Omar Pasha
Omer Lutfi Pasha
Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1861–1862) Cretan revolt (1866–1869) | |
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Spouse(s) | Ida Hanım (divorced without issue) Adviye Hanım (with issue) |
Omer Pasha, also known as Omer Pasha Latas (
Early life
Omer Pasha was born Mihajlo Latas (Serbian: Михајло Латас), an ethnic Serb and Orthodox Christian,[1][2] in Janja Gora, at the time part of the Croatian Military Frontier of the Austrian Empire (in modern Plaški, Lika region, Croatia).[1][3]
His father Petar served in the
Military career
After escaping to Bosnia and living rough for a time, Latas was offered, in 1828, a position as tutor to the children of a Turkish merchant, on condition that he converted from Christianity to Islam and was circumcised. After his conversion he took the new name Omer Lutfi. A necessary condition to fulfill in order to get off the streets, it was a huge cultural step that led naturally to his decision that his future lay with the Ottomans. The big break came for the newly named Omer when the family moved to Constantinople. By astute networking and doubtless exploiting his curiosity value as a European ex-military man, he was appointed lecturer at the Turkish Military Academy. With this exposure he shone enough to be snapped up as aide-de-camp to the Polish–Ottoman General Wojciech Chrzanowski, who was engaged in the re-organization of the Ottoman Army after the defeat of the Janissaries.[7]
Now a major, Omer completed a mapping assignment in
In 1840-41 he led a successful expedition to quell a
There followed his command in
This was followed by a command in the Principality of Montenegro (1852)[citation needed]. His chief services were rendered when the Crimean War broke out.[11] In 1853 he successfully defended Calafat. Omar made a powerful stand at Oltenitsa in southern Romania defeating (according to Turkish accounts) a numerically-superior Russian force under the indecisive General Pyotr Dannenburg. He entered Bucharest. The Turkish ultimatum was ignored, and so on 27 October 1853 Omer Pasha marched his army over the River Danube creating what became known as The Eastern Crisis. The Great Powers called halt to the impending conflict dragging the two combatants Russia and Turkey to the negotiating table. By early December a meeting was fixed for London, and with Pasha one of the representatives. But the naval battle called the 'massacre of Sinope' put an end to any hope of peace.
In January 1854 he successfully persuaded Lord Raglan to keep his word by reinforcing Varna, while the French remained deeply sceptical of Omar's strategy to protect the Turkish army's flank on the Lower Danube. His courageous defence of the garrison at
A later achievement was his capture of
A clear and precise military thinker, Omer Pasha took bold decisions and relentlessly followed them through. Although he had a reputation as a strict and ruthless disciplinarian, he was revered and respected by his men. A true professional, while the other allies struggled to come to grips with local campaigning conditions, he had seen it all too often before.[12] Perhaps for that reason the allied troops found his expression cold and uninterested when seated on his horse plodding round their lines.[citation needed]
Timeline
- Tutor in the household of Hussein Pasha, Governor of Widdin.
- 1834 - Writing master in a military school at Constantinople.
- Instructor to Abdulmejid, heir apparent to the throne.
- 1842 - Appointed Governor of Lebanon.[13]
- 1843 - Repressed insurrection in Albania.
- 1846 - Repressed insurrection in Kurdistan.
- 1850 - executed Bosniakelite
- 1852 - defeated the Montenegrins under Prince Danilo
- 1853 - Olteniţa.
- 1854 - Successfully defended
- 1855 - Repulsed the Russians at Yevpatoria, Crimea and captured Sukhumi in Caucasus.
- 1857-59 - Governor of Baghdad.
- 1862 - Defeated Montenegrin army and took possession of Cetinje.
- 1864 - Made field marshal.
- 1867 - Fought rebels in Crete.
- 1869 - Made Minister of war.
References
- ^ a b Ćirković 2004, p. 222.
- ISBN 978-0-275-98601-8.
- ISBN 978-0-521-27458-6.
- ^ Bessé & Morris 1855, p. 23.
- ^ George Julian Harney (1853). The Vanguard. J. P. Crantz. p. 40.
- ^ Georg Martin Thomas (1883). August von Jochmus' gesammelte Schriften, herausg. von G.M. Thomas.
- ^ a b c d de Bessé, Morris, p. 25
- ^ James, p. 121-122
- ^ de Bessé, Morris, p. 26
- ^ Chambler's, p. 707
- ^ Goldstein, p. 24
- ^ de Bessé, Morris, p. 26-27
- ^ Churchill, p. 63
- ^ Murdock,Fiske , pages 36-40
Sources
- Muradbegović, Ahmed (1944). "Omer-paša Latas u Bosni, 1850-1852". 42. Matica hrvatska.
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(help) - Laurence Oliphant (1856). The Trans-Caucasian campaign of the Turkish army under Omer Pasha: a personal narrative. W. Blackwood and sons.
- Bessé, Alfred; Morris, Edward Joy (1855). The Turkish empire, embracing the religion, manners and customs of the people, with a memoir of the reigning sultan and Omer Pacha. s.n.
- Sweetman, John (2001). The Crimean War: 1854-1856. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781841761862.
- The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927. CUP Archive.
- ISBN 0-631-20471-7.
- Chambers's biographical dictionary: the great of all times and nations by David Patrick, Francis Hindes Groome; W. & R. Chambers, limited, 1907 page 706
- The Near East in Modern Times: The Ottoman Empire and the Balkan States to 1900, by G. G. Arnakis, Wayne S. Vucinich; Pemberton Press, 1969 pages 207, 345
- Wars and Peace Treaties, 1816-1991 by Erik Goldstein; Routledge, 1992 page 24
- The encyclopedia of nineteenth-century land warfare: an illustrated world view by Byron Farwell; W. W. Norton & Company, 2001 page 613
- The Balkan Economies C. 1800-1914: Evolution Without Development by Michael R. Palairet; Contributors: Charles Feinstein, Patrick O'Brien, Barry Supple, Peter Temin, Gianni Toniolo; Cambridge University Press, 2004 page 133
- Religious separation and political intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina by Mitja Velikonja; Texas A&M University Press, 2003 pages 85–86
- History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Barbara Jelavich; Cambridge University Press, 1983 page 345
- An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires by James S. Olson, Lee Brigance Pappas, and Nicholas C.J. Pappas; Greenwood Press (March 30, 1994) page 8
- The Druzes And The Maronites Under The Turkish Rule From 1840 To 1860 by Charles Henry Churchill; Kessinger Publishing (June 30, 2004) pages 64, 72–74,77-79
- A military history of modern Egypt: from the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War by Andrew James; Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 p121-122
- The Turkish Empire; Its Historical, Statistical, and Religious Condition: Also Its Manners, Customs, Etc. by Alfred de Bessé, Edward Joy Morris, Contributors: John Fagan and Thomas S. Sinclair; Lindsay & Blakiston, 1854 pages 24–27
- Murdock, Harold; Fiske, John (1889). The Reconstruction of Europe: A Sketch of the Diplomatic and Military History of Continental Europe, from the Rise to the Fall of the Second French Empire. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.