Ali Pasha of Tepelena (also known asAli Pasha of Yanina)
By Stylianos Kavazis, Researcher
Translated into English and republished with the author's permission
Ali was born in Tepelena shortly after 1740, in a world where social advancement was not through education but through a weapon. Illiterate, but extremely intelligent, he was raised by his mother Hamko, a cruel and ambitious woman, who cultivated in him the belief that power is not given but conquered with your sword. At the age of fifteen, he pursued the path of robbery, forming an armed group of Labs (southwestern Albanians) and Tosks (central and southern Albanians). From a very early age, he showed that he was not a simple thug but a man with political instinct. Alliances through marriages, intrigues and his adaptation to Ottoman structures gradually led him to the administrative hierarchy of the Empire.
In 1788, he captured the pashalik (Ottoman province governed by a pasha) of Yanina (Greek: Ioannina). From there on, he essentially created a state within a state. His territory extended to Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece and indirectly to the Morea, where his son Veli was appointed Mora Valesi (Pasha of the Peloponnese). His power was based on violence, but it was also accompanied by the administrative organization of roads, bridges, trade, the combating of robbery and he imposed relative security.
Ali Pasha was religiously indifferent. Although a Muslim, he did not show religious fanaticism. He fully tolerated Christians, used Greeks as scholars, doctors and soldiers, and surrounded his court in Ioannina with educated men, such as Athanasios Psallidas and Ioannis Vilaras.
His military also included young men who would later play an important role in the Greek Revolution: Georgios Karaiskakis and Odysseas Androutsos learned the art of war and administration under Ali's influence, either as apprentices or as military prisoners. Others such as Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas were indirectly influenced by the political and military environment he created (especially Markos who had studied at the military school founded by Ali Pasha), but they did not serve Ali (with the exception of the alliance with him a year before his death against the sultan's troops) since they were his sworn enemies.
His conflict with Sultan Mahmud II was inevitable. Ali had accumulated excessive power and was now operating as an independent ruler. In 1820 he was declared guilty of high treason. The campaign to eliminate him, led by Hurshid Pasha, utilized massive Ottoman forces, leaving gaps in the Peloponnese that contributed to the outbreak of the Greek Revolution of 1821.
Ali Pasha was besieged for months. When he accepted a truce with promises of amnesty, he was transferred to the island of Lake Ioannina. There, in the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, he received a firman (Ottoman decree) sentencing him to death instead of a pardon. Even though he was already old, around 80, his soul was young, and he fiercely resisted, but was shot and mortally wounded. He died on January 24, 1822. He was decapitated and his head was sent to Constantinople. His enormous fortune was never found in its entirety, creating legends and searches by would-be gold hunters to this day.
Ali Pasha was not a hero in the moral sense, but he was undeniably a historical force. Precisely because he was dark, cynical, ambiguous and authentic, he did not easily fit into national myths. His imposing figure did not lend itself to idealization. Thus, he was set aside, despite being the strongest political personality that the Albanian modern era has produced in recent times.
History, however, is not written only by bright heroes, it is also written by people who, without seeking it, changed the course of events and Ali Pasha of Tepelena was clearly one of them.
Translated into English and republished with the author's permission
Ali was born in Tepelena shortly after 1740, in a world where social advancement was not through education but through a weapon. Illiterate, but extremely intelligent, he was raised by his mother Hamko, a cruel and ambitious woman, who cultivated in him the belief that power is not given but conquered with your sword. At the age of fifteen, he pursued the path of robbery, forming an armed group of Labs (southwestern Albanians) and Tosks (central and southern Albanians). From a very early age, he showed that he was not a simple thug but a man with political instinct. Alliances through marriages, intrigues and his adaptation to Ottoman structures gradually led him to the administrative hierarchy of the Empire.
In 1788, he captured the pashalik (Ottoman province governed by a pasha) of Yanina (Greek: Ioannina). From there on, he essentially created a state within a state. His territory extended to Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece and indirectly to the Morea, where his son Veli was appointed Mora Valesi (Pasha of the Peloponnese). His power was based on violence, but it was also accompanied by the administrative organization of roads, bridges, trade, the combating of robbery and he imposed relative security.
Ali Pasha was religiously indifferent. Although a Muslim, he did not show religious fanaticism. He fully tolerated Christians, used Greeks as scholars, doctors and soldiers, and surrounded his court in Ioannina with educated men, such as Athanasios Psallidas and Ioannis Vilaras.
His military also included young men who would later play an important role in the Greek Revolution: Georgios Karaiskakis and Odysseas Androutsos learned the art of war and administration under Ali's influence, either as apprentices or as military prisoners. Others such as Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas were indirectly influenced by the political and military environment he created (especially Markos who had studied at the military school founded by Ali Pasha), but they did not serve Ali (with the exception of the alliance with him a year before his death against the sultan's troops) since they were his sworn enemies.
His conflict with Sultan Mahmud II was inevitable. Ali had accumulated excessive power and was now operating as an independent ruler. In 1820 he was declared guilty of high treason. The campaign to eliminate him, led by Hurshid Pasha, utilized massive Ottoman forces, leaving gaps in the Peloponnese that contributed to the outbreak of the Greek Revolution of 1821.
Ali Pasha was besieged for months. When he accepted a truce with promises of amnesty, he was transferred to the island of Lake Ioannina. There, in the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, he received a firman (Ottoman decree) sentencing him to death instead of a pardon. Even though he was already old, around 80, his soul was young, and he fiercely resisted, but was shot and mortally wounded. He died on January 24, 1822. He was decapitated and his head was sent to Constantinople. His enormous fortune was never found in its entirety, creating legends and searches by would-be gold hunters to this day.
Ali Pasha was not a hero in the moral sense, but he was undeniably a historical force. Precisely because he was dark, cynical, ambiguous and authentic, he did not easily fit into national myths. His imposing figure did not lend itself to idealization. Thus, he was set aside, despite being the strongest political personality that the Albanian modern era has produced in recent times.
History, however, is not written only by bright heroes, it is also written by people who, without seeking it, changed the course of events and Ali Pasha of Tepelena was clearly one of them.
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