Mehmed Ali Pasha (November 18, 1827 – September 7, 1878Osman Selim Kocahanoğlu, "Bir Osmanlı Ailesi ve Ali Fuad Cebesoy", ''Ali Fuat Cebesoy'un Arşivinden Askeri ve Siyasi Belgeler'', Temel Yayınları, İstanbul, 2005, , p. 13. ) was a

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

-born Ottoman career officer and

marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...

. He was the grandfather of the Turkish statesman

Ali Fuat Cebesoy Ali Fuat Cebesoy (September 23, 1882Ayfer Özçelik, ''Ali Fuad Cepesoy'', Akçağ Yayınları, 1993, , p. 1. – January 10, 1968) was a Turkish army officer and politician. Early life Ali Fuat was born in September 1882 to father Ismail ...

, and the great-grandfather of famous poets

Nâzım Hikmet Mehmed Nâzım Ran (15 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish-Polish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. He was ...

and

Oktay Rıfat Horozcu Ali Oktay Rifat, better known as Oktay Rifat, (10 June 1914 – 18 April 1988) was a Turkish writer and playwright, and one of the forefront poets of modern Turkish poetry since the late 1930s. He was the founder of the Garip movement, t ...

and the socialist activist, lawyer, and athlete

Mehmet Ali Aybar Mehmet Ali Aybar (; 5 October 1908 – 10 July 1995) was a lawyer, member of the Turkish parliament, the second president of the Workers Party of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye İşçi Partisi or briefly ''TİP''), the founder and President of the Soc ...

Biography

Mehmed Ali was born as Ludwig Karl Friedrich Detroit (also known as Carl Detroy) in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

. His parents were Carl Friedrich Detroit and Henriette Jeanette Severin. The French family name points to

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

ancestry, as a descendant of Protestant refugees from France in the 16th or 17th century. During his teenage years in 1843 he ran away to sea, and traveled to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, where he embraced

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

and was circumcised. There, in 1846, Âli Pasha, later

Grand Vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

, sent him to a military school. He received a commission in the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

in 1853 and fought against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. He was made a brigadier general and Pasha in 1865. In the 1877–1878 war against Russia, Mehmed Ali led the Turkish army in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. He was successful in his operations on the

Lom river The Lom ( , ) is a river in northwestern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube flowing into it 1 km east of the town of Lom. The river takes its source from the foot of Midzhur (2,168 m), the highest peak of western Stara Planina, on ...

(August–September 1877), but was afterward forced back by his opponents. He failed to effect a junction with Suleiman Pasha, and was superseded by the latter. Later in 1878 he was a participant at the

Congress of Berlin The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at th ...

Death

In August 1878, the Ottoman government selected him to overview the process of the cession of the Plav-Gucia region to Montenegro in compliance to the decisions of the

. Mehmed Ali Pasha's first task was the pacification of the

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

League of Prizren The League of Prizren ( sq, Besëlidhja e Prizrenit), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation ( sq, Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave te kombit Shqiptar), was an Albanian political organization which was offi ...

, which opposed the border change as part of the areas (Plav-Gucia/Plav-Gusinje) were inhabited by ethnic Albanians. He arrived in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

in late August, attempting to make local Albanians comply with the Berlin Treaty but was blocked from any further movement towards the Ottoman-Montenegrin border by the local committees of the Albanian League. Stationed in Abdullah Pasha Dreni's estate in Gjakova with several Ottoman battalions he was killed on September 6 after a seven-day battle with several thousand Albanians opposing cession of Albanian inhabited lands to European powers.Halil Sedes, ''1876-1878 Osmanlı-Rus Savaşları Bosna Hersek ve Bulgaristan İhtilalleri'', Çituri Biraderler, İstanbul, 1946, p. 180.

Sources

Family tree

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Mehmet 1827 births 1878 deaths German people of French descent German emigrants to the Ottoman Empire People from the Ottoman Empire of French descent Converts to Islam from Protestantism German Muslims Pashas People from Brandenburg an der Havel Ottoman Military Academy alumni Ottoman Military College alumni Ottoman Army generals Field marshals of the Ottoman Empire Ottoman military personnel of the Crimean War Ottoman military personnel of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Serbian–Turkish Wars (1876–1878)