THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

ALI PASHA 25
romance of the Middle Ages rather than a chapter in
modern history.
Born at Tepeleni in Epirus,
in the
year 1741, of Albanian parents, the boy's surroundings
impressed on him from the first the untamed and
savage character of his race. His father had died,
whilst he was still an infant, and his mother, Khamko, a
woman of extraordinary character, had, on pretext of
securing the rights of her children, exchanged the veil
for the sword, and, gathering about her a band of fierce
At last,
warriors, terrorised the surrounding country.
betrayed into an ambuscade, she and her daughter had
been imprisoned and insulted by the men of Gardiki
and Kormovo.
Eeleased through the generosity of a
Greek merchant, Khamko had, after this, nurtured in
the breast of her son a lust for vengeance, none the less
fierce that it was content to bide its time; and to revenge
his mother's dishonour became the supreme object
of Ali's life. It
was this passion of hate, no less
than his devouring ambition and inexhaustible avarice,
that caused him to embark on a career which ultimately
led him to measure his strength against the Ottoman
power, and so compassed his downfall;
not, however,
before his vengeance had been satisfied and, after
thirty years, the wrong suffered by his family atoned
for by a holocaust of innocent victims.
At the outset a mere cattle stealer and brigand