Tepedelenli Ali Paşa - Ali Pasha, lion of Ioannina: the remarkable life of the Balkan Napoleon

Ali Pasha

Yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace
While gentleness her Milder radiance throws
Along that aged venerable face
The deeds that lurk beneath, & stain him with disgrace

Fig. 1 : Illustration from the English translation of the History of Suli and Parga by Christophoros Perraivos.

On my having paid him some slight compliment, Ali received me with so much courtesy of speech and of manner, that, had I not been certain, from general report, that he was a most barbarous and cruel man, and if, before entering his palace, I had not, in seeing fastened up on stakes some heads still dropping with blood, been a witness of his barbarity, I would have formed the most favourable opinion of him, and would have looked on him as the gentlest and most agreeable of men.

Carlo Gherardini, Italian translator of the History of Suli and Parga

The Remarkable Life of the
Balkan Napoleon

By
Drs Quentin and Eugenia Russell

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Quentin and Eugenia Russell, 2017

ISBN 978 1 47387 720 7

eISBN 978 1 47387 722 1

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47387 721 4

The right of Quentin and Eugenia Russell to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Fig. 1: Illustration from the English translation of the History of Suli and Parga .

Fig. 2: The artist crossing the Pindus Mountains from Ioannina to Trikkala.

Fig. 3: Ioannina and the lake.

Fig. 4: The Pindus Mountains.

Fig. 5: Suliotes in traditional costume .

Fig. 6: Janissary musketeer.

Fig. 7: Janissary from Ioannina.

Fig. 8: The plumb-pudding in danger: or state epicures taking un petit souper (1805).

Fig. 9: Warrior of Sellaida (1825).

Fig. 10: Carnival in the early nineteenth century.

Fig. 11: The Abduction of a Herzegovenian Woman .

Fig. 12: French cavalry engage with the heroic-looking Pasha of Rhodes.

Fig. 13: Engraving by Edward Finden.

Fig. 14: Ali Pasha hears the pleas of a supplicant .

Fig. 15: The Palace of Ali Pasha at Ioannina.

Fig. 16: The house of Nicolo Argyris in Janina .

Fig. 17: Lord Byron in Albanian dress.

Fig. 18: Alis grandsons, Ismail and Mehmet.

Fig. 19: Ioannina with Alis citadel.

Fig. 20: Alis second son Veli.

Fig. 21: The region around Tepelene.

Fig. 22: Wandering Bektashi dervish.

Fig. 23: Albanian palikars in pursuit of an enemy .

Fig. 24: The Turkish Army advances on Sofia in Bulgaria.

Fig. 25: Ioannina.

Fig. 26: Ioannina and Corfu.

Fig. 27: Map of Suli.

Fig. 28: Suli.

Fig. 29: Kimara.

Fig. 30: Louis-Auguste Camus de Richemont directing the building of a trench at the Battle of Nicopolis.

Fig. 31: Lieutenant Richemont taking down an Albanian horseman.

Fig. 32: Being shown the severed head of a French soldier by Alis men.

Fig. 33: Field Officer .

Fig. 34: The Vizier Ali Pacha, giving the fatal signal, for the slaughter of the Gardikiotes shut up in the Khan of Valiare.

Fig. 35: The quarantine station at Santa Maura.

Fig. 36: The town and harbour of Vathi, Ithaka.

Fig. 37: The tomb of Ali Pasha.

Fig. 38: Alis Audience Chamber.

Fig. 39: Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France embrace after the Treaties of Tilsit.

Fig. 40: Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson .

Fig. 41: Portrait of Franois Pouqueville .

Fig. 42: William Martin Leake .

Fig. 43: The Oath of Initiation into the Society .

Fig. 44: Germanos.

Fig. 45: Ali Pasha hunting on the lake of Butrinto .

Fig. 46: Ali Pasha and Kira Vassiliki .

Fig. 47: A view of monastic Zitsa.

Fig. 48: Congreve Rocket troop in action.

Fig. 49: Ioannina the capital of Albania: Turkey in Europe.

Fig. 50: The Castle of Parga in Epirus.

Fig. 51: Seraglio of Suli.

Fig. 52: Zekate House.

Fig. 53: The fortress at Argyrocastro.

Fig. 54: Nikopolis.

Fig. 55: Mr TP Cook as Zenocles.

Fig. 56: Haide, a Greek Girl .

Fig. 57: The Greek Slave .

Fig. 58: The Greek Slave on display in New York.

Fig. 59: Ali Pasha and Vassiliki .

Fig. 60: The Refugees of Parga .

Fig. 61: The Suliote Women .

Fig. 62: Kolokotronis and his personal escort .

Fig. 63: Nikos Mitropoulos hoists the flag at Salona .

Fig. 64: Yannis Gouras fighting under the command of Odysseus Androutsos.

Fig. 65: Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi .

Fig. 66: Botsaris surprises the Turkish camp and falls fatally wounded .

Fig. 67: The Murder of Kapodistrias .

Fig. 68: Ali Pashas statue in Tepelene.

Fig. 69: Frontispiece to Lord Byrons Childe Harolds Pilgrimage .

The European territories of the Ottoman Empire in 1814 by John Thomson (1815).

Map of Albania and central Greece showing the Ottoman administrative units with the contemporary place names.
Engraved by J & C Walker, published by Baldwin & Cradock, London, for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1829).

17341739 Austro-Russian war with Turkey.

17391748 War of Jenkinss Ear between Britain and Spain.

1740 Empress Anne of Russia dies, 1741 Elizabeth seizes power from Ivan VI (a baby).

17401748 War of the Austrian Succession when Marie Theresa succeeds as Holy Roman Empress; Frederic II (the Great) of Prussia invades Silesia; France declares war on Britain and Austria (1744).

1754 Osman III succeeds Mahmud I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

17541763 Anglo-French War in North America (The French and Indian War), from 1756, part of the Seven Years War: the struggle between Prussia and Austria becomes a world conflict fought between shifting alliances containing Britain and France in opposition. Treaty of Paris: Britain gains New France in North America and Florida from Spain, islands in the West Indies, Senegal and trading supremacy in India; Treaty of Hubertusburg maintains the status quo between Prussia and Austria.