Antoni Aleksander Iliński, also known as Iskender Pasha ( tr, Mehmet İskender Paşa; 1812–1861), was a Polish- Ottoman military officer and general. A Polish independence activist and insurgent, he took part in the independence struggles of Poles and Hungarians against the Austrian-Russian alliance. He converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

in 1844 and subsequently served in various commanding posts 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 ...

during the reign of

Abdulmejid I Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the r ...

(1839–1861) in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

, and

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. He was promoted to the rank of

Pasha Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignita ...

(General) during 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 ...

in 1855.

Early life and conversion to Islam

Antoni Aleksander Iliński was born in 1812 to a Polish noble family in the town of

Yarmolyntsi Yarmolyntsi ( uk, Ярмолинці; , ) is an urban-type settlement in Khmelnytskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Yarmolyntsi settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The settlement's p ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

. In 1830, he took part in the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

as a young officer of the Lithuanian Legion. He was an active member of the movement of Polish exiles led by Prince

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (; lt, Аdomas Jurgis Čartoriskis; 14 January 177015 July 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author. The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political c ...

from Paris. Iliński worked under the leadership of

Józef Bem Józef Zachariasz Bem ( hu, Bem József, tr, Murat Pasha; March 14, 1794 – December 10, 1850) was a Polish engineer and general, an Ottoman pasha and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European patriot ...

in his abortive Portuguese Legion attempt (1833), and in further struggles to form Polish legions in Spain, France and elsewhere. In 1844 he was arrested in Istanbul upon Russian request, for allegedly working to organise Ukrainian

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

legions under

Michał Czajkowski Michał Czajkowski ( uk, Mykhailo Chaikovsky; 29 September 180418 January 1886), also known in Turkey as Mehmet Sadyk Pasha ( tr, Mehmet Sadık Paşa), was a Polish writer and political émigré of distant Cossack heritage who worked both for the ...

's "Eastern Agency". The Ottoman authorities were indifferent, but Russia pressured for his handover for trial. To escape this trap, he consented to an offer to convert to

and assumed Ottoman nationality under the new name of Mehmed Iskender. He was immediately accepted as a lieutenant colonel in the Ottoman Army as "Iskender Beg". In the years 1848–49, during the time of Spring of Nations, he was again Bem's aide in Hungary.

In the Ottoman Army

He served in the Army of Roumelia under

Omar Pasha Omer Pasha, also known as Omer Pasha Latas ( tr, Ömer Lütfi Paşa, sr, Омер-паша Латас, Omer-paša Latas; 24 September 1806 – 18 April 1871) was an Ottoman field marshal and governor. Born in Austrian territory to Serbian Or ...

. He was a prominent figure in the military campaign that deposed and eventually executed the Herzegovina Vizier Ali-paša Rizvanbegović in 1851. When the

broke out in 1853, he was charged with organizing and training the irregular troops (the

bashi-bazouk A bashi-bazouk ( ota, باشی بوزوق , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly recruited Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits ...

s) along the

. In the following year, Iskender Pasha's fierce and daring style in commanding successful cavalry raids on Russians brought him acclaim and he was soon promoted as colonel. Early 1855 he was posted in the

Yevpatoria Yevpatoria ( uk, Євпаторія, Yevpatoriia; russian: Евпатория, Yevpatoriya; crh, , , gr, Ευπατορία) is a city of regional significance in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative ...

Garrison in

commanding a 400-strong cavalry regiment. His unit made a critical contribution in successfully repulsing a strong Russian assault on the town, which was threatening the rear of the Allied army besieging

Sebastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

(see:

Battle of Eupatoria The Battle of Eupatoria ( Russian: Штурм Евпатории (Storm of Eupatoria), Turkish: Gözleve Muharebesi) occurred on 17 February 1855 during the Crimean War when the army of the Russian Empire unsuccessfully attempted to captur ...

) This victory brought him a second promotion in a year, making him a

(general), (specifically a Mirliva, equivalent of a brigadier general). The same year he commanded the advance guard of an expedition army under Omar Pasha which landed at

Sukhumi Sukhumi (russian: Суху́м(и), ) or Sokhumi ( ka, სოხუმი, ), also known by its Abkhaz name Aqwa ( ab, Аҟәа, ''Aqwa''), is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the capital and largest city of ...

, in the hope of relieving the Eastern

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

n fortress-city

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography (Strabo), part of ...

from a Russian siege (see: Siege of Kars). The city fell to the Russians, however, before the two armies could engage. In 1857 he was again called to duty by Omar Pasha, who was appointed as the Governor and General Commander of

. He went to Baghdad and was active in the repression of tribal uprisings around

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

and in the Nejd area. On his return to Constantinople in 1861, he fell suddenly ill after an official banquet and died on 2 June 1861. He was buried in

Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery The Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery ( tr, Edirnekapı Şehitliği), one of the largest burial grounds of Istanbul, Turkey, is located in the neighborhood of Edirnekapı of Eyüp district, in the European part of the city. It consists of an old, ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

References

In English: * Barham, John: "Bono, Johnny Turk!" article in "suite101" * Blake, R. L. V. Ffrench: The Crimean War, Sphere Books Ltd., London, 1971. p. 137. * ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'': various issues between 1851–1856 (nos. 20745, 20774, 20780, 21530, 21757, 21816, 21822, 22223, 22260, 22263, 22284, 22299, 22498, keyword "Skender Beg") In Turkish: * Eren-Griffe, Mirgül: Osmanlı’nın Hizmetkarı, Babil Yayıncılık, İstanbul 2005, ss.125–129. * Drozdz, Jerzy : (article originally posted and then removed from Polish Embassy (Ankara) website, cited in:) http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/2004/06/xix-yzyl-osmanl-ordusunda-polonyallar.html * Hidayet Bey (Iskender Pasha's Grandson): Unpublished personal notes. In Polish: * Latka, Jerzy: Adampol, Polska Wies Nad Bosforem, Kraków, 1981. * Latka, Jerzy: Lew Nasz, Lew Polski: Pasza Iskender (Antoni Ilinski), Kraków-Gdansk, 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilinski, Antoni Aleksander Diplomats of the Hôtel Lambert 1814 births 1861 deaths Activists of the Great Emigration Ottoman Army generals Pashas November Uprising participants Polish people of the Crimean War (Turkish side) Ottoman military personnel of the Crimean War Converts to Islam Polish Muslims Polish generals in other armies Polish emigrants to the Ottoman Empire