Kılıç Ali Pasha

Uluç Alì Pascià

Kılıç Ali Pascha ( Turkish : Kılıç Ali Paşa ), first known as Uludsch Ali Reis and later Uludsch Ali Pascha (Turkish: Uluç Ali Reis , then Uluç Ali Paşa ) (* 1519 in Isola di Capo Rizzuto , Calabria ; † June 21 1587 in Istanbul ) was a Muslim corsair and Ottoman admiral in the 16th century. In his day he was also known by the name Occhiali , and Miguel de Cervantes called him Uchali in chapter XXXIX of his masterpiece Don Quixote . He is often referred to simply as Ali Pascha , in John Wolf's The Barbary Coast the spelling Euldj Ali is used.

Early life

He was born in 1519 as Giovanni Dionigi Galeni in the Calabrian village of Le Castella (or Licastelli) in southern Italy , son of the sailor Birno Galeni and his wife Pippa de Cicco. The young lad spent a lot of time on the water, although his father had intended him to have a religious education. On April 29, 1535 he was captured by the Muslim corsair Ali Ahmed, one of the captains of Khair ad-Din Barbarossa , and forced to serve on galleys as a slave . After some time he converted to Islam and joined the corsairs, as did many other Christian galley slaves before and after him . He rose quickly and became a boatswain on the galley where he had previously been chained to an oar. In this position he earned enough prize money to buy a share in an Algerian corsair brigantine.

Very soon he became the captain and owner of a galley and was considered the most daring corsair captain on the pirate coast . After Barbarossa's death, he joined his successor Turgut Reis , who was at the same time Ottoman admiral and Bey of Tripoli . He impressed the Turkish Grand Admiral Piyale Pascha , with whom Turgut Reis repeatedly worked. In 1550 he was given the administration of the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea , making him an Ottoman official.

Pascha and Beylerbey

In 1565 Uludsch became a bey of Alexandria . In the same year he accompanied Turgut Reis during the siege of Malta , when Turgut fell in front of Fort St. Elmo , Piyale Pasha appointed him as his successor as Bey of Tripoli. Uludsch Reis sailed with the body of Turgut to Tripoli, buried him there, and seized the slaves and other possessions of Turgut. After the Sultan confirmed him as governor of Tripoli, he visited the coasts of Sicily , Calabria and Naples .

In March 1568, after the overthrow of Mohammed Pascha in Algiers, he was appointed Pascha and Beylerbey of Algiers , the most important of the increasingly independent corsair states in North Africa, through the mediation of Piyale Pascha . From there he marched overland with 5000 men to Tunis in October 1569 , reinforced on the way by several thousand Berbers on horseback , and conquered Tunis. Sultan Hamid from the Hafsid dynasty, supported by Spain, fled to the shelter of the Spanish garrison of Goleta ( La Goulette ). This made Uludsch Ali Pasha of Algiers and Tunis and Beylerbey of North Africa.

Lepanto

In the spring of 1571, the janissaries of Algiers rebelled and demanded their overdue pay . Uludsch "settled" this dangerous matter by sailing away with 20 galleys and leaving it to the Janissaries to take care of their own wages. When he learned on the way that a fleet was preparing to attack Christianity in Kostantiniyye , he sailed to Koroni on the southern tip of the Morea , where the Ottoman fleet under Ali Pasha also arrived shortly afterwards. The presence of this fleet, and in particular the aggressive advances of Uludsch in the Ionian and Aegean Seas, prevented the Christian fleet from sailing to Cyprus , which was conquered by Piyale Pasha and Lala Mustafa Pasha at the same time without outside help .

On October 7, 1571, Uludsch Ali Pascha commanded the left wing of this Ottoman fleet , which was defeated in the naval battle of Lepanto by a united Christian fleet under Don Juan de Austria . He managed to outmaneuver his direct opponent, Gian Andrea Doria (a great-nephew of Andrea Doria ) and inflict heavy losses on him. Uludsch even managed to conquer the Maltese flagship . He dragged it to take it with him as a pinch, but had to have the ropes cut when don Juan's reserve under the Marquis de Santa Cruz came after him. Since the battle was now lost, Uludsch contented himself with taking the large Maltese banner with him. With about 30 galleys and fustas , he managed to sail through enemy lines and escape. He then collected other ships that had been dispersed in the course of the battle and sailed around the Morea into the Aegean Sea , where he gradually joined most of the Ottoman galleys that were still there. He finally reached Istanbul with 87 ships. Since he was able to lay the Maltese flag at the feet of Sultan Selim II , the complaints of the Janissaries of Algiers were no longer held against him. He received the honorary title "Kilic" (sword) from Selim II and was then known under the name Kilic Ali Pascha .

Kaptan-ı Derya

Together with Piyale Pascha he equipped a new fleet in 1572, whereby Kilic Ali attached great importance to the construction of agile ships and their equipping with large cannons as well as to equipping the soldiers with firearms. Selim appointed him Kaptan-ı Derya (Grand Admiral) and at the same time confirmed him in his office as Pasha of Algiers. In June 1572, only eight months after the Lepanto debacle, he sailed with 250 galleys and a large number of smaller ships to the south coast of the Morea, where he found a Christian fleet; however, there was no direct battle, as Kilic preferred to involve his opponents in attrition fights by repeated feinting.

In 1573 Arab Ahmed became the new pasha of Algiers , and Don Juan de Austria conquered Tunis and returned it to the Hafsid dynasty, which was dependent on Spain . That left Kilic Ali Pasha without a land base of his own. He therefore concentrated on leading his fleet to another raid on the Italian coasts. A year later, in 1574, he and Piyale Pascha succeeded in snatching Tunis from the Spaniards after a 40-day siege with 230 ships and 40,000 men. He also finally conquered La Goulette, which had been undefeated up until then. In the same year he sailed on to Morocco , where he built a new fortress on Spain's opposite coast. In 1576 he visited Calabria again. In 1578 he violently ended another rebellion of the Janissaries in Algiers, who had murdered Arab Ahmed Pasha. 1584 he led a fleet to the Crimea , and the following year he hit with an Ottoman fleet from Alexandria ( Egypt ) uprisings in Syria and Lebanon down.

Kilic Ali Pasha died on June 21, 1587 in Istanbul and was buried there in the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque, which he had built in 1580 by the architect Sinan .

epilogue

The Turkish Navy subsequently named several of their ships after him. His statue stands in the village square of his birthplace Le Castella in Calabria.

literature

• Miguel de Cervantes , in Chapter XXXIX of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, mentions Kilic Ali Pasha under the name Uchali and briefly describes his rise to ruler of Algiers.
• E. Hamilton Currey: Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean. John Murray, London. 1910.
• John B. Wolf: The Barbary Coast. Algeria under the Turks. 1500 to 1830. WW Norton, New York NY / London 1979, ISBN 0-393-01205-0 .

Web links

• http://www.geo.de/GEO/kultur/geschichte/55347.html