Glossary
| Anatolia (Turk. Anadolu) | in the early nineteenth century both the name of a geographical region (Asia Minor) and an eyalet [province] in west-central Turkey, with Kütahya as its capital. |
| Ayan | Muslim provincial power-broker. |
| Beşlü agha | commander of the troops [beşlü neferatı] in charge of securing Moldowallachia. |
| Bostancıbaşı | officer responsible for policing a good part of Istanbul, Galata, and the villages along the Bosporus. He was also in charge of the jails in which notable Greeks sent from the provinces were kept in custody during the Greek Revolution. |
| Boyar | Moldowallachian native aristocracy. |
| Çiftlik | large agrarian estates with quasi-proprietary rights for their holders, with heavily exploitative relations altering the terms of attachment of the peasants to the land and focusing on market-oriented production. |
| Dar al-harb | “abode of war,” adjoining non-Islamic lands that do not have a treaty of nonaggression or peace with a Muslim state. |
| Derbend agha | official responsible for the safety of mountain passes. |
| Evlad-ı Fatihan | lit. descendants of the conquerors [of Rumelia]; ethnic Turkish [yörük] mercenary troops from northern Rumelia. |
| Eyalet | province. Throughout this book, the Ottoman words eyalet and vilayet are both translated as province. |
| Fatwa (Turk. fetva) | authoritative legal opinion of a Muslim jurist. |
| Geg | Albanian ethno-cultural group inhabiting areas north of the Shkumbin River (Gegëria, Turk. Gegalık). |
| Ghaza and jihad | the struggle to defend and extend Islam; war to achieve these goals. By the early nineteenth century, these terms came to be used interchangeably—but mostly together as a formula—in the documents produced by the Ottoman civil and military bureaucracy. |
| Harbî | enemy; a person not under truce or safe conduct of the sharia rules laid down for non-Muslims. |
| Haseki | sergeant at arms in the bodyguard of the sultan; an attendant of the imperial court. |
| Hızır | the day of Hızır falls on May 6 in the Gregorian calendar (April 23 in the Julian calendar, celebrated as St. George’s Day by Orthodox Christians) and symbolizes the arrival of spring. |
| Imperial stirrup (Turk. Rikâb-ı Hümâyun) | part of the outer services (Turk. Bîrun) of the imperial palace, in charge of such duties as transmitting messages between the sultan and various state offices. |
| Janissary agha (Tr. Yeniçeri Ağası) | the commander of the janissary corps. |
| Jihad | see Ghaza and jihad. |
| Jizya (Turk. cizye) | tax paid by the non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim state. |
| Kadı | adjudicator of the Islamic holy law [sharia] and civil administrator of a town [kaza]. |
| Kantar | weight unit. 1 kantar equals 56 kg. |
| Kapıcıbaşı | lit. chief gatekeeper [of the sultan’s palace]. In the early nineteenth century this title was mostly honorary, given even to provincial notables. |
| Kapudana bey | admiral, second in command of the Ottoman navy after the kapudan pasha [grand admiral]. |
| Kapukethüda | agent. Each provincial functionary had an agent at the Sublime Porte who handled his affairs and correspondence with the central administration. A kapukethüda generally had several provincial functionaries as clients. In the French diplomatic correspondence of the period the kapukethüdas were referred to as agents politiques. Throughout this book, the Ottoman word kapukethüda is translated as agent. |
| Kasım | now November in Turkish. In the Ottoman period the day of Kasım fell on November 8 and symbolized the arrival of winter. |
| Kaymakam | locum tenens, one filling an office for a time or temporarily taking the place of another. |
| Kaza | a subdivision of a sancak, seat of a kadı. |
| Kethüda | steward, majordomo. Second in command of a pasha’s household. Throughout this book, the Ottoman word kethüda is translated as steward. |
| Kıyye | weight unit. 1 kıyye equals 1 okka, which equals 1.28 kg. |
| Knez | a Serbian kocabaşı, head of a local Serbian community. |
| Kocabaşı (Gr. |
primate, head of a self-governing local Christian community who was responsible for his community before the state. |
| Metochion | monastic establishment, usually in the form of a property, subordinate to a larger independent monastery. |
| Millet | an officially recognized religious community; specifically, a non-Muslim religious minority subordinate to the Ottoman state, enjoying a certain degree of autonomy and represented by an official leader. |
| Mirahur agha | master of the imperial stables. |
| Mir-i miran | pasha of two horsetails. Viziers were pashas of three horsetails. |
| Moldowallachia | throughout this book, Moldowallachia, the anglicized version of the Greek term |
| Muhafız | military administrator of a town. Throughout this book, the Ottoman word muhafız is translated as castellan. |
| Müstemen | foreigners, mostly merchants, who were granted safe conduct in the Ottoman Empire. |
| Mutasarrıf | governor of a sancak. |
| Mütesellim | majordomo, deputy, or interim governor and collector of taxes. |
| Naib | deputy kadı. |
| Νefir-i amm soldiers | peasant conscripts who were recruited from the non-military people of the areas around the combat zones when emergencies arose. |
| Nevruz | the day of the vernal equinox, usually occurring on March 21 and marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. |
| Nüzül emini | official in charge of overseeing the purchase and delivery of supplies to the army. Throughout this book, the Ottoman title nüzül emini is translated as commissary officer. |
| Patrona bey | vice-admiral, third in command of the Ottoman navy after the kapudana bey. |
| Raiyyet | throughout this book, the Ottoman word raiyyet is translated as subjecthood. |
| Reaya | tax‐paying subjects of the Ottoman state. The term came to be used exclusively for non‐Muslims by the early nineteenth century. |
| Reisülküttab (or reis efendi) | Ottoman official functioning as the equivalent of a minister of foreign affairs since the eighteenth century. |
| Riyala bey | admiral of the lowest rank in the Ottoman navy. |
| Rumelia (Turk. Rumeli) | in the early nineteenth century, the eyalet [province] of Rumelia encompassed most of what is today Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, continental Greece (excluding the Morea), and eastern Serbia. |
| Sancak | a district or a subdivision of an eyalet [province]. |
| Sayyid (m.), sayyida (f.) (Turk. seyyid, seyyide) | honorific title for descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. |
| Şeyhülislam | highest-ranking Muslim cleric and administrator of religious affairs. |
| Sipahi | fief-holding cavalryman stationed in the provinces. |
| Sipahi agha | commander of the fief-holding cavalrymen stationed in the provinces. |
| Sublime State | Ottomans never used the term “Ottoman Empire” for their state. The most common terms used for self-designation by Ottoman administrators for their state that we also encounter in the Ayniyat Registers were Devlet-i Aliyye [the Sublime State] and Saltanat-ı Seniyye [the Exalted Sultanate]. |
| Südid | Austrian müstemen merchants operating in Moldowallachia. The word originates from the German Schützling [protégé]. |
| Tosk | Albanian ethno-cultural group inhabiting areas south of the Shkumbin River (Toskëria, Turk. Toskalık). |
| Ulema | the body of scholars trained in the Islamic religious sciences and Islamic law; the Ottoman religious establishment. |
| Vukiyye | weight unit. 1 vukiyye equals 1.2 kg. |
| Zimmi | non-Muslim subject of a Muslim state; mostly used in a judicial context. |
Short Biographies of the Important Individuals Mentioned in the Documents
Abdullah Hamdullah Pasha, also known as Deli Abdullah Pasha, was the bostancıbaşı between 1809 and 1815. He was appointed grand admiral in July 1819 and served in this post until his resignation in November 1821. He was grand vizier between November 11, 1822 and March 11, 1823, at a critical transition period during the downfall of Halet Efendi.
Ahmed Erib Efendi/Pasha was the superintendent of the imperial arsenal until he was appointed deputy grand vizier in April 1821. In October 1821 he was made a vizier and dispatched to the Morea for having come into conflict with Halet Efendi, who got rid of him by removing him from Istanbul. There is not much information about his activities, other than that he was trusted with the defense of Ypati. He died in January 1823.
Ali Celal Pasha was the governor of Bosnia when he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Rumelia on November 20, 1822, following Hurşid Ahmed Pasha’s death. He died on December 20, 1822, due to the exacerbation of his illness when he was about to depart from Bosnia to Larissa to take up his new post.
Ali Namık Pasha, a native of Nafplio, was the steward of Hurşid Ahmed Pasha at the siege of Ioannina during Ali Pasha’s uprising. He was made a vizier at the request of Hurşid Pasha and appointed as the castellan of Nafplio in June 1821; however, he did not make it to his post until May 1822. After suppressing the uprising in Tzoumerka in October 1821, he was also given the sancak of Trikala, replacing Mahmud Pasha of Drama. In late May 1822 he was at the defense of Nafplio. He was imprisoned in December 1822, when the castle was captured by Greek revolutionaries. In 1825, he was exchanged with Georgios Mavromichalis, son of Petrobey Mavromichalis, who was captured by Ibrahim Pasha at Navarino. After his release he spent some time in Izmir and Manisa until he was appointed mutasarrıf of Acarnania and Nafpaktos in April 1826.
Androutsos, Odysseas, called Captain Disava by the Ottoman functionaries, was one of the most renowned heroes of the Greek War of Independence. He grew up at Tepedelenli Ali Pasha’s court and was appointed by the pasha as armatolos of Livadeia in 1816. In October 1820, after a dispute with the local rulers, he left and was replaced by Athanasios Diakos. He fought against the Ottoman forces numerous times. His victory at the Inn of Gravia against Ömer Vrioni in May 1821 played a determining role in the fate of the Greek Revolution. In October 1822, the central Greek government appointed Androutsos as captain-general of eastern Greece. Androutsos made Athens his headquarters and became master of the entire Attica region and its environs in the subsequent two years. In early 1825, when conflict between the Greek revolutionary factions escalated to the proportions of civil war, Androutsos came into contact with Ömer Pasha of Karystos and applied to the Sublime Porte for amnesty through him. On March 31, the Governor of Rumelia Reşid Mehmed Pasha approved Androutsos’s plea for amnesty and sent him a firman. By April 10, the inhabitants of Livadeia, Thebes, and Atalanti requested amnesty. According to Ömer Pasha’s account, when the Greek insurgents in Amfissa began attacking the villages around Livadeia, Ömer Pasha dispatched his steward at the head of five hundred cavalry, joined by Androutsos. Intense fighting broke out in the region between Atalanti and Livadeia, and five thousand Greeks came from Athens and the Morea to reinforce the revolutionaries. Androutsos did not leave the steward throughout the thirty-eight days of heavy fighting, but grew anxious when the hostilities intensified and the troops promised by Reşid Mehmed Pasha did not arrive. He wanted to retire to Megara, but the insurgents captured him on the way. Muslim runaways, spies, and Greek informants all confirmed that Androutsos was imprisoned, subjected to all manner of torture, and eventually executed.
Behram Pasha is mistakenly known as Bayram or Beyran Pasha in Greek historiography. He had previously served as governor of Trabzon, Diyarbekir, and Erzurum. He was the mutasarrıf of Aydın and Saruhan when the revolution broke out and was dispatched to the region of Larissa, thence to proceed to the Morea. On his way to Larissa, he proved instrumental in the suppression of the revolution in the region of Thessaloniki. At the Battle of Vasilikon on September 7, 1821, his mercenary army suffered heavy casualties. The battle was a major turning point in the history of the Greek Revolution. The Ottoman forces sent to lift the siege of Tripolitsa and put down the uprising in Attica and the Morea were defeated by the Greek revolutionaries under the command of Ioannis Dyovouniotis and Giannis Gouras. The Sublime Porte was unable to organize another expedition until the summer of 1822, giving the revolutionaries the opportunity to regroup. His vizierate was abrogated, and his troops were given to the command of Süleyman Pasha.
Benderli Mehmed Selim Pasha was the governor of Silistra from March 1819 until appointed grand vizier in September 1824; he served in this position until October 1828. He was most instrumental in the abolition of the janissary complex.
Derviş Mustafa Pasha of Plovdiv, governor of Bosnia between 1817 and 1819, was the castellan of Vidin when the Greek Revolution erupted. He was appointed to the governorship of the Morea in January 1824 for only two months until his appointment to the governorship of Rumelia. His anti-Albanian stance put the operations at risk, and he was replaced by Mehmed Reşid Pasha in November 1824.
Dyovouniotis, Ioannis, was appointed the armatolos of Lamia by Tepedelenli Ali Pasha. When the revolution broke out, he became the captain of the revolutionaries in the Lamia region. He fought in the battles of Alamana, Gravia Inn, and Vasilikon; he died in 1831.
Ebubekir Pasha was the governor of Anadolu when the revolution erupted. He was one of the first viziers dispatched to the Morea; however, he died in Lamia in August 1821.
Ebulubud Mehmed Emin Pasha, of slave descent from Georgia, was the mutasarrıf of Thessaloniki until he was appointed to the governorate of Rumelia in August 1823. Following the failed siege of Missolonghi, he was replaced by Derviş Mustafa Pasha in March 1824 and exiled to Didymoticho.
Elmas Meçe was an Albanian warlord in charge of securing Tripolitsa, also referred to as Elmas Meço or Mezzo in historiography. He was the former chief orderly [kapuçukadar] of Tepedelenli Ali Pasha and a member of the Tosk military oligarchy established after Ali Pasha’s downfall. He struck a besa [word of honor] with Theodoros Kolokotronis for the safe refuge of the Albanian contingent from Tripolitsa and opened the gates of the town to the Greek insurgents, paving the way to the massacre of noncombatant Muslims.
Halet Efendi was Mahmud II’s favorite and advisor. He found favor in the sultan’s sight thanks to his aptitude in dealing with the Baghdad revolt of 1810 and established a special rapport with the sultan based on their shared vision of restoring central state authority in the provinces. In the following decade he became the most dominant figure in imperial politics. In January 1820 he brought his associate Seyyid Ali Pasha to the grand vizierate in order to stifle the opponents of a military operation against Tepedelenli Ali Pasha at the Sublime Porte. Ottoman official historiographers explain the unprecedented alarm set off by the Greek Revolution and the ensuing events of public violence in Istanbul as the work of Halet Efendi, who tried to ward off accusations directed against him of creating the present chaos by diverting public opinion away from himself. He was responsible for putting Ibn Khaldunian concepts into practice and also for the most violent measures taken by the Sublime Porte for the quelling of the uprising. He was deposed on November 11, 1822, following the janissary mutiny of November 9. He was exiled to Konya, where he was soon executed.
Hasan Pasha was castellan of Izmir. He was the mutasarrıf of Kayseri when the revolution broke out. His initial instructions were to proceed to Nafplio via Izmir. His orders were changed in May 1821, and he stayed in Izmir until 1827. The Greek historian Filimon noted that his mustache and intelligence were inversely proportional; however, he prevented at least three serious janissary mutinies and acts of public violence against the Greeks of the town from getting out of hand and turning into full-fledged massacres.
Hurşid Ahmed Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of slave descent from Georgia. He served as grand vizier between 1812 and 1815. He suppressed the Serbian revolt in 1813. In October–November 1819 he put down three sizable revolts in Baghdad, Diyarbekir, and Aleppo. In August 1820, when he was in Aleppo, he was appointed governor of the Morea and arrived in Tripolitsa in November of that year. Before taking up his new office, he was ordered to Ioannina to quell Tepedelenli Ali Pasha’s revolt. He left Tripolitsa in January 1821 to undertake the siege operations at Ioannina. He was appointed governor of Rumelia in February 1821. He managed to capture and execute Ali Pasha after a 1.5-year siege. When the Commander-in-Chief of the Morea Seyyid Ali Pasha proved too incompetent to quell the Greek Revolution, he took over the task in March 1822. Causing the deposition of Seyyid Ali Pasha, he brought his associate Mahmud Pasha of Drama to the post of commander-in-chief of the Morea in June 1822. He raised a mercenary army composed of forty-thousand Albanians; however, he died in November 1822 before the beginning of the campaign season of 1823. The way in which Hurşid Pasha died remains a mystery. In Greek historiography there are elaborate and detailed descriptions of how he decided to commit suicide by drinking poison after learning about the imperial order for his beheading. The reported reason for the imperial order was that he did not send the slain Tepedelenli Ali Pasha’s confiscated treasure to Istanbul in its entirety and saved the larger part for himself. A very trustworthy source, William Meyer, the British consul at Preveza, also conveyed the rumors about Hurşid Pasha’s suicide. Be that as it may, not a single Ottoman source is to be found to confirm this story. The documents in this book, the letters sent from Larissa to inform the Sublime Porte about his death by his steward, and also by the naib and notables of the town, all report a natural death. Ottoman forces and functionaries, Turkish and Albanian alike, fell into complete disarray as a result of Hurşid Pasha’s death and could not recuperate until the arrival of the Egyptian forces.
Ibrahim Pasha was the son of Mehmed Ali Pasha, Governor of Egypt, born in Kavala in 1789. In 1816–19 he quelled the Wahhabi revolt in Hejaz and was made the governor of Jeddah for his achievement. When the Sublime Porte proved unable to quell the Greek Revolution, his father was contracted with the task on the condition that Ibrahim Pasha be appointed governor of the Morea (April 1824). Due to the fear of Greek fireships and blockade, his navy made it to the Morea as late as February 1825. He captured most of the Morea and was instrumental in the fall of Missolonghi. He suffered a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Navarino in October 1827, almost entirely losing his fleet. He evacuated the Morea in October 1828.
Ismail Paşo Pasha was an Albanian provincial magnate. An assassination attempt against him while he was in Istanbul provided the Sublime Porte with a pretext for suppressing Tepedelenli Ali Pasha, who was held responsible for the attempt. Ismail Paşo was appointed mutasarrıf of Ioannina and sent on to Tepedelenli. He served in this position until October 1821.
Kallimaki, Skarlatos, had served as the dragoman of the Porte between 1801 and 1806 and voivode of Moldavia in 1806 and between 1812 and 1819. He was a close associate of Halet Efendi and was known as Iskerlet Bey or Kalimakizade Sarı Bey at the Sublime Porte. He was appointed to the voivodeship of Wallachia in February 1821 after Alexandros Soutsos’s death. He never left Istanbul to take up his post due to the outbreak of the Greek Revolution. He was saved from execution, because Russia could use his death as a pretext to declare war. He was kept under custody in a Muslim neighborhood in Istanbul, Süleymaniye, to prevent his flight. When the government took notice that he was communicating with foreign agents, he was exiled to Bolu, where he was secretly murdered by Ahmed Raşid Efendi, the mütesellim. His death had to seem to be due to natural causes in order to prevent Russian outrage. Thus, poison prepared by the head physician of the court was sent to Bolu and given to Kallimaki through a plot hatched by the mütesellim.
Köse Mehmed Pasha was Hurşid Pasha’s steward. He was appointed governor of the Morea when Hurşid Pasha assumed the governorate of Rumelia and was dispatched together with Ömer Vrioni to quell the Greek uprising in the Morea; however, he never made it there. In 1822 we see him in and around east central Greece, where his operations were paralyzed by Odysseas Androutsos. In March 1822, he was granted the sancaks of Teke and Hamid for income. In January 1823 he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Rumelia. He was dismissed from office on August 23, 1823, for failing to organize the operations and replaced by the Mutasarrıf of Thessaloniki Ebulubud Mehmed Emin Pasha. During the discussions in the Imperial Council for his removal from office, he was accused of remaining “powerless since the day of his appointment.” He was exiled to Gallipoli, where he stayed until his appointment to the governorate of Sivas in July 1824.
Mahmud II, the 30th Ottoman sultan, enthroned in 1808, was the Ottoman sultan throughout the Greek Revolution. The Ottoman Empire underwent fundamental changes during his reign, the elimination of most of the provincial magnates (ayans) and the abolition of the janissary complex being the most significant ones. Although he lost every single battle he went into, he is revered as the initiator of Ottoman/Turkish modernity and remembered for his westernization reforms after 1826. He exercised his sovereign authority through his advisor Halet Efendi in the decade prior to the Greek Revolution and became an autocrat after 1823, stifling all sorts of social dissent. He died in 1839.
Mehmed Ali Pasha was of Albanian descent, born in Kavala. He became the governor of Egypt in 1805 and ruled the country until his death in 1849. He was contracted with the suppression of the Greek Revolution in April 1824 by the Grand Vizier Said Galib Pasha and given the island of Crete and the Morea in exchange. Negotiations with the Sublime Porte almost broke down upon his insistence on the appointment of his son as the grand admiral. He sent his eldest son, Ibrahim, to the Morea at the head of a French-trained and disciplined modern army. After losing a great part of his navy at the Battle of Navarino, he sought a way out of the entanglement. He signed a convention with the British admiral Edward Codrington in August 1828 in Alexandria for the withdrawal of the Egyptian forces from the Morea. All Egyptian forces were evacuated by October 1828, without asking for the permission of the Sublime Porte.
Mehmed Hüsrev Pasha had served as the grand admiral between 1811 and 1818 and later as the governor of Trabzon. He was appointed grand admiral again on December 9, 1822. Dissension between him and Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt reached crisis proportions during the siege of Missolonghi, and Mehmed Ali Pasha threatened the Sublime Porte with withdrawing his forces unless Hüsrev Pasha was discharged. Upon Mehmed Ali Pasha’s insistent demands, the sultan removed him from office in February 1827.
Mehmed Reşid Pasha was of slave descent from Georgia. He is known as “Kütahi” in Greek historiography, because he was the kaymakam of the sancaks of Kütahya and Eskişehir (mid-west Anatolia) when he joined the forces sent against Tepedelenli Ali Pasha. He was appointed governor of Karaman in August 1821. He was sent to quell the Greek uprising in the region of Arta in late 1821. We find him engaging the Greek revolutionaries in the region of Arta, Souli, and Acarnania until late 1822. In April 1823, the governorship of the sancak of Trikala was appended to the province of Karaman and assigned to Reşid Pasha. He was removed from office at the request of the Governor of Rumelia Ebulubud Mehmed Emin Pasha. In January 1824, we find him sojourning in Edirne, whence he was dispatched to Vidin as castellan. In November 1824 he was brought to the governorate of Rumelia, for he maintained a good reputation among the Albanians, to repair the damage caused by the anti-Albanian policy followed by his two predecessors. He arrived at Bitola in February 1825 and at Arta in March. In April 1825 he captured the Makrinoro Defile and in May he laid siege to Missolonghi. He captured Athens in June 1827 after a nine-month siege. In January 1829 he was appointed grand vizier, with the hope that he could use the experience he gained during the Greek Revolution against the Russians.
Mühürdar Ago Vasiari (Osman Agha, though known as Mühürdar Ago in the historiography of the Greek Revolution) was the seal keeper of Tepedelenli Ali Pasha and a prominent member of the Tosk military oligarchy established after Ali Pasha’s downfall. In the words of William Meyer, the British consul at Preveza, Mühürdar Ago became the “natural leader” of the Tosk military oligarchy after Ömer Vrioni’s removal from Albania in late 1824. He was appointed the mütesellim of Berat and Süleyman Pasha Vlora’s steward as part of the plan to break up the Tosk oligarchy.
Mustafa Pasha, also known as Buşatlı or Bushati Mustafa Pasha, was mutasarrıf of Shkodër and patriarch of the most prominent Geg Albanian dynasty. Throughout the Greek Revolution, he controlled the districts to the north of Berat, where the extent of the Sublime Porte’s authority was only nominal. His unwillingness to follow through the Sublime Porte’s orders played a determining role in the outcome of the Greek Revolution, especially during the sieges of Missolonghi. He lifted the siege in December 1823 on the pretext of winter weather. The Sublime Porte contracted the suppression of the Greek uprising to Mustafa Pasha for the campaign season of 1824; however, his operations were paralyzed mostly by the counteraction of Tosk Albanians. In October 1825, his three thousand soldiers left the siege of Missolonghi due to the approach of winter.
Nasuhzade Kara Ali Pasha, a seaman of Albanian descent, was the kapudana bey when the Greek Revolution broke out. He was appointed grand admiral in November 1821 upon Abdullah Pasha’s resignation from office. He was killed by fireships off Chios under the command of Konstantinos Kanaris on the night of June 18–19, 1822.
Negris, Konstantinos, was the kaymakam of Wallachia when the Greek Revolution erupted. Despite the Sublime Porte’s strong prejudice against the Fanariots, he administered Wallachia until he was replaced by the Romanian boyar Grigore Dimitrie Ghica in July 1822. He was detained in Vidin in June 1822 and sent to Istanbul, where he was executed in November on charges of secretly communicating with his brother, Theodoros Negris, who was the president of the Areopagus of Eastern Continental Greece.
Obrenovich, Milosh, was a Serbian leader, the organizer of the Second Serbian Uprising. In 1817 he was recognized as the chief knez (Turk. baş knez) by the Sublime Porte. When the Greek Revolution broke out, he was the leader of the virtually autonomous Serbian principality.
Ömer Pasha of Karystos was the mütesellim of Karystos (as Ömer Bey) when the revolution broke out. Within a year he was made a mir-i miran and was appointed castellan of the sancak of Euboea. He held this office until Euboea was relinquished to the Kingdom of Greece and then settled in Thessaloniki.
Ömer Vrioni, a Tosk Albanian from the village of Vrion, near Berat, began his career as the commander of the forces of the ayan of Elbasan [name unknown]. He participated in the quelling of the Pazvandoğlu revolt in 1797 and fought against Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt between 1798 and 1801. He captured Ibrahim Pasha of Vlorë and incorporated his domains into Tepedelenli Ali Pasha’s state in 1810. He was the treasurer [hazinedar] of Ali Pasha until the latter’s revolt. In September 1820 he defected to the Ottoman state and was given the sancak of Vlorë in January 1821. During Ali Pasha’s revolt, Ömer Vrioni participated in the suppression of the Greek uprising. He won the Battle of Alamana and executed Athanasios Diakos. His march was stopped in May 1821 by the Greek forces under Odysseas Androutsos at the Inn of Gravia. He lifted the 83-day siege of Athens on June 30. After the downfall of Ali Pasha in January 1822, the sancaks of Ioannina, Vlorë, and Delvinë were united under his governorship upon Hurşid Pasha’s insistent recommendations. After this date, he followed quite independent policies and remained unresponsive to the Sublime Porte’s demands. Ömer Vrioni found himself as the ostensible, unpopular, and incapacitated governor of the Tosk lands, often at odds both with the members of the Tosk military oligarchy, composed of the disgruntled strongmen of Ali Pasha’s court, and the heirs of the pre-Ali Pasha Tosk nobility. Ottoman and British sources maintain that the siege of Missolonghi—the epicenter of Greek resistance—in 1823 failed because of his clandestine plots. In the 1824 campaign he followed a policy of tarrying and did not march on Athens, disobeying the Sublime Porte’s orders. He was appointed governor of Thessaloniki in December 1824 to distance him from Albania, so that he could not engage in sedition. He initially resisted moving to Thessaloniki, but, having found no support for his cause among the Albanians, he arrived in his new post in February 1825. In late 1827 he was the castellan of Sofia, whence he was sent to Vidin as the commander of the vanguard to encounter the Russian army. In late 1828 he was first sent to Gallipoli and then to Kütahya, where he died in the same year.
Sabit Mahmud Pasha of Drama was of Albanian descent, the son of a dynastic family from Drama, known as Dramalis in Greek historiography. In May 1820 he was appointed mutasarrıf of Trikala and remained in this post until October 1821. He was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Morea in June 1822 and charged with the quelling of the revolution. He faced catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Dervenakia on August 7, 1822, and could hardly save his life. He withdrew to Corinth, where he died in November 1822.
Samourkassis (Samurkaşoğlu), Ioannis, was the kaymakam of Oltenia when the Greek Revolution broke out. He converted to Islam in Vidin, where he was detained until his death in February 1822.
Seyyid Ali Pasha of Isparta was grand vizier between January 5, 1820, and March 29, 1821. He was a close associate of Halet Efendi. In the eyes of Mahmud II, he was the incarnation of the Ottoman state’s troubles, originating from indulging in a life of ease and sinking into luxury and plenty. He was deposed and banished to Gallipoli on March 29, 1821, and replaced by the Mutasarrıf of Ormenio Benderli Ali Pasha. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Morea after the defeat suffered by Behram Pasha at the Battle of Vasilikon in September 1821. He was appointed to this post probably because of Halet Efendi’s influence and despite Hurşid Pasha’s objections. He proved utterly inept and was relieved from office in June 1822. All his goods and belongings were confiscated and sold in order to deliver the troops’ pay that had fallen into arrears. His vizierate was abrogated, and he was exiled to Plovdiv in early 1824 upon the request of Yusuf Pasha of Serres. He died in Istanbul in 1826.
Seyyid Hasan Pasha was at the siege of Ioannina when the revolution broke out and commanded operations on Souli and Arta. He was appointed castellan of Arta in July 1821 and for a short while was governor of Sivas. We find him as the castellan of Euboea in August 1822 and in November 1824 once again as the castellan of Arta. He was relieved of duty in March 1825.
Tepedelenli Ali Pasha was mutasarrıf of Ioannina. He was a Tosk Albanian, born in Tepeleni (Turk. Tepedelen), south Albania. In a progression reminiscent of the establishment of the Ottoman state, he literally conquered the territories of the neighboring Albanian magnates one after another and carved out a state for his dynasty. In 1784 he was appointed mutasarrıf of Delvinë and in 1785 he became the mutasarrıf of Trikala. In 1787 he occupied the sancak of Ioannina, where he made the seat of his government. He acquired Gjirokastër and Libohovë through intermarriages of his family with the local magnates. Taking advantage of the pandemonium of the Russo–Ottoman War, he captured Berat, Vlorë, Kardhiq, and Peqin from their ayans and became the master of the entire Toskëria (the land of the Tosk Albanians) by 1812. By capturing Tiran, Ohrid, and Elbasan between 1815 and 1817, Ali Pasha made himself a bold encroacher on the lands of the Geg Albanians (Gegëria) and utterly annoyed both the Geg magnates and the Sublime Porte. When Ali Pasha moved on to Kičevo, Mat, and Debar in 1819, Mustafa Pasha Bushati, Mutasarrıf of Shkodër, panicked and petitioned the Sublime Porte for Ali Pasha’s suppression. The Sublime Porte succeeded in eliminating Ali Pasha after one and a half years of serious strife and almost a year into the Greek Revolution. He was captured and executed on January 24, 1822. Following Ali Pasha’s downfall, in most of the Tosk lands the real power remained in the hands of what William Meyer, the British consul at Preveza, called the “Tosk League,” namely a military oligarchy composed of disgruntled strongmen of Ali Pasha’s court, such as Ali Pasha’s sword bearer Silahdar Ilyas Poda, the seal keeper Mühürdar Ago Vasiari, the treasurer Ömer Vrioni, the chief of guards Tahir Abbas, the chief orderly Elmas Meçe [or Meço], and such military chiefs as Derviş Hasan and Sulço Gorça. Being the insurgent Greeks’ immediate neighbors and still controlling the most operational military manpower in the region after the disintegration of Ali Pasha’s government, their stand against the Greek Revolution was of make-or-break importance.
Vahid Pasha was appointed mutasarrıf of Chania in 1816, where he stayed until his banishment to Kos in 1820. He was sent to Chios when the revolution broke out. He was the castellan during the massacres on the island. Accused of inaptitude and misconduct by the Sublime Porte, he was released from duty in May 1822 and exiled to Alanya. He was appointed governor of Aleppo in 1824 and governor of Konya in 1827. He died in 1828. His apologia regarding the massacres on Chios was published in 1873, in which he defended his course of action and portrayed the massacres on the island as the punishment of the insurgents.
Vladimirescu, Tudor, was a Wallachian warlord and the leader of the Pandur militia. He had been in Russian service during the Russo–Ottoman War of 1806–12 and apparently continued to enjoy some liberty of action in Wallachia as a Russian official. Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the death of Alexandros Soutsos, Voivode of Wallachia, on January 31, 1821, Vladimirescu revolted in coordination with the leadership of the Filiki Etaireia. He enlisted soldiers by exploiting the anti‐Fanariot sentiments among the Wallachians. His revolutionary proclamations declared his intention of redressing the grievances which had been brought about by the Fanariots’ maladministration and of compelling the boyars to respect the privileges granted by the Ottoman government to the Wallachians. When the Russian government declared its renunciation of the Greek revolutionary movement, Vladimirescu sought to come to terms with the Sublime Porte and to distance himself from Alexandros Ypsilantis. Vladimirescu sent a letter to the castellan of Giurgiu begging for the forgiveness of the sultan and offering his assistance to stop Ypsilantis from entering Bucharest. Vladimirescu claimed that he did not want to be considered a bandit like Ypsilantis; his revolt was against the Fanariots, not the Ottoman state. When Ottoman forces captured Bucharest, he lost control of his troops. After a plot hatched by the Etairists, he was executed by them on May 28, 1821.
Vogoridis, Stefanos, was a Fanariot of Bulgarian descent. He started his career under the patronage of Skarlatos Kallimaki. In 1812 he was appointed kaymakam of Craiova and Galatsi. In 1814 he was appointed postelnik [official in charge of foreign affairs] of Moldavia. He was the kaymakam of Moldavia when the Greek Revolution broke out. He administered Moldavia until he was replaced by the Romanian boyar Ioan Sandu Sturdza in July 1822. He survived the Greek Revolution and was appointed prince of Samos in 1830.
Ypsilantis, Alexandros, is referred to as “the son of Ypsilanti” in many Ottoman documents. He was the son of an eminent Fanariot, Konstantinos Ypsilantis, who had served as dragoman of the Porte (1796–9), voivode of Moldavia (1799–1801), and voivode of Wallachia (1802–6) before he defected to Russia when the Russo–Ottoman War of 1806–12 began. His five sons grew up in Russian military‐aristocratic circles, but only Alexandros rose rapidly in the military hierarchy. In 1820 Alexandros, then a 28‐year‐old major general, an aide‐de‐camp, and personal friend of Tsar Alexander I, and already a Greek celebrity, assumed the leadership of the secret Greek revolutionary organization, the Filiki Etaireia. He crossed the Prut River on March 6, 1821, invading Moldowallachia and triggering the Greek War of Independence. He fled to Austria after the Battle of Drăgășani on June 19, 1821, where he was kept in custody until 1827 due to the pro-Ottoman stance of the Austrian Chancellor Metternich. He died in Vienna in 1828.
Ypsilantis, Nikolas, was the brother of Alexandros Ypsilantis. He was the commander of the Sacred Band [
Yusuf Muhlis Pasha of Serres was the son of Ismail Bey, the Ayan of Serres/Siroz; he is referred to as Sirozî Yusuf Pasha in the documents. In December 1820 he was appointed mutasarrıf of Euboea and Acarnania with the rank of vizier and ordered to join the command of Hurşid Pasha in his campaign against Tepedelenli Ali Pasha. Hurşid Pasha and the spies of the Sublime Porte accused him of setting the functionaries at the siege of Ioannina against each other, thus delaying Tepedelenli’s subjugation. He was removed from the army camp in Ioannina and sent to his domain in Euboea through Acarnania. On his way, having learned about the siege of Patras, he crossed to the Morea via the Castles of Rumelia and the Morea and lifted the siege of Patras on April 15, 1821, where he stayed until his discharge from office in November 1825. He was the castellan of Varna when the Russo–Ottoman War of 1828–9 broke out. He was taken captive by the Russians when the town fell and returned to Istanbul in 1830.
Yusuf Pasha of Berkovitsa originated from the town of Berkovitsa (Turk. Berkofça) in northwest Bulgaria. He was the castellan of Brăila when the Greek Revolution broke out and was appointed commander-in-chief to put down the Ypsilantis revolt in Moldowallachia. He was the castellan of Babadag when he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Morea in 1823 with the addition of the sancaks of Teke and Hamid to his jurisdiction. He arrived in Larissa, the major Ottoman deployment base during the Greek Revolution, in early June. He proved inept at organizing the expedition, and by November 1823 his mercenary army had disbanded. He was pardoned at the request of Ebulubud Mehmed Emin Pasha, Governor of Rumelia, and stayed in Larissa until early 1825. He died in 1826 while he was the castellan of Sofia.