Uluj Ali Pasha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Grand Admiral of theOttoman Fleet | |
| In office 28 October 1571 – 25 June 1587 | |
| Monarchs | Selim II andMurad III |
| Preceded by | Müezzinzade Ali Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Damad Ibrahim Pasha |
| Beylerbey ofAlgiers | |
| In office 27 June 1568 – 28 October 1571 | |
| Monarch | Selim II |
| Preceded by | Mehmed Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Arab Ahmed Pasha |
| Beylerbey ofTripoli | |
| In office 1565–1568 | |
| Monarchs | Suleiman I andSelim II |
| Preceded by | Dragut |
| Succeeded by | Yahya Pasha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Giovanni Dionigi Galeni c. 1519 |
| Died | 25 June 1587 (1587-06-26) (aged 67) |
| Resting place | Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex |
| Citizenship | Ottoman |
| Occupation | Mariner and Sailor |
| Ethnicity | Calabrian |
| Nickname(s) | Uluj Ali, Uluç Ali, Ulucciali, Uccialì, Occhiali, Occhialì, Luccialì, Uluch-Alì, Uchali, Euldj Ali, Ali Pasha |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Ottoman Empire Regency of Algiers Ottoman Tripolitania |
| Branch/service |  Ottoman Navy |
| Years of service | c. 1536–1587 |
| Rank | Grand Admiral |
| Battles/wars | Siege of Tripoli Battle of Djerba Action of 1570 Ottoman–Venetian War • Battle of Lepanto • Battle of Gozo • Siege of Navarino Conquest of Tunis Battle of Goleta |
Occhiali[a] (born Giovanni Dionigi[b] Galeni;c. 1519 – 21 June 1587), also known asUluj Ali, was anItalian privateer and admiral who served as thecommander of theRegency of Algiers andGrand Admiral (Kapudan Pasha) of theOttoman fleet.
Born Giovanni Dionigi Galeni, he was also known by several other names in the Christian countries of theMediterranean and in the literature also appears under various names.Miguel de Cervantes called himUchali in chapter XXXIX of hisDon Quixote de la Mancha. Elsewhere he was simply calledAli Pasha. John Wolf, in hisThe Barbary Coast, refers to him asEuldj Ali.
Giovanni Dionigi Galeni was born to the seaman Birno Galeni and his wife Pippa de Cicco, in the village ofLe Castella (near modernIsola di Capo Rizzuto) inCalabria,Kingdom of Naples.[3] His father wanted him to receive a religious education, but on 29 April 1536, when he was about 17, Giovanni was captured by Ali Ahmed, one of thecorsair captains ofBarbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, and was forced to serve as agalley slave.[3] As anoar slave in an Ottomangalley, he participated in theBattle of Preveza in 1538.[3] Within a few years, he converted toIslam and became a corsair in the fleet ofTurgut Reis by 1541.[3] This was not unusual at the time as many Muslim corsairs (privateers) were captured slaves who converted to Islam.[3]
He was a very able mariner and soon rose in the ranks, gaining sufficient prize booty to buy a share in a corsairbrigantine sailing out ofAlgiers.[3] Further success soon enabled him to become the captain and owner of agalley, and he gained a reputation as one of the boldest corsairreis on theBarbary Coast.[3] Uluj Ali was in the fleet ofTurgut Reis, one of the most famous corsairs in the Mediterranean, as well as an Ottoman admiral andBey ofTripoli.[3] Sailing with Turgut Reis, he also impressed the Ottoman admiralPiyale Pasha, with whom Turgut joined forces on a number of occasions.[3] Due to his success in battles, the administration of the island ofSamos in theAegean Sea was awarded to him in 1550.[3] In 1560, he was among the forces of Turgut Reis and Piyale Pasha during theBattle of Djerba.[4] In 1565 he was promoted to the rank ofBeylerbey (Chief Governor) ofAlexandria.[3] The same year he joined theSiege of Malta with the Ottoman Egyptian fleet, and when Turgut Reis was killed during the siege, Piyale Pasha appointed Uluj Ali to become Turgut's successor as Bey of Tripoli.[3] Uluj took Turgut's body to Tripoli for burial, assumed control of the province, and was subsequently confirmed asPasha ofTripoli by SultanSuleiman I.[3] In the following years he conducted numerous raids on the coasts ofSicily,Calabria andNaples.[3]
In March 1568, the vice-regency of Algiers fell vacant, and upon the recommendation of Piyale Pasha, SultanSelim II appointed Uluj Ali to become the Pasha and Beylerbey of Algiers, the most powerful of the increasingly autonomous Ottomaneyalets inNorth Africa, which were governed by the corsair-admirals appointed by the Sultan.[3] In October 1569 he turned upon theHafsid SultanMoulay Ahmad ofTunis, who had been restored to his throne bySpain.[3] Marching overland with an army of some 5000, he quickly sent Hamid and his forces fleeing and made himself ruler of Tunis. Hamid found refuge in the Spanish fort atLa Goulette outside Tunis.[3]
In July 1570, while ostensibly en route toConstantinople to ask the Sultan for more ships and men in order to evict the Spaniards from all of North Africa, Uluj Ali encountered fiveMaltese galleys, commanded by Francisco de Sant Clement, then the captain-general of the Order's galleys, near Cape Passaro in Sicily and captured four of them in theaction of 1570.[3] (Sant Clement escaped, but on returning to Malta was condemned, strangled and his body put in a sack and dumped into the harbor.[3]) This victory caused Uluj to change his mind and return to Algiers in order to celebrate. There, in early 1571, he was faced with a mutiny of thejanissaries who demanded overdue pay.[3] He decided to put to sea, leaving the mutinous soldiers to take their pay from anyone they could find and rob.[3] Having learned of the presence of a large Ottoman fleet atCoron in theMorea, he decided to join it.[3] It was the fleet commanded byMüezzinzade Ali Pasha that was to meet disaster at Lepanto a few months later.[3]
On 7 October 1571, Uluj Ali commanded the left flank of Ali Pasha's fleet in theBattle of Lepanto. He kept his squadron together in the melee, outmaneuvered his direct opponent,Giovanni Andrea Doria, and captured the flagship of theMaltese Knights with its great banner.[3] When the Ottoman defeat became obvious, he succeeded in extricating his ships, and gathered up the scattered remaining ships of the Ottoman fleet (some forty galleys and fustas) and others along the way to Constantinople, where he arrived with 87 vessels.[3] There he presented the great flag of theKnights of Malta to SultanSelim II, who gave him the honorary title ofKılıç ("Sword") and on 29 October 1571 appointed him asKapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) andBeylerbey of the Isles. He was subsequently known asKılıç Ali Pasha.[citation needed]
Piyale Pasha and Kılıç Ali Pasha immediately began to rebuild the Ottoman fleet. Kılıç Ali Pasha placed special emphasis on the construction of a number of heavier ships modeled upon the Venetiangalleasses, heavier artillery for the galleys, and firearms for the soldiers on board.[3] In June 1572, nowKapudan Pasha, he set out with 250 galleys and a large number of smaller ships to seek revenge for Lepanto.[3] He found the Christian fleet anchored in an inlet ofMorea, but his strategy of trying to lure the enemy out and inflicting damage through repeated quick thrusts meant that a full-fledged battle never materialized because the Christian fleet was too cautious to be trapped and encircled.[3]
In 1573 Kılıç Ali Pasha commanded the naval campaign on the coasts of Italy.[3] In that same year, the regency of Algiers was transferred to Arab Ahmed, andDon Juan of Austria, the victor of Lepanto, recapturedTunis.[3] In July 1574, Kılıç Ali Pashasailed to Tunis with a fleet of 250 galleys and a large army under the command ofCığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, captured the port fortress ofLa Goulette on 25 August 1574, and the city of Tunis on 13 September 1574.[5] During this expedition, on 26 July 1574, the forces of Kılıç Ali Pasha constructed an Ottoman fortress on the coastline ofMorocco, facingAndalusia in mainlandSpain.[6]
In 1576 he raided Calabria and in 1578 put down another mutiny of the janissaries in Algiers who had assassinated Arab Ahmed.[3] In 1584 he commanded a naval expedition toCrimea.[3] In 1585 he put down revolts inSyria andLebanon with the Ottoman Egyptian fleet based inAlexandria.[3]
Kılıç Ali Pasha died on 21 June 1587 in Constantinople (Istanbul). He is buried at theKılıç Ali Paşa Mosque (1580), designed by the architectMimar Sinan.
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| Preceded by | Pasha of Algiers 1568–1571 | Succeeded by |
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