Suleyman Pasha

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Suleiman Pascha , drawing by Wilhelm Camphausen , 1878

Süleiman Pascha (Turkish Süleyman Paşa, also Sulayman or Sulaiman Pascha; * 1838 in Istanbul ; † August 8, 1892 in Baghdad ) was an Ottoman officer who was active in the Serbian-Turkish War (1876) and the Russo-Turkish War (1877– 1878) took part.

Life

Süleiman Pasha joined the Ottoman army in 1854. He attended military school and became a major in 1867 while serving in Crete . In 1873 he became a colonel and instructor at a military school, at which he later became deputy and in 1874 received the rank of brigadier general. He was involved in the deposition of Sultan Abdülaziz (May 30, 1876). His successor, Murad V , gave Süleiman Pasha command of a division .

He distinguished himself in the Serbian-Turkish War and was therefore entrusted with the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina .

During the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) he was the commander in chief of the Turkish military operations on the Balkan Peninsula. He replaced his predecessor Mehmed Ali Pascha , who was recalled on October 2, 1877 - a Turkish field marshal of Prussian descent.

During the Russo-Turkish War he commanded the military units that were to rush to the aid of the Ottoman troops that were besieged in Pleven . His attempt to cross the Shipka Pass with the Ottoman troops ( Battle of the Shipka Pass - August 1877) failed due to the resistance of the Russian troops.

At the beginning of January 1878 he intended to burn Sofia down to slow the progress of the increasingly successful Russian troops. According to the reports of the journalist Samuel Francis, he was dissuaded by a Sofia rabbi . Suleyman Pasha was of Jewish origin. Instead, he burned the city of Pazardzhik .

After his defeat in the Battle of Plovdiv , he was tried before a military tribunal and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His military mistakes were seen as one of the reasons why the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78. He was later pardoned and sent into exile.

literature

  • Robert Devereux: Süleyman Paşa's “The Feeling of the Revolution” . In: Middle Eastern Studies , Volume 15, 1979, pp. 5-10.
  • Suleiman Pasha . In: The Gazebo . Issue 1, 1878, pp. 19 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Kreutz: Modernism and the idea of ​​Europe in the Eastern Mediterranean World, 1821-1939. (PDF; 3.7 MB) Bochum (Diss.) 2007, p. 125.
  2. ↑ Tatar Pazarcik . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Second Edition. Volume X, p. 371, column 1
personal data
SURNAME Suleyman Pasha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ottoman officer
DATE OF BIRTH 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1892
Place of death Baghdad