Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha
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Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha (1713-1790), (Hasan Pasha of Algiers) was an Ottoman grand vizier, Kaptan Pasha and an army commander of the late 18th century.
He is probably of balkan (pomaks) or Caucasian descent, since he is known to have been bought as a slave in eastern Turkey by a Turkish merchant of Tekirdağ, who raised him in that city considering him on a par with his own sons.
He rose through the ranks of the Ottoman military hierarchy and was for a time with the Barbary Coast pirates based in Algiers (thence his name, Cezayirli meaning from Algiers in Turkish). He was a fleet commander during the Naval Battle of Chesma and could extirpate the forces depending him from the general disaster for the Turkish navy there. He arrived at the Ottoman capital with the bad news, but was highly praised for his own accomplishment and was promoted, first as chief of staff and later as grand vizier. He dislodged the Russian navy which had established a base in the Aegean island of Limni (Lemnos).
Anecdotal evidence indicates that, immediately after the defeat in Çeşme, he and his men were lodged by a local priest in Ayvalık who did not know who they were. Hasan Pasha did not forget the kindness shown at that hour of crisis and later accorded virtual autonomy to the Greek-dominated town of Ayvalık, paving the way for its becoming an important cultural center for that community in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
In the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1791, Hasan Pasha, then 85, was commanding the Turkish troops in the beginning of the campaigns and was killed in combat in 1790.
His statue garnishes today the resort town of Çeşme, along with that of the lion that he had domesticated while in Africa and that he took along with him everywhere, creating quite an impression.
[edit] References
- Nuttall Encyclopedia: [1]
- World Statesman: Turkey – Grand Viziers
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
