Fig. 21: The region around Tepelene.
In his Travels, Thomas Smart Hughes summarized the problems of attempting a coherent biography of Ali Pasha:
The earlier parts of this wild romantic history never can be very accurately and authentically described, since they rest almost entirely upon oral traditions, or accounts which have been compiled from those traditions after a long intervening time: and though I have perused probably fifty of such records, yet I never met with two that agreed with each other, either in the relation of facts or the development of motives.
Hughes was astute enough to acknowledge the difficulty of making sense of a mass of exaggerated and half-remembered tales without external evidence, but this did not deter many of his contemporaries. The wider range of sources available today, including official archives, has provided alternative scenarios and some firmer background detail to set against the traditional accounts. Modern scholarship has accessed Venetian and Ottoman records that help in hazarding a chronological reconstruction of Ali’s life and the workings of his court. The inability of the early biographers to disentangle fact from fiction and their reliance on the sensational and the lurid may have diminished their value, but they did have the advantage of meeting Ali in person, so their first-hand experience cannot be dismissed out of hand.
Ali’s life was certainly one of extremes. He had lived on the edge, yet could be beguiling and full of good humour in person during his latter years. His guests were as much enthralled by the fairytale nature of his court and the frisson of being in the presence of a capricious despot as by his exhibitions of cruelty. A dreamlike quality appears to hang over Ali and his court, even when reality burst through with a jolt, and it was easy to fall back on the melodramatic stereotype; the tyrant flaunting his power and wealth, made the more intriguing by his colourful rise from barbaric obscurity to bandit king. Despite their air of studied objectivity, his Western observers could not help but be seduced into fitting him into an already accepted mould, unable to rationalize his contrary nature. That he was a wily old fox they all agreed but were apparently naive enough not to imagine that Ali might be manipulating his image for his own ends. The philhellenic Pouqueville was no admirer and happy to emphasize Ali’s misdemeanours for his audience, others may have been more cautious but the stories were too good and the Oriental veneer too enticing to be completely let go.
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.
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 clear 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).
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.
The relationship between Ali and Kurt Pasha is complex and confused. Leake suggests a family tie between Kurt and Ali’s mother. As a result it has been claimed that Kurt provided security for Hamko and that Ali, when he was captured by an injured neighbour, was only saved from death through Kurt’s intervention. Finlay and others make much of this supposed relationship, suggesting that Kurt may have been his uncle, or even, in Holland’s account, that Hamko was Kurt’s daughter. Depending on how close the relationship was this would impact on the motives of the parties, but it seems from the Turkish sources, Ali was not under Kurt’s protection nor did he owe his advancement to him, in fact the opposite. The version of events Ali himself preferred are those told in the Alipashiad, where Kurt is cast as the villain of the piece, being Ali’s adversary during his early years, akin to the rivalry of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood. Ali’s capture was by deception when he came to Berat in a show of feudal fealty, and once he manages to escape Kurt’s clutches, Kurt organizes the tribes and villages against him. It must have suited Ali’s purpose to promote his youthful rise as a heroic battle against the devious and powerful pasha of Berat. In the Alipashiad Ali succeeds at the death of Kurt, but fortunes were reversed in reality during a slow war of attrition. In 1778, Kurt’s first setback was when he was disgraced and dismissed from his position due to the intrigues of Mehmed ‘Kalo’ Pasha of Ioannina, who took over the sanjak of Avlona. The guardianship of the passes then went to a Turk from Thessaly, Catalcali Haci Ali Pasha. As a newcomer to the region and held in contempt by the Albanian palikars, the Turkish Pasha turned to the young Ali Bey for help, appointing him as his deputy with the task of asserting order over the unruly brigands while he remained in comfort and security at home in his fortress in faraway Chalkis on the Island of Euboea.
Around this time local tradition has it that Ali met with Saint Kosmas who is remembered for his gift of prophesy. Kosmas was on a mission to counter conversion to Islam amongst Christian villagers. Travelling through Epirus establishing schools and preaching he made a prophecy that one day Ali would become great. Perhaps he saw in Ali the mixture of personal charisma and courage mixed with ruthless determination and cunning that must have kept him going in adversity. Ali could only have induced men to follow him if he had these qualities and the ability to ensure that he could reward their services. Finlay acknowledged he was ‘brave and active, restless in mind and body’ but what may have been a Machiavellian aptitude for seizing opportunities, in the circumstances a must if he was to be successful, he condemns as a lack ‘of all moral and religious feeling’ and a willingness to exploit clan, ethnic and religious rivalries to suit his purpose. For Westerners such opinions were coloured by their attitude to the East. Ali was the embodiment of many of the less desirable Oriental traits that they found in the Albanians, and even the Greeks, where mendacity and double-dealing were second nature and cunning the height of human achievement. In a culture that believed truth was to be avoided and morality was a weakness to be exploited, Ali could proudly proclaim he could deceive anybody and nobody could outwit him. By the time he was holding court for foreigners he had become a puzzle, full of contradictions and quixotic moods, the qualities of his youth perhaps twisted with age and the need to hold on to power. His displays of good humour, which made him popular amongst his companions, and his affection for his family and loyalty to his friends, would have been vital in his rise, but later shows of affection and tolerance were interpreted as danger signals that he was plotting something. In hindsight, Finlay summed him up as audacious, wary, affectionate and cruel, tolerant and tyrannical, his potential for brilliance undermined by his passions and greed, which limited his vision, with men ultimately serving him as an act of self-preservation. This was in the future, but that there was some connection between Ali and Saint Kosmas is borne out by the church Ali built in his honour in Kolkondas in Albania, within the jurisdiction of Kurt Pasha. Kosmas had fallen foul of both the Venetians and the Turks and even aroused the suspicion of Greek village elders and it was here that he was executed in 1779. Accused of being a Russian agent he was hung without formal charges. Forever ambiguous, Ali’s veneration of Kosmas was not appreciated by some of his fellow Muslims.
Catalcali Haci gave Ali a free hand as his deputy, Ali’s first recognition by the Ottoman state. Although the control of the passes would put him at direct odds with Kurt, it gave Ali great power with authority over much of Rumeli. First he eliminated the military and civil officials appointed by Kurt, replacing them with his own men drawn on merit and with no regard to religion or ethnic group; the only stipulation was their avowal of personal undying loyalty to Ali. As a counter to Finlay, this could be seen as a form of equal opportunities. To be successful he also needed the cooperation of the paramilitaries, both Albanian and Greek, but there was little love lost between the two. Using his new position he was able to build up a network of contacts amongst the leaders of the Albanian bands and the captains of the armatoli. Those Albanian fighters unwilling to bend to his authority he relocated (in contravention of Ottoman policy and for a fee) to the Morea where they could continue their occupation of plunder unmolested, giving the Greek armatoli a welcome respite. Success also depended on wealth. Without restriction by a superior authority he now had the safety to operate both legitimate and illegitimate protection rackets giving him the resources to recruit mercenaries and put money aside for bribes for when the need might arise.
One of Ali’s enemies and a source of information on Ali for the Sultan, Demetrius Palaiopoulos, the primate of Karpenisi in the southern Pindus Mountains, summed up the situation of his rise to power in a letter to the Porte in 1810 saying that Ali established peace and order by keeping his ulterior motives hidden under a cloak of wheedling cajolery in his dealings with the local officials. Typical of such underhand methods were his dealings with the people of Missolonghi. In order to collect a debt owed by a sea captain, Michaeles Avronites, first he arrived in the town with his Albanians in a show of force. Avronites was from Cephalonia and therefore a Venetian subject and when, conveniently for him, he could not be found, Ali seized some other Venetian subjects, including the consul, Barozzi, who made the mistake of protesting. To obtain the release of the prisoners, the leading men of Missolonghi declared that they would honour the debt themselves after a thirty-day period. Ali freed the prisoners, but only after he sequestered 500 barrels of merchandise bound for the Ionian Islands as a guarantee. Despite the further protests of Barozzi, the mayor and Ali’s superior, Catalcali Haci, the good men of Missolonghi never saw their goods again. After years of intimidation the docile inhabitants of Epirus were faced with the unenviable choice of an officially recognized tyranny or indiscriminate violent anarchy; it was easier to accept the former. Initially Ali only held the post for five months, but it was a turning point. He had managed to impose unity and order, a systematic and heavy tax regime, concentrated and centralized power and amassed an enormous sum of money in a short space of time.
In 1779 Kurt was back, having used the well-tested methods of intrigue and bribery at the Porte. Ali’s good use of his own time during Kurt’s sabbatical meant he was not intimidated but in a position to wage a counteroffensive. Ali’s best way to expose Kurt’s lack of authority was by mounting a challenge to pressurize the Porte into accepting him back on the basis that he had the more established powerbase. As a show of force Ali took an army of 2,000 to 3,000 Albanians on a march through Thessaly, dispersing them on the way to intimidate the towns and villages and extract money as they went. At Trikkala he led his own detachment of 300 disciplined and well-turned out, well-ordered troops, including cavalry, into the near deserted town; many of the inhabitants had fled in advance, and the rest locked themselves away. It was in his interest that discipline was maintained so he proceeded to billet his troops without harm, showing the people that he could be trusted to keep the peace. Once the correct amount of protection money had been received, Ali and his men left the town in peace. The Swedish scholar and collector of Islamic and Biblical manuscripts, Jakob Jonas Björnståhl, who was journeying to the Holy Land, witnessed the incident. Björnståhl is the first Westerner to give an account of Ali. The Ali Bey, the ‘young but powerful man’ at the head of the column who carried great respect amongst the Albanians and ‘possessed great riches’, can be identified by his banner with the zulfiqar emblazoned on it as the future Ali Pasha. Björnståhl did not reach his destination but died shortly after in Thessalonika.
When Ali reached Farsala, home of Catalcali Haci, together they set in motion a plan to dispose of Kurt Pasha. First Ali would take the district of Karli-Eli (Acarnania), the western region, and north of the Gulf of Corinth. His soldiers there had already paid another visit to Missolonghi and relieved its citizens of some more tribute. Ali followed with 4,000 men and occupied Vrachori (Agrinion) the regional capital, where he linked up with Albanians returning from their ravaging of the Morea. Kurt responded by moving his troops south into Epirus, calling for loyalty from the armatoli and putting pressure on the Venetians to withhold their ships from Ali, restricting any approach by sea. The situation had become so serious the Porte was impelled to intervene. Their admiral and general Kapudan Pasha Cezayirli Gazi Hasan, who had come out with honour from the defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Chesme, had already been despatched to suppress the Albanian irregulars causing havoc in the Morea in the aftermath of the Orlov Revolt. He was now ordered to divert through Macedonia and Thessaly to re-establish order there. Calling on the help of the local Turks, the armatoli and the Greeks peasants, who were allowed to arm themselves, he tried to drive out the Albanians, but without the success he achieved later in the Morea. There Hasan Pasha was significantly helped by local Greek contingents. Typical of the shifting loyalties of the time a veteran of the Orlov Revolt, Konstantinos Kolokotronis, made the mistake of leading his klephts in support of Hasan against the marauding Albanian irregulars. Part of a force of 3,000 under Hasan, he took part in the ‘Massacre of the Albanians’ when 12,000 Albanians were slaughtered. Once the Albanians were destroyed Hasan then turned on Kolokotronis, and after a struggle had him captured and killed. Konstantinos’ son Theodore Kolokotronis would become the hero of the Greek War of Independence. Despite Hasan’s efforts peace was only temporarily restored and after a while the Albanians continued to pour into the Morea.
The presence of the redoubtable Hasan persuaded Ali it was prudent to return to Tepelene. Ali was clever enough only to engage in military action when he thought it would be to his advantage. There was no point in taking on a high-ranking Ottoman commander when he was actively trying to negotiate a position within the Ottoman administration. Back in Tepelene he set about restoring his family’s position and power base there. This proved a good move. When he learnt that his suit at the Porte had failed, he was in a position to call up his traditional tribal and feudal allies and turn on Kurt’s nearby garrisons in force, proceeding to ravage the mountain districts between Tepelene and the outskirts of Ioannina for the next two years. Kurt Pasha had no desire to tackle Ali head-on but the Porte, who wanted Ali’s disruption dealt with, forced his hand. Even though Kurt could muster a superior force of 10,000 men, including 100 cavalry, he could not defeat Ali in battle in the mountain passes, so he resorted to laying siege to Tepelene. For a moment Ali was on the back foot. Shortages of food and the lack of plunder, the sustenance of the palikars, whose loyalty depended on the amount of booty a leader could provide, meant that the expedient tactic was to slip through the blockade without resorting to open battle. That Ali was on the loose caused alarm throughout Greece, so much so that the Venetians, who were now referring to him as the ‘famous Ali Bey’ of Tepelene, and the Russians were alerted. The Albanians were hoping Ali would be their champion and heap revenge on their adversaries after their mauling under Hasan Pasha, so when Kurt Pasha was informed that Ali was making for Butrint, he too thought he was making for the Morea with that intention. Kurt sent a force of 6,000 to the Bay of Arta, distributing sums of money amongst the local chieftains as they went, to cut Ali off from his route south and trap him against the sea. Ali wasted no time in mustering the support of his allies, Islam Bey of Klisura, Hasan Tsaparis, son of Suleyman and Aga of Margariti, and Demoglou of Konispoli, on the coast south of Butrint. His friends kept the local forces of the pasha of Delvino busy skirmishing while Ali slipped further south towards Arta and Preveza. Ali’s manoeuvres alerted the Venetians and caused such a panic the pashas of Trikkala and Eubeoa were asked to send their armies to Kurt Pasha’s aid. But Kurt had misread Ali’s intentions. With his 6,000 men tied down protecting the coast, Ali changed direction and headed for Ioannina, taking and fortifying important villages on the way.
Kurt’s troops under his son-in-law, Ibrahim Bey, were unable to dislodge Ali and a stalemate ensued. After failing to engage Ibrahim in a decisive encounter Ali again retreated to the safety of Tepelene. Kurt tried to impress the Porte by sending a number of severed heads as proof of Ali’s demise, but order had not been restored and the unrest continued. Although Ali had not been able to defeat Kurt’s forces outright, each step enhanced his prestige. Once more he had been able to defy Kurt and undermine his authority, moving and raiding at will and collecting considerable booty in the process. The Venetians too had taken notice and were ready to open up relations in order to use him as a counterweight for their own protection. The pasha of Delvino, Mustafa Kokka, had become a particular thorn in their side, threatening territory that they laid claim to near Butrint and Ali had become such an important player that he could be used to influence the Porte in who was appointed governor of the town. In 1783, acting on his own authority and risking the accusation of treason, Ali sent a formal deputation of friendship to the Provvedentore de Mar at Corfu. In return for offering to help the Venetians in their objectives, Ali, who expected any day to receive the title of pasha of two tails, asked them to intercede on his behalf at the Porte to speed up the process. The Venetians kept their side of the bargain, describing Ali in flattering terms, while he caused trouble for Mustafa Kokka to emphasize his military weakness. Furthermore the Porte had the problem of backpay still owed to the Albanians who had put down the Greek revolt in the Morea during 1769–70, which had reached astronomical sums. Ali’s satisfactory solution of the Butrint problem that had soured Turkish-Venetian relations for some time and his high prestige among the Albanian fighters underlined that he was now the de facto force in the region and it was time to bypass Kurt Pasha and Mehmed’s rebellious son Kara Mahmud Pasha Bushati of Scutari. In 1784 Ali was made mir-i-miran on the condition that he led 1,000 troops on campaign, possibly as part of the response to the Russian annexation of the Crimea. He was then promoted to pasha and made governor of Delvino for over a year.
Fig. 23: Albanian palikars in pursuit of an enemy (1820) by Charles Robert Cockerell.
After a twenty-year struggle leading his Albanian followers on campaigns of widespread pillaging and extortion, Ali had demonstrated that he was more than a match for any of the government forces sent against him. His policy of exploiting small hostilities, personal vendettas and family feuds, in preference to open warfare, ate away at his competitors’ authority until he achieved his aim of re-establishing his family. Having been accepted into the Ottoman elite, it appears he did not keep his promise to the Porte to go on campaign. This may have been because the Crimean crisis had been put to one side, but whatever the reason; instead he diverted his might against the inhabitants of Hormovo. Hughes attributes this move to part of a general imposition of his will on the towns and villages around Argyrocastro, his ultimate goal, which he hoped to take by exploiting internal divisions. He did not achieve that aim but his smaller targets fell to him. Hormovo had shown friendship to Argyrocastro in the past so it was an opportune moment to play out his grudge against them for the part they had played in the humiliation of his mother and sister and he came down on them without mercy for their persistent resistance to their feudal master. A further justification is hinted at by Leake who tells of their reputation for terrorizing the Pass of Tepelene by waylaying and robbing travellers; now the roles were reversed with Ali the law-enforcer. According to Hughes he had made approaches to the town under the pretence of friendship and to seal an alliance, but when it came to ratifying their agreement, instead of appearing with a few hundred followers he let loose over 1,000 men who razed the village to the ground. The men were killed, the women and children sold into slavery, and the headman, Cavus Prift, roasted alive on a spit over an open fire; or in the words of the Alipashiad, he ‘became a kebab in the frying pan’. It was obviously something Ali was not ashamed of. The ferocity of his actions had the desired effect of frightening the neighbouring villages into submission and gaining him the governorship of Ioannina soon after.
The semi-autonomous coastal enclave of Himara had long been a source of trouble. They were steadfast old allies of the Suliotes and both sought refuge in each other’s territories. With their close links to Italy, the Himariotes had a long history of resisting Ottoman occupation and professional soldiering, their young men finding employment in the rival armies of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples. The Venetians had their own Reggimento Cimarrioto which they had deployed in their wars in the Morea and used to garrison their Ionian possessions but with their decline the Himariotes were used on a more irregular basis. Good relations with Venice who controlled the straits was vital to their shipping and a boost to their income in times of privation and their collaboration had helped the Venetians maintain forts along the coast. The Russians too recruited sailors for their navy from the area and like the Suliotes, the Himariotes had supported the Russians in the failed Orlov Revolt. The Porte saw Himara as a weak link in its defences and, as nominal subjects of the Sultan, owing taxes and military service, their actions were highly questionable. As governor of Delvino, Ali could claim jurisdiction and in 1785 he moved against them. Rather than the open conflict with the Porte pursued by his rival pasha in Scutari who was courting the Austrians, Ali could subdue the Himariotes on behalf of the Sultan, strike a blow against Venice and consolidate his own power at the same time. Despite little assistance from their friends Russia and Venice, they even approached Austria for help, Himara held out. Ali had other matters on his mind.
His first attempt to rule in Ioannina had been a failure. He had made enemies of both the Greeks and the Turks and protestations were sent to the Porte. After his refusal to give up the post, he was ousted in favour of a resurgent Kurt Pasha. Before he could make any attempt to retake Ioannina, he was then called on to fulfil his duties to the Sultan. The alternative expansionist policies of Kara Mahmud Pasha of Scutari were trying the patience of the Porte. While Ali had been busy in Himara, Kara had been invading Montenegro in the hope of creating an independent state with the blessing of Austria and Russia. During the following campaign Ali may have acquitted himself well, but the general outcome was not a great success. The Alipashiad credits Ali with capturing the important town of Ochrid in Macedonia, taking 2,000 prisoners and sending 1,000 heads to Constantinople, much to the pleasure of the Sultan. Despite the poem’s attempt to make Ali the hero of the hour who brings Mahmud to heel, Mahmud had managed to sow discord amongst his enemies, including defections from Ali’s Albanians, forcing an accommodation with the Porte. There is a suggestion that these defections were due to a lack of commitment on Ali’s part, but he showed enough loyalty to the Sultan against his insurrectionist rivals to enhance his position within the Porte. From the government’s point of view at least it was useful to pit overreaching regional leaders against one another in the hope that they would be mutually weakened.
Ali was soon called away again to support the Turkish war effort led by the Grand Vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha after resumption of hostilities along the Danube. It was during this war with Russia and Austria (1787–1791) that he is said to have entered into secret correspondence with Prince Potemkin, by this time the ex-lover of Catherine the Great, promising his allegiance to Russia if Turkey lost the war. The story is that his favourite nephew Mahmud was taken prisoner by the Russians and during the negotiations for his release, Ali and Potemkin discussed matters to their mutual advantage. Ali was fully aware of Catherine’s intentions regarding Greece and the revival of the Byzantine Empire. Under Potemkin’s influence the first step was the creation of a new independent Orthodox princedom of ‘Dacia’ from the Ottomans’ Danubian provinces with Potemkin as Prince. They exchanged gifts, and a regular correspondence between them was commenced, from which Ali entertained strong hopes of being acknowledged sovereign of Epirus once his friend had taken Constantinople and installed Catherine’s grandson Constantine as Emperor. Richard Davenport claimed in his Life of Ali Pasha (1836) to have seen a watch ‘set in diamonds’ that Potemkin gave to Ali as a show of his ‘esteem for his bravery and talents’. Despite the Russian success Potemkin’s relations with Catherine had soured. Hughes asserts that this correspondence, along with other contacts that Potemkin had with Greek and Turkish chieftains, became known to Catherine and probably brought about his death, presumably alluding to the rumour that he had been poisoned at Jassy during the peace negotiations. For Ali, campaigns like these would have been a learning experience where he witnessed first-hand the discipline of the janissaries and the European troops on a large scale. Although the war did not go well for Turkey, they lost the Crimea to Russia, personally for Ali it was another step forward. Rather than the trail of bloody murders that Pouqueville delights in to account for his promotion, including that of the treacherous Selim Bey Kokka of Delvino whom he supposedly stabbed with his own hand on the orders of the Porte, it was as a reward for his services in war that he was awarded the pashalik of Trikkala in Thessaly.
Fig. 24: The Turkish Army advances on Sofia in Bulgaria in 1788, by Lucas Hochenleitter.
In the meantime Kurt Pasha had died. Kurt was succeeded in Berat by his ally, Ibrahim Pasha, who would continue the rivalry with Ali for control of central Albania. Despite this there was a power vacuum left on Kurt’s death and the Porte, as usual accepting the reality on the ground, gave back to Ali control of Ioannina, to the displeasure of some of the inhabitants who fled the city for the remote areas. Threatened by Ali’s surrounding of the city in a show of strength with forces raised from his new domains in Thessaly and a fake document of authority from the Sultan, the colourful account has it that the inhabitants of Ioannina were hoodwinked into letting him in before the Porte could do anything about it. Other traditions suggest that Ali had garnered enough support from the notable families of Ioannina and the important surrounding villages willing to petition the Sultan for his appointment. For instance, through their commercial activities the wealthy families of Kapesovo in Zagori had connections in Constantinople and by cultivating such alliances Ali was able to create a network with links to the capital. The Alipashiad makes much of Ali’s connection with Zagori, suggesting it was part of his inheritance bequeathed by his father. Most accounts of Ali attribute him with influence in high places at the capital and a willingness to use bribery as well as persuasion to achieve his ends, and Hughes credits his advancement to more than a little financial coercion through his friends. That some of the inhabitants would welcome Ali as a liberator was due to the state of near anarchy that prevailed within the town walls, with feuding families taking potshots at one another from the windows of their fortified houses; a situation of lawlessness reminiscent of that between Montagues and Capulets in fourteenth century Verona. Hughes’ theory was that his petitions failed, so acting before news could arrive he inveigled his way in before any action could be taken. Ali’s own court archives give the earliest known reference to him as ‘pasha of Giannena’ as 15 March 1788, a date probably close enough to his seizure of power, a moment that made him the de facto autonomous ruler of the area for the next thirty-four years. The formal recognition of Ali’s position by Abdul Hamid was one of the last acts of his reign; a post confirmed by Selim III on his succession.
Fig. 25: Ioannina (1820) by Charles Robert Cockerell.
Once installed Ali made sure of his situation by looking after the right people, courting those who needed his favours and recompensing his supporters with positions and rewards. The pashalik of Ioannina was followed by his appointment to the long coveted post of dervendji-pasha with the responsibility of keeping communication with the Porte open. With these formal titles to back up his authority it was now time to consolidate his power within Epirus by other means. Like his mother before him, Ali realized that advantage could be attained and sustained through alliances cemented by marriage and with Ibrahim installed in Berat, this was a good moment to shore up his north-eastern flank while he dealt with matters in southern Epirus. The marriages of his sons, like his own, would be made for strategic advantage. Hughes tells us that Mukhtar and Veli and his nephew Mahmud Bey were duly married to daughters of Ibrahim Pasha of Berat and Avlona, who having previously shunned his advances, was now obliged to acquiesce; this is independently confirmed by Ismail Kemal Bey, Ibrahim’s great-nephew. Ali’s sister, Shainitza, likewise was a commodity and she was married off to Suleyman of Argyrocastro, the town Ali had long had his eyes on. Suleyman’s family came from nearby Libokovo in the Zagori region, where Ali built a fortified seraglio as his sister’s dowry. According to Leake she had been married previously to Suleyman’s brother Ali, but he had died, or was murdered by his brother with Ali Pasha’s connivance. Shainitza’s son Adem became governor of Libokovo and her daughter by her first husband was in turn married to Veli Bey of Klisura. With Ioaninna and his network of alliances in place, he could now turn to the vexing problems to the south and the coast, where Venetian authority had undermined the efforts of previous governors.
1 Modern Greek kalaboki, a general term for maize or dhurra (Egyptian corn).
2 Aga: an honorific title for a civilian or military officer or elder.
3. Modern Bursa in north-west Anatolia, the Ottoman capital before Erdine.
4. Bey: title of nobility.
5. A Sufi order of Islam from central Anatolia, also known as ‘Whirling Dervishes’.
6. Today in Greece near the Albanian border.