The ''Alipashiad'' or ''Alipashias'' ( el, Αληπασιάδα or Αληπασιάς) is a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
, written in the early 19th century by the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
Haxhi Shehreti. The work is inspired by and named after
Ali Pasha Ali Pasha was the name of numerous Ottoman pashas named Ali. It is most commonly used to refer to Ali Pasha of Ioannina.
People
* Çandarlı Ali Pasha (died 1406), Ottoman grand vizier (1387–1406)
* Hadım Ali Pasha (died 1511), Ottoman grand v ...
, the
Ottoman lord of
Ioannina
Ioannina ( el, Ιωάννινα ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus, an administrative region in north-western Greece. According to the 2011 census, the c ...
,
Epirus
sq, Epiri rup, Epiru
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Historical region
, image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...
, describing, in heroic style, his life and military campaigns.
Background and historical value
Although Ali Pasha was Albanian, he used Greek in his courtly dealings, since this was the dominant language in the regions he controlled.
Moreover, the use of Greek language in various works of Albanian authors was very common.
[ In accordance to this, the composer of the ''Alipashiad'', who was Ali's personal ]ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
eer, Haxhi Shehreti, composed this work in Greek language, considering it a more prestigious language in which to praise his master.
/ref>
Historically, the ''Alipashiad'' contains the unusual feature of being written from the Muslim point of view.[ Apart from describing Ali's adventures the poem describes Ioannina, which was a center of Greek culture and ]renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
that time,[ as well as the activities of the local mercenaries (]Armatoles
The armatoles ( el, αρματολοί, armatoloi; sq, armatolë; rup, armatoli; bs, armatoli), or armatole in singular ( el, αρματολός, armatolos; sq, armatol; rup, armatol; bs, armatola), were Christian irregular soldiers, or mi ...
) and revolutionaries (Klephts
Klephts (; Greek κλέφτης, ''kléftis'', pl. κλέφτες, ''kléftes'', which means "thieves" and perhaps originally meant just "brigand": "Other Greeks, taking to the mountains, became unofficial, self-appointed armatoles and were know ...
) that Ali had to deal with.[
]
Text and date
The ''Alipashiad'' consists of 15,000 lines and was written in installments in the first years of the 19th century, when Ali Pasha was at his height as the powerful and semi-independent ruler of much of Ottoman Greece
Most of the areas which today are within modern Greece's borders were at some point in the past part of the Ottoman Empire. This period of Ottoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greek War of Independence t ...
. The poem is written in a modern demotic Greek language and contains some dialectical interference and foreign expressions.[ A copy of the poem was found by the ]British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
and topographer
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...
, William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the
Mediterrane ...
, in 1817. In 1835 he published 4,500 lines of the ''Alipashiad''. The entire poem was published by the Greek historian Constantine Sathas
Constantine Sathas ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Σάθας; Athens, 1842 – Paris, 25 May 1914) was a Greek historian and researcher.
Sathas spent his life unearthing hitherto unknown material pertaining to the history of late medieval and ear ...
in his volume ''Historical Disquisitions'' in 1870 (The Alipashiad, of the Turkalbanian Hadji Sehreti).
References
External links
*Leake William Martin
''Travels in northern Greece''
J. Rodwell, 1835.
* Κ. Ν. Σάθα
''Ιστορικαί διατριβαί''
''H Αληπασιάς, του Τουρκαλβανού Χατζή Σεχρέτη. (The ''Alipashiad'', of the Turkalbanian Hadji Sehreti)'' in "Ιστορικαί Διατριβαί" (Historical Disquisitions), Athens, 1870, pp. 123–336 (original text of the ''Alipashiad'' with comments and bibliography on Ali Pasha, in Greek).
*Irakli Koçollar
The ''Alipashiad'' of Haxhi Shehreti
Onufri, 1997 (Albanian)
{{Authority control
Ali Pasha of Ioannina
Epic poems in Greek
19th-century poems
1870 books
Modern Greek literature