Hadji Ali Haseki
Hadji Ali Haseki (Turkish: Hacı Ali Haseki, Greek: Χατζή Αλής Χασεκής) was an 18th-century Ottoman Turk and for twenty years (1775–1795) on-and-off ruler of Athens, where he is remembered for his cruel and tyrannical rule.
Biography
The career of Hadji Ali Haseki is known chiefly from two sources, written by contemporaries: the journals of the Athenian scholar Ioannis Benizelos, and the memoirs of Panagiotis Skouzes. They are complemented by the reports of Western European travellers, and subsequent Greek historians.[1][2]
According to Skouzes, Hadji Ali was born in central Anatolia, and had entered the palace service (Enderûn) as a youth. He eventually became a personal bodyguard (haseki) to Sultan Abdul Hamid I (r. 1773–1789), as well as of his sister Esma Sultan. Skouzes reports rumours that Haseki and Esma were lovers, and that she greatly favoured him and promoted his interests as a result.[3][4][5] According to Benizelos, prior to coming to Athens, he had served as voivode (civil governor) of Durrës.[3]
Background: Late Ottoman Athens
Athens had been under Ottoman rule continuously since 1456, apart from a brief
The Turkish community numbered several families established in the city since the Ottoman conquest. Their relations with their Christian neighbours were friendlier than elsewhere, as they had assimilated themselves to their Christian neighbours, even to the point of drinking wine, speaking Greek, and allowing more freedom to women.
Although its administrative status in the early Ottoman centuries is unclear, by the 17th century Athens, though formally part of the
First tenure as voivode of Athens
The exact manner and date of Haseki's arrival in Athens is unclear. Skouzes writes that in 1772, Esma Sultan acquired the malikhane of Athens at a price of 750,000 piastres—later in his account Skouzes raised the figure to 1.5 million piastres—and gave it over to Haseki.[5][20][21] Benizelos, however, indicates that Haseki bought the malikhane of Athens when the previous owner died in 1776, after he had arrived at Athens as its voivode in 1775. Indeed, Benizelos remarks on his appointment to Athens that in 1774, a delegation of Athenians visited Constantinople to request the dismissal of the incumbent voivode, and that thereupon Haseki, using bribery, secured the office for himself.[21] It is not until 1782 that Haseki is securely attested as the malikhane sahib of Athens.[22]
Whatever the true background of his appointment, when Haseki came to Athens in 1775, he initially presented himself as a protector of the local Greeks, both against the transgressions of the local Turks, as well as against the excavations of the pasha of Negroponte: he forbade the entry of the latter's officials in the city, and managed to remove the Albanian garrison that Huseyn Pasha of Negroponte had installed in the city a few years earlier.
Second tenure as voivode – Albanian incursions and fortification of Athens
In 1777, however, Haseki managed to use his connections at court to secure his reappointment as voivode, with the support this time of the powerful Athenian Turk Makfi, the Vlastos family, and of the Metropolitan Bartholomew, who hoped to use Haseki's influence with the Sultan to be elected
1778 saw devastating raids by Muslim Albanian warbands into
To secure the city against another attack, Haseki immediately began construction of a new
Third tenure as voivode
Haseki returned as voivode in 1779, and exiled many of his Turkish opponents. The situation became so bad that large numbers of Athenians went to Constantinople, including a number of peasants who reportedly took their ploughshares with them and dramatically threw them down in a row before the
Fourth tenure as voivode and exile in Constantinople
Once again, Haseki's removal did not last long. Metropolitan Bartholomew died in November 1781, and his successor,
Haseki's exactions managed to unite Greeks and Turks against him; including the powerful Turks Osman Bey, Balitizikos, and Bekir, as well as the Metropolitan Benedict. His crimes were again denounced to the Porte. Some sixty notables, including the Metropolitan, were called to Constantinople to testify. Powerful officials, including the Grand Vizier
Faced with an array of powerful officials, and the growing power of his enemies in Athens, for the next two years (1786–1788) Haseki remained safely ensconced in the palace of Esma Sultan.
Fifth tenure as voivode
Haseki's fortunes took a new blow in 1788, when Esma Sultan died, but he soon managed to turn the situation around through judicious bribery of Cezayirli Hasan Pasha, so that the malikhane was restored to him. As soon as the news reached Athens, the oligarchic party seized control. Bellos and Bekir were thrown into prison, and the Metropolitan himself placed under house arrest.[48][49]
Haseki returned on 14 February 1789, not only with his malikhane and the voivodeship restored, but also as acting military governor of the city. His authority was thus absolute, and a veritable reign of terror began. Bellos, Nikolas Barbanos and his brother Sotirios, Petros Pittakis, Osman Bey, Balitzikos, and Bekir, were all hanged, while Avram and Mitros Kechagias were strangled later. One of his leading Turkish opponents was left to hang from the Frankish Tower of the Acropolis.[49][50] The 24 mid-ranking notables of the city were brought before a row of stakes and threatened with immediate impalement unless they could ransom themselves, and the entire Christian populace was forced to sign a collective promissory note for 400,000 piastres in money and olive oil.[48] Although the day of payment was fixed for six months after, Haseki began to collect the dues immediately, demanding five to 25 pounds (c. 500 piastres) from every citizen, payable in eight days.[51] This proved particularly onerous, forcing many of the poorer citizens to sell their houses and olive yards to provide the money. Some found refuge in flight, but then his share burdened their fellow parishioners who remained behind.[50] According to the contemporary accounts of Benizelos and Skouzes, the voivode "kept for himself all the huge income from the last oil harvest", and demanded from the public twice or thrice his expenses, and his collectors did not hesitate to beat and even kill those who could not pay. Even women were not exempt, and suffered the same as the men, so that the prisons were full.[52] According to Skouzes, who as a boy spent eight days in the prison as a surety for his father's taxes, there were always 150–250 men in the prison, as well as 25–50 women. The men were so tightly packed that there was no room to sit or relieve themselves, and Skouzes describes a smoke "like a black cloud" that went out of the window, from the stink of the place.[51]
Only the three Greek primates, and their followers, who supported Haseki, were exempted from his oppression, and even benefited from it, by buying up the properties of their less fortunate fellow citizens, as did speculators from other parts of the empire.[53] Haseki himself sought to seize property wherever he could. He would either send his own assessors to give a very low estimate of the property's value, or, if the owner were a Christian, simply confiscate it in return for a receipt that he had paid his share of the public promissory note. The Kaisariani Monastery saved itself from expropriation only by arranging to be sold to the Metropolitan of Athens.[50] He amassed a considerable estate, comprising much of the present-day Botanical Gardens, as well as over 12,000 olive trees, according to Skouzes. He built a large country mansion at the beginning of the Sacred Way, called "Tower of Haseki", and kept a large harem of women.[54] The contemporary accounts report of his attempt to include in it the beautiful Ergena, who was forced to flee to Livadeia disguised as a Turk, while her husband, Stamatis Sarris, was beaten so brutally that he remained crippled thereafter.[54]
In 1789 Athens was visited again by the plague, with repeated outbreaks in January and in March–June. At its height, it claimed 30–40 people every day, and one day, as many as 500; by the time it subsided, it had carried off 1,200 Christians and 500 Muslims. Due to the poor harvest of the previous year, and despite the efforts of the primates to procure grain from
Downfall, banishment and execution
It so happened, however, that Cezayirli Hasan Pasha's former silahdar, whom Haseki had displaced, was appointed as the new pasha of Negroponte. The holders of that office had always endeavoured to interfere in the affairs of Athens, and the new incumbent already had reasons to resent Haseki.
Haseki's final downfall came about because of his intrigues in the Sultan's court, where he tried unsuccessfully to undermine the position of the head of the imperial bodyguard in order to replace him. When the latter became aware of Haseki's machinations, he was banished to Chios.[56][58] Once again, however, Haseki managed to escape his exile, and soon returned to Constantinople. He summoned the Athenian primates there in 1794, and demanded the payment of 200,000 piastres from them.[58] Nevertheless, his position was weakened, and in 1795 the Athenians living in the Ottoman capital encouraged their compatriots to send another deputation to the Porte.[56]
The first to head to Constantinople was
As soon as he had recovered, the abbot joined with an Athenian delegation, composed of the primates Nikolas Patousas, Stavros Vrondogounis, and Spyridon Palaiologos, who carried recommendatory letters in Turkish and Greek, to ask for Haseki's expulsion. The Athenians lodged complaints with the Patriarch and with other high officials, along with judicious bribes to ensure favourable reception.
After his execution, Haseki's fortune was confiscated by the Selim III, who assigned it to the newly founded irad-ı cedid treasury, intended to support his
References
- ^ a b Sicilianos 1960, p. 134.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 3, 64.
- ^ a b Kominis 2008, p. 64.
- ^ a b Sicilianos 1960, p. 135.
- ^ a b c Artan 1996, p. 41.
- ^ a b Babinger 1960, pp. 738–739.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 5–9.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 14–15, 24–32.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 28–30.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 10–12.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 27–28, 56–63.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 32–41.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 48–51.
- ^ a b c Freely 2004, p. 23.
- ^ Miller 1921, p. 9.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 41–44, 51–52.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 80–85.
- ^ a b Miller 1921, p. 31.
- ^ a b Kominis 2008, pp. 64–65.
- ^ Kominis 2008, p. 65.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 84–86.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 134, 137.
- ^ Miller 1921, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Sicilianos 1960, p. 137.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, p. 76.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 78–79.
- ^ a b Sicilianos 1960, p. 138.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Kominis 2008, p. 19.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, p. 67.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, p. 139.
- ^ Miller 1921, p. 35.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 139–140, 354.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 140, 354–355.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, p. 355.
- ^ Miller 1921, p. 36.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Kominis 2008, p. 43.
- ^ a b Miller 1921, p. 37.
- ^ a b c d Sicilianos 1960, p. 141.
- ^ a b c Miller 1921, p. 38.
- ^ a b Sicilianos 1960, p. 142.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 141–142.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 37–38.
- ^ a b c Sicilianos 1960, p. 143.
- ^ Vryonis 2002, pp. 67–72.
- ^ a b c d e f Miller 1921, p. 39.
- ^ Sicilianos 1960, pp. 143–144.
- ^ a b c d Sicilianos 1960, p. 144.
- ^ a b c Sicilianos 1960, p. 145.
- ^ Miller 1921, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Freely 2004, p. 24.
- ^ Kominis 2008, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Skouzes 1948.
Sources
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- Skouzes, Panagiotis (1948). Georgios Valetas (ed.). Χρονικό της σκλαβωμένης Αθήνας στα χρόνια της τυρανίας του Χατζαλή, γραμμένο στα 1841 από τον αγωνιστή Παναγή Σκουζέ [Chronicle of enslaved Athens in the years of Hadj-Ali's tyranny, written in 1841 by the fighter Panagis Skouzes] (in Greek). Athens: Α. Κολολού.
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