of the Bey of Konitsa,6 was shrewd enough to arrange a political marriage between her son and Ümmügülsüm (Um Giulsum Hanum), usually rendered as Emine, the daughter of the powerful Kaplan Pasha of Argyrocastro. Argyrocastro was then the seat of the sanjak of Delvino and Kaplan had succeeded Ali’s father, Veli, as mutassarif. Emine would be the mother of two of Ali’s sons, Mukhtar and Veli; their younger brother Selim would be born much later, in 1802, to a slave. The date of Ali’s marriage is uncertain, and to a degree is influenced by his date of birth; it has been put between 1764 and the early 1770s. Part of the problem is whether Ali’s father-in-law was alive to see his daughter married. Kaplan Pasha fell foul of the Porte authorities for the usual charges of corruption, murdering rivals and stealing tax revenue and he was beheaded at Monastir in 1766. It was suggested that Ali was in some way responsible for having Kaplan being brought to book for treason, but if the later date for Ali’s birth is accepted and the lack of evidence, it is more likely Kaplan was dead already.
Attempting a coherent chronology for the next twenty years of Ali’s life has been ignored by or vexed his biographers for the reasons Hughes observed, and in consequence this mysterious period supplied much of the material for the romance that fed into the myth. It was a time of almost constant warfare, and the tales recount how Ali fought by whatever means, whether as feudal bey or bandit chief, to regain his birthright at Tepelene. To begin with, Ali and Hamko strove to reinstate the Moutzohoussates by eliminating all opposition, including challenges to the clan leadership. There was obviously little room for sentiment as his stepbrothers were summarily dispatched and the family feud with Islam Pasha concluded by the murder of his widow and children. Any increase in their power had to be at the expense of their neighbours, a course certain to create enemies, and their rivals were not prepared to be easily subjugated; they had plans of their own. The surrounding towns and villages formed a confederacy against Ali and Hamko and they were forced out of Tepelene. At some point, as the story goes, Hamko was ambushed and beaten by bands from the villages of Hormovo and Gardiki near Tepelene. Although the villagers were Christians and Muslims respectively, the two communities were allies. Hamko and Ali’s sister, Shainitza, were imprisoned and gravely humiliated, most probably sexually assaulted, although the accounts are euphemistic on this point, an incident made much of in all the versions. According to Hughes they were ransomed after a month, perhaps by a Greek merchant, but Hamko is also more heroically said to have escaped. Whatever the details the event was traumatic enough for Hamko to want severe retribution and her ordeal instilled in Ali a merciless desire for revenge that would fester for many years. From how he satiated his lust on Gardiki, Ali gained his reputation for never forgetting a grudge and being willing to wait however long until he could find a way to pay it back with disproportionate cruelty.
His mother’s abduction must have been when Ali was at his weakest ebb and helpless to act. This low point, with Ali resorting to a life of itinerant banditry in the mountains, has been given as the time of his capture by Ahmed Kurt Pasha of Berat. When this happened is uncertain. Pouqueville puts it as early as 1764, too early if Ali was born in the 1750s. The confusion is further muddied by the exact status of Kurt at the time. Kurt was a member of the Mutzaka family, a noble family from Avlona. He did not become the first pasha of Berat and dervendji-pasha (guardian of the passes) until 1774, after previously attaining the position of sanjakbey (administrative and military governor) of Delvino (1771) and Avlona (1772). Berat was the administrative centre of the sanjak of Avlona and the pashalik of Berat was created as a reward for his service to the Porte against the troublesome Mehmed Pasha Bushati of Scutari on the northern border of Albania. This has led to the theory that Ali was taken by Kurt twice, or at least definitely in 1775 when it is known that he was in Kurt’s
service. One reason proposed for the hostility of Ali towards Kurt was the latter’s rejection of his proposal to marry Kurt’s daughter, Miriem. Miriem was handed in marriage instead to the more established Ibrahim Bey of Avlona in 1765, forming a useful alliance between the two families. Ibrahim went on to become pasha of Avlona and Berat, and the rivalry with Ali would continue until his death. Hughes hints that Ali’s reputation as a robber disrupting the passage of merchants and caravans was such that the government was required to take steps, authorizing Kurt as dervendji-pasha to apprehend him. Between the possible dates of his capture Venetian dispatches give what may be the first tantalizing documented reference to Ali.
War had broken out between Russia and Turkey in 1768 and the Suliotes, along with other inhabitants of Epirus, had responded in support of Russia, encouraged by Catherine the Great’s Orlov rising in the Morea, which gave hope for a widespread revolt against the Empire. Despite the Venetians’ difficulties with Albanian names, Skiotis suggests the records show that Ali and his cousin Islam Bey of Klisura, between Tepelene and Berat, were part of a force of 9,000 Muslim Albanians under Suleyman Tsaparis, Aga of Margariti, that took on the Christian Suliotes in 1772. The Suliotes had been raiding the villages of the local agas, depriving them of income. Further, they were supported financially and with provisions by the Venetians, who found them useful allies in their endeavours to protect their territories at Preveza and Parga. Margariti borders the Suli Mountains to the west, so in addition the powerful Tsapari family had ambitions of gaining influence over the maritime trade of Thesprotia and Acarnania as well as controlling the villages of the plain. Many previous attempts to subdue Suli had failed, the most recent in 1759 and 1762, and this effort fared no better. Suleyman attacked Preveza as part of the same campaign with no result. Ali and Islam may also have been involved in a threat against Ioannina and Arta the following year. If we take the second date as the date of Ali’s capture then Ali’s involvement in these military offensives show that he had already achieved some kind of status as a warrior. When Kurt had another go at Suli in 1775, which achieved no more than the previous attempts, Ali could well have been called into action against the Suliotes once more in his service. Ali’s first unequivocally documented action took place the following year when Kurt was once more at war with Mehmed Pasha Bushati. Now recognized as a force in his own right, Kurt had been entrusted by the Porte with the exploitation of Albanian lands belonging to the Sultan’s sister, lands previously held by Mehmed. Mehmed was understandably not pleased with the alteration in the balance of power and resorted to force. In the subsequent engagements around Kavaje and Tirana, Ali and Islam distinguished themselves, turning the tide of battle. Things turned sour when Ali and Kurt fell out over the division of the spoils and Ali resumed his itinerant lifestyle, but with his reputation as a palikar, or warrior, greatly enhanced.
Ali Pasha, Lion of Ioannina Page 9
