Antoni Aleksander Iliński

Who was Antoni Aleksander Iliński?

Antoni Aleksander Iliński, also known as Iskender Pasha, 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 in 1844 and subsequently served in various commanding posts in the Ottoman Army during the reign of Abdülmecid I in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Danube, Crimea, Transcaucasia, and Baghdad. He was promoted to the rank of Pasha during the Crimean War in 1855.