Muhtar Pasha

Muhtar Pasha (also Mukhtar Pasha, born before 1770) was an Ottoman Albanian ruler and the son of Ali Pasha of the increasingly independent Pashalik of Yanina. He was appointed governor of the Sanjak of Karli-Eli and the Sanjak of Eğriboz in 1792, stretching Ali's control down to Livadia and the Gulf of Corinth, except Attica. He also became governor of the Sanjak of Ohrid in 1796–7, and of the Sanjak of Vlorë and Berat in 1810.

Biography A member of the Albanian Meçohysaj clan, Muhtar was the first son of Ali Pasha and his wife Emine, the daughter of Kaplan Pasha of Gjirokastër. Happy and open in his youth, Muhtar grew up to be gloomy and ferocious as an adult and led an intemperate lifestyle; English archaeologist and writer Charles Robert Cockerell, who spent time in Ali Pasha's court and realm, contrasted Muhtar's lifestyle with Ali's austere sobriety, and noted that he lacked the grace and conversational abilities of his father but was still in good-humour.

Muhtar was given powerful positions, as well as control over Karli-Eli and Euboea in 1792. In that same year, Muhtar aided his father in commanding his campaign against the Souliotes. In 1794, three daughters of Ibrahim Pasha of Vlorë and Berat were married to Muhtar, his brother Veli, and Ali's nephew Mahmud Bey respectively to improve the relations between the pashaliks of Ali and Ibrahim. Ali's relationship with Muhtar at this time was less cordial than his relationship with his other son, Veli.

In 1796, upon the death of Kara Mahmud Bushati of Shkodër in the battle of Krusi during his invasion of modern-day Montenegro, one of his holdings, the Sanjak of Ohrid, temporarily passed to Muhtar, formalizing the spread of Ali Pasha's influence in the north. During the winter of 1797-1798, Ali was forced to deal with regional conflicts at the request of the Ottomans, particularly against the rebel governor Osman Pazvantoğlu who had begun carving out his own polity centred around Vidin in modern Bulgaria. The Ottomans had already dispatched an army to deal with Pazvantoğlu and sent for Ali's help, and although he tried to avoid attending the campaign so as to avoid appearing subservient to the Sultan in the face of his new French allies, he was ultimately forced to attend with an army of 20,000 Albanians and left Muhtar in charge in Janina. When the French declared war on the Ottomans and initiated their invasion of Egypt, they also attempted to incite revolts in Epirus, particularly amongst the Souliotes. As Ali was still on campaign in the Danube, Muhtar kept his father informed regarding the subversive activities of the French, which prompted Ali to obtain dispensation from the Sultan and return home to deal with the issue.

After conquering Butrint and Igoumenitsa from the French, Ali attacked the town of Preveza in October 1798. In the ensuing battle for the town, which occurred on the 12th of October, Muhtar himself led a cavalry charge, and Ali's troops emerged victorious. Ali then ordered the execution of a number of captives, but the commander of the French engineers, officer Louis-Auguste Camus de Richemont, was spared after Muhtar's personal intervention, as Muhtar had been impressed by his bravery.

Ali Pasha's third son, Selim, was born to one of Ali's slaves at the end of 1802. Muhtar was delivered the news by a Tatar messenger, and upon hearing that he had a brother, Muhtar shot the messenger dead on the spot. Around 1805, Ali Pasha's forces seized Elbasan and Muhtar took his residency there. French diplomat and writer François Pouqueville noted that Muhtar and Veli maintained retinues of different types of entertainers drawn from across Europe.