Ali Pasha

Who was Ali Pasha?

Ali Pasha of Tepelena or of Yannina, surnamed Aslan, "the Lion", or the "Lion of Yannina", was an Ottoman Albanian ruler of the western part of Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territory, which was referred to as the Pashalik of Yanina. His court was in Ioannina, but the territory he governed incorporated most of Epirus and the western parts of Thessaly and Greek Macedonia in Northern Greece. Ali had three sons: Ahmet Muhtar Pasha, Veli Pasha of Morea and Salih Pasha of Vlore. Ali Pasha of Tepelena died fighting in 1822 at the age of 81 or 82.