Aganlija ( sr-cyr, Аганлија; 1801–1804) was an Ottoman

janissary A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...

leader who defected and along with three other janissary leaders took control over the

Sanjak of Smederevo The Sanjak of Smederevo ( tr, Semendire Sancağı; sr, / ), also known in historiography as the Pashalik of Belgrade ( tr, Belgrad Paşalığı; sr, / ), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman administrative unit (sanjak), that existed between the 1 ...

in 1801. These renegade janissaries were known as the

Dahije The Dahije ( sr-cyr, Дахије) or Dahijas were the renegade Janissary officers who took power in the Sanjak of Smederevo (also known as the Belgrade Pashaluk), after murdering the Vizier Hadži Mustafa Pasha of Belgrade on 15 December 1801. Th ...

. The four leading Dahije, Kučuk Alija, Aganlija,

Mula Jusuf Mula may refer to: Places * Mula, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province, Iran * Mula, Maldives, an island in the Maldives * Mula, Spain, a town in the autonomous community of Murcia, Spain * Muľa, a village and municipality in southern Slovak ...

and Mehmed-aga Fočić, captured

Hadži Mustafa Pasha Hadji Mustafa Pasha ( sh, Hadži Mustafa-paša, Хаџи Мустафа-паша, tr, Hacı Mustafa Şinikoğlu Paşa; 1733—27 December 1801) was an Ottoman commander and politician of Greek Muslim origin who lived in Sanjak of Smederevo (in mo ...

, the Vizier of Belgrade, in October 1801 and killed him on 15 December 1801 in the

Belgrade Fortress The Belgrade Fortress ( sr-Cyrl, Београдска тврђава, Beogradska tvrđava), consists of the old citadel (Upper and Lower Town) and Kalemegdan Park (Large and Little Kalemegdan) on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, in a ...

. This resulted in the sanjak being ruled by these renegade janissaries independently from the Ottoman government, in defiance to the Sultan. The janissaries imposed "a system of arbitrary abuse that was unmatched by anything similar in the entire history of Ottoman misrule in the Balkans". The leaders divided the sanjak into

pashaluk Eyalets (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت, , English: State), also known as beylerbeyliks or pashaliks, were a primary administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. From 1453 to the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ottoman local government ...

s. The tyranny endured by the Serbs caused them to send a petition to the Sultan, which the dahije learnt of. The dahije started to fear that the Sultan would make use of the Serbs to oust them. To forestall this they decided to execute leading Serbs throughout the sanjak, in the event known as the "

Slaughter of the Knezes The Slaughter of the Knezes ( sr, Сеча кнезова, Seča knezova) was the organized assassinations and assaults of noble Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo in January 1804 by the rebellious Dahije. Fearing that the Sultan would make use ...

", which took place in late January 1804. According to contemporary sources from

Valjevo Valjevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Ваљево, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the administrative area of Valjevo had 90,312 inhabitants, 59,07 ...

, the severed heads of the murdered leaders were put on public display in the central square to serve as an example to those who might plot against the rule of the dahije. This enraged the Serbs, who led their families into the woods and started murdering the '' subaşi'' (village overseers) that had been employed by the dahije, and also attacking Ottoman forces. The dahije sent out the most diplomatic, Aganlija, with a strong force to frighten and calm them down, in order to avoid escalation into armed conflict which would be hard for the janissaries to manage, but to no avail. Aganlija and his entourage was attacked during talks in Drlupa with Serbian rebel leader

Karađorđe Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's independ ...

(April 1804). He was wounded in the foot. This was the first big success of the Serbian rebels, which encouraged the people and in short time spread the revolt to most of the

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

s in the sanjak, as well as two nahiyas in the

Sanjak of Zvornik The Sanjak of Zvornik ( tr, İzvornik Sancağı, sh, Zvornički sandžak) was one of the sanjaks in the Ottoman Empire with Zvornik (in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) as its administrative centre. It was divided into 4 different districts: Že ...

References

Sources

* * * *{{cite book, last=Novaković, first=Stojan, title=Ustanak na dahije 1804: ocena izvora, karakter ustanka, volevanje 1804, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nXg6AQAAIAAJ, year=1954, publisher=Srpska književna zadruga Janissaries 19th-century Ottoman military personnel Ottoman military personnel of the Serbian Revolution Rebels from the Ottoman Empire Leaders who took power by coup People from the Ottoman Empire of Serbian descent People from Gornji Milanovac Year of birth missing 1804 deaths