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Paolo Avitabile | |
|---|---|
 Painting of General Paolo Avitabile, by Carlo de Falco, oil on canvas, National Museum of San Martino, Naples | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile 25 October 1791 |
| Died | 28 March 1850(1850-03-28) (aged 58) Agerola,Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |
| Spouse | Enrichetta Coccia |
| Awards |  Légion d'Honneur Nishan-i-Shir u Khurshid.svg) Ordine di San Ferdinando e del merito Nishan-i-Daulat-i-Durrani Kaukab-i-Iqbal-i-Punjab |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | .svg) Kingdom of NaplesFirst French EmpireKingdom of the Two SiciliesQajar IranSikh Empire |
| Unit | Fauj-i-Khas |
Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile (25 October 1791 – 28 March 1850), also known asAbu Tabela (Hindko:ابوتبیلا), was a Neapolitan-Italian soldier, mercenary and adventurer.[note 1][1] A peasant's son born inAgerola, in the province ofNapoli nearSorrento (in southern Italy), he served in theNeapolitan militia during theNapoleonic wars. AfterWaterloo he drifted east like many other adventurous soldiers. In 1820 he joined the army of theShah ofPersia, attaining the rank of colonel and receiving several decorations before returning to Italy in 1824.
He joined the army of MaharajaRanjit Singh of thePunjab in 1827, and later also received various civilian appointments. In 1829 he was made administrator ofWazirabad and in 1837 he succeededHari Singh Nalwa as governor ofPeshawar.[2][1] He remained in the Punjab until the assassination of MaharajaSher Singh in 1843, after which he retired to Italy, where his rank as a general was confirmed and he was knighted.[3][2]
Avitabile was born in the town of Agerola located in the parish of Acampora on 21 October 1791 and was the son of farmers Bartolomeo Avitabile and Angela di Fortunato.[1] He was born into a large family of eight children, being the sixth born.[1] At the age of 16, Avitabile enlisted into the service of the local provincial military.[1]
The young Avitabile served in the local levies of theKingdom of Naples between 1807 and 1809, when he joined the artillery of the regular army. On 29 April 1810, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Artillery after becoming a regular soldier.[1] As a part of the Imperial Army, Avitabile served underMurat on several campaigns. In these campaigns he earned the rank of Lieutenant, as well as the command of the 15th Battery. After the fall ofNapoleon and the defeat of Murat atTolentino, Naples was restored toFerdinand I of Sicily. Avitabile retained his rank and command and joined the army of the newKingdom of Two Sicilies, where he joined thesiege of Gaeta under the command of the Austrian general Delaver. He served under the Austrian commander Baron Joseph Lauer at the siege.[1]
During this siege, he displayed great bravery and was wounded twice.[1] The general recommended him for a promotion and a decoration, but was not heard.[1] Avitabile was transferred instead to a position of lieutenant in a regiment of light infantry. It is said he quit in disgust over this treatment. His European career had come to an end in 1817, when resigned from his position.[1]
Having quit the army in Naples, Avitabile set his eyes on a career abroad.[1] His initial idea was to, as many of his countrymen, seek fortune inAmerica but this ended in a shipwreck offMarseille after travelling to the Balkans and Mediterranean.[1] While Avitabile was stranded and in-quarantine in Marseilles following the shipwreck, he was in the company of other former Napoleonic officers, one of which, Captain Beraud, advised Avitabile to seek employment in the east in the court of Qajar Persia, who were amicable to employing Europeans with military-backgrounds.[1] Avitabile at this point believed the situation in Europe was unstable and was drawn by the prospects the east presented at the time.[1] Avitabile left for Constantinople, arriving in 1818.[1]
InConstantinople he was approached by an agent of the Persian ShahFath Ali Shah recruiting European officers; in 1820, Avitabile took service with the Persian Shah.[1] He remained in this employment for six years, during which period he rose to the rank ofkhan and a grade of colonel in the Persian army.[1] Here he also metClaude August Court who would later accompany him on the travel to Punjab.[1] He had also met withAllard andVentura while in Persia.[1] Avitabile and Claud reformed the Persian military along European lines, with Avitabile gaining a reputation amongst his Persian troops for being ruthless and fear-worthy.[1] In 1826, Avitabile felt nostalgic about his homeland and therefore secured leave to return to Italy, where the sovereign of Naples presented him a gift of a box containing a Persian shawl made out of high-quality, fine cloth.[1] However, he only remained in Naples for a short-time and became disgruntled again, returning back to Persia ultimately.[1]
Avitabile was rewarded for his services by two of Persia's highest decorations as Grand Commander ofThe Lion and Sun and ofThe Two Lions and Crown, accompanied by official diplomas, but found the pay lacking.[1] When he heard favourable notice fromJean-Baptiste Ventura of his employment in Punjab, Ventura again broke up to travel further to the east.[1]
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Together with Court, Avitabile arrived inLahore in 1827 and was hired by MaharajaRanjit Singh. He was given a position with the artillery and put in charge of the arsenal and gun foundries. He was also given a civilian position as governor ofWazirabad. It would seem he was an able administrator, as he held the position for the next seven years and as a result, Wazirabad prospered.[3]
In 1834 he was appointed governor ofPeshawar, an area the Maharaja had conquered from theAfghans the previous year.
Whereas his rule of Wazirabad is described as just and rigorous, his governorship of Peshawar is depicted as a rule of "gallows and gibbets". Avitabile boasted:
"When I marched into Peshawar, I sent on in advance a number of wooden posts which my men erected around the walls of the city. The men scoffed at them and laughed at the madness of theferinghee [a disparaging local language term for Westerners], and harder still when my men came in and laid coils of rope at the foot of the posts...However, when my preparations were completed and they found one fine morning dangling from these posts, fifty of the worse characters in Peshawar, they thought different. And I repeated the exhibition every day till I had made a scarcity of brigands and murderers. Then I had to deal with the liars and tale bearers. My method with them was to cut out their tongues. When a surgeon appeared and professed to be able to restore their speech, I sent for him and cut out his tongue also. After that there was peace".[4]
With a ruthless, at times brutal, style of government, Avitabile established order in the province where he became known asAbu Tabela.Summary executions became usual, and it is said that he would have people executed by throwing them from the top ofMahabat Khan Mosque. The American adventurerAlexander Gardner wrote about Avitabile's rule in Peshawar: "Under his rule small pains are taken to distinguish between innocence and guilt, and many a man, ignorant of the alleged crime, pays for it with his life".[4] While this brutality was shocking to visiting Europeans (in the words ofSir Henry Lawrence:he acts like a savage among savage men, instead of showing them that a Christian can wield the iron sceptre without staining it by needless cruelty), it proved both successful in maintaining order and even popular among the peaceful inhabitants.
His iron-fist rule over Peshawar has made a place for him in local folklore. Even today unruly children in the city are brought to control by invoking Abu Tabela's name. In times of unrest, law-abiding citizens send a small wish for the return of an Abu Tabela to finally re-impose law and order.
The control of this strategic position brought him in contact with the British army during theFirst Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42), where he was able to render vital assistance. As governor of Peshawar, Avitabile controlled the southern entrance to theKhyber Pass, although the Maharaja did not allow for the British to move through theSikh Empire to reach the Khyber pass, he ordered Avitabile to assist the British through the pass itself, into Afghanistan. DuringElphinstone's advance in 1839, the British were well received in Peshawar and their officers received a princely treatment.Captain Havelock spent a month in Peshawar, and describes the splendour of Avitabile's court in his memoirs. He also gives a favourable characterisation of the governor:"He is, moreover, a frank, gay, and good-humoured person, as well as an excellent and skilful officer."
Avitabile was also a scholar and an engineer, who worked very closely withLehna Singh Majithia, a great Sikh engineer of his time.
When the British returned in 1842, to avenge the defeat of Elphinstone, they were given every possible assistance by Avitabile's government, while he was still in the employ of the Sikh Empire as the Afghans had been a longtime enemy of the Sikhs.
Avitabile remained in the position of Governor during the First Anglo-Afghan War until he left in 1843. Having secured his retirement in Europe, he resigned his position to return home.
As one of the few European adventurers in the area, he succeeded in building a fortune and getting away with it. He returned to Naples, where he built a grand home in San Lazzaro (Agerola). He obtained in 1844 that his place of birth, Agerola, was separated fromAmalfi and united to the "Provincia di Napoli". He died in "strange" circumstances soon after marrying a local girl: Enrichetta Coccia. The following legal battle over his inheritance, and the many distant relatives asserting their claims, madeAvitabile's cousin something of a byword in Italy.
Avitabile is a minor character inFlashman, a 1969 novel byGeorge MacDonald Fraser. The narrator describes him as a "great, grey-bearded ox of a man... the Sikhs and Afghans were more scared of him than of the Devil himself."[5]
Avitabile won honours in every country he served. The inscription on his tomb at Agerola lists:[6]
