Ali Pacha

Alexandre Dumas

Description

Can't get enough true crime? Love to hate history's miscreants? Dive into a juicy slice of early modern history with this gripping account of the life of Ali Pacha, a "remorseless tyrant" who ruled over part of the Ottoman Empire with an iron fist. This account of Pacha's many transgressions will enthrall and appall even longtime fans of the true crime genre.

Sujets

• True crime

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775452638
• Langue: English

Extrait

ALI PACHA
CELEBRATED CRIMES
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ALEXANDRE DUMAS
 
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Ali Pacha Celebrated Crimes First published in 1841 ISBN 978-1-775452-63-8 © 2011 The Floating Press While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI
Chapter I
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The beginning of the nineteenth century was a time of audaciousenterprises and strange vicissitudes of fortune. Whilst Western Europein turn submitted and struggled against a sub-lieutenant who madehimself an emperor, who at his pleasure made kings and destroyedkingdoms, the ancient eastern part of the Continent, like mummies whichpreserve but the semblance of life, was gradually tumbling to pieces,and getting parcelled out amongst bold adventurers who skirmishedover its ruins. Without mentioning local revolts which produced onlyshort-lived struggles and trifling changes of administration, such asthat of Djezzar Pacha, who refused to pay tribute because he thoughthimself impregnable in his citadel of Saint-Jean-d'Acre, or that ofPassevend-Oglou Pacha, who planted himself on the walls of Widdin asdefender of the Janissaries against the institution of the regularmilitia decreed by Sultan Selim at Stamboul, there were wider spreadrebellions which attacked the constitution of the Turkish Empire anddiminished its extent; amongst them that of Czerni-Georges, which raisedServia to the position of a free state; of Mahomet Ali, who made hispachalik of Egypt into a kingdom; and finally that of the man whosehistory we are about to narrate, Ali Tepeleni, Pacha of Janina, whoselong resistance to the suzerain power preceded and brought about theregeneration of Greece.
Ali's own will counted for nothing in this important movement. Heforesaw it, but without ever seeking to aid it, and was powerlessto arrest it. He was not one of those men who place their lives andservices at the disposal of any cause indiscriminately; and his soleaim was to acquire and increase a power of which he was both the guidinginfluence, and the end and object. His nature contained the seedsof every human passion, and he devoted all his long life to theirdevelopment and gratification. This explains his whole temperament; hisactions were merely the natural outcome of his character confrontedwith circumstances. Few men have understood themselves better or been onbetter terms with the orbit of their existence, and as the personalityof an individual is all the more striking, in proportion as it reflectsthe manners and ideas of the time and country in which he has lived, sothe figure of Ali Pacha stands out, if not one of the most brilliant, atleast one of the most singular in contemporary history.
From the middle of the eighteenth century Turkey had been a prey to thepolitical gangrene of which she is vainly trying to cure herself to-day,and which, before long, will dismember her in the sight of all Europe.Anarchy and disorder reigned from one end of the empire to the other.The Osmanli race, bred on conquest alone, proved good for nothing whenconquest failed. It naturally therefore came to pass when Sobieski, whosaved Christianity under the walls of Vienna, as before his time CharlesMartel had saved it on the plains of Poitiers, had set bounds to thewave of Mussulman westward invasion, and definitely fixed a limit whichit should not pass, that the Osmanli warlike instincts recoiledupon themselves. The haughty descendants of Ortogrul, who consideredthemselves born to command, seeing victory forsake them, fell back upontyranny. Vainly did reason expostulate that oppression could not long beexercised by hands which had lost their strength, and that peace imposednew and different labours on those who no longer triumphed in war; theywould listen to nothing; and, as fatalistic when condemned to a state ofpeace as when they marched forth conquering and to conquer, they cowereddown in magnificent listlessness, leaving the whole burden of theirsupport on conquered peoples. Like ignorant farmers, who exhaust fertilefields by forcing crops; they rapidly ruined their vast and rich empireby exorbitant exactions. Inexorable conquerors and insatiable masters,with one hand they flogged their slaves and with the other plunderedthem. Nothing was superior to their insolence, nothing on a levelwith their greed. They were never glutted, and never relaxed theirextortions. But in proportion as their needs increased on the one hand,so did their resources diminish on the other. Their oppressed subjectssoon found that they must escape at any cost from oppressors whom theycould neither appease nor satisfy. Each population took the stepsbest suited to its position and character; some chose inertia, othersviolence. The inhabitants of the plains, powerless and shelterless, bentlike reeds before the storm and evaded the shock against which they wereunable to stand. The mountaineers planted themselves like rocks in atorrent, and dammed its course with all their might. On both sides arosea determined resistance, different in method, similar in result. In thecase of the peasants labour came to a stand-still; in that of the hillfolk open war broke out. The grasping exactions of the tyrant dominantbody produced nothing from waste lands and armed mountaineers;destitution and revolt were equally beyond their power to cope with; andall that was left for tyranny to govern was a desert enclosed by a wall.
But, all the same, the wants of a magnificent sultan, descendant of theProphet and distributor of crowns, must be supplied; and to do this, theSublime Porte needed money. Unconsciously imitating the Roman Senate,the Turkish Divan put up the empire for sale by public auction. Allemployments were sold to the highest bidder; pachas, beys, cadis,ministers of every rank, and clerks of every class had to buy theirposts from their sovereign and get the money back out of his subjects.They spent their money in the capital, and recuperated themselves in theprovinces. And as there was no other law than their master's pleasure,so there was no other guarantee than his caprice. They had thereforeto set quickly to work; the post might be lost before its cost had beenrecovered. Thus all the science of administration resolved itself intoplundering as much and as quickly as possible. To this end, the delegateof imperial power delegated in his turn, on similar conditions, otheragents to seize for him and for themselves all they could lay theirhands on; so that the inhabitants of the empire might be divided intothree classes—those who were striving to seize everything; those whowere trying to save a little; and those who, having nothing and hopingfor nothing, took no interest in affairs at all.
Albania was one of the most difficult provinces to manage. Itsinhabitants were poor and brave, and the nature of the country wasmountainous and inaccessible. The pachas had great difficulty incollecting tribute, because the people were given to fighting for theirbread. Whether Mahomedans or Christians, the Albanians were above allsoldiers. Descended on the one side from the unconquerable Scythians,on the other from the ancient Macedonians, not long since masters of theworld, crossed with Norman adventurers brought eastwards by the greatmovement of the Crusades; they felt the blood of warriors flow intheir veins, and that war was their element. Sometimes at feud withone another, canton against canton, village against village, often evenhouse against house; sometimes rebelling against the government theirsanjaks; sometimes in league with these against the sultan; they neverrested from combat except in an armed peace. Each tribe had its militaryorganisation, each family its fortified stronghold, each man his gunon his shoulder. When they had nothing better to do, they tilled theirfields, or mowed their neighbours', carrying off, it should be noted,the crop; or pastured their flocks, watching the opportunity to trespassover pasture limits. This was the normal and regular life of thepopulation of Epirus, Thesprotia, Thessaly, and Upper Albania. LowerAlbania, less strong, was also less active and bold; and there, asin many other parts of Turkey, the dalesman was often the prey of themountaineer. It was in the mountain districts where were preserved therecollections of Scander Beg, and where the manners of ancient Laconiaprevailed, the deeds of the brave soldier were sung on the lyre, and theskilful robber quoted as an example to the children by the father of thefamily. Village feasts were held on the booty taken from strangers; andthe favourite dish was always a stolen sheep. Every man was esteemedin proportion to his skill and courage, and a man's chances of makinga good match were greatly enhanced when he acquired the reputation ofbeing an agile mountaineer and a good bandit.
The Albanians proudly called this anarchy liberty, and religiouslyguarded a state of disorder bequeathed by their ancestors, which alwaysassured the first place to the most valiant.
It was amidst men and manners such as these that Ali Tepeleni wasborn. He boasted that he belonged to the conquering race, and thathe descended from an ancient Anatolian family which had crossed intoAlbania with the troops of Bajazet Ilderim. But it is made certain bythe learned researches of M. de Pouqueville that he sprang from a nativestock, and not an Asiatic one, as he pretended. His ancestors wereChristian Skipet