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Pashalik of Yanina

The Pashalik of Yanina, sometimes referred to as the Pashalik of Ioannina or Pashalik of Janina, was an autonomous pashalik within the Ottoman Empire between 1787 and 1822 covering large areas of Albania, Greece, and North Macedonia. Under the Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha, the pashalik acquired a high degree of autonomy and even managed to stay de facto independent,[a] though this was never officially recognized by the Ottoman Empire. Conceiving his territory in increasingly independent terms, Ali Pasha's correspondence and foreign Western correspondence frequently refer to the territories under Ali's control as Albania.[5]

Not to be confused with Ioannina Eyalet, Janina vilayet, or Sanjak of Ioannina.

Pashalik of Yanina

Autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, de facto independent[a]

 

1787

1822

The capital of the Pashalik was Ioannina, which along with Tepelena were Ali's headquarters.[6] At its peak, Ali Pasha and his sons ruled over southern and central Albania, the majority of mainland Greece, including Epirus, Thessaly, West Macedonia, western Central Macedonia, Continental Greece (excluding Attica), and the Peloponnese, and parts of southwestern North Macedonia around Ohrid and Manastir.[b] The subject population of Ali's domains was quite heterogeneous, including Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Jews, Roma, Serbs, and Turks.[10][11][12] Greeks were the most numerous ethnic group,[13] while Orthodox Christians were the most numerous religious group, followed by Muslims.[10]

Economy[edit]

The territories of the Pashalik of Yanina have been characterized by a long period of international trade, mainly with Italy, and in particular with Ancona, Venice, Livorno, and Padua. Ioannina's trade was based on exporting both valueadded and crude goods and importing western luxury items.[75]


Ioannina's textile products had a wide trade distribution. Silk braid, blankets, scarves, gold and silver thread, and embroidered slippers and garments were among the main commercial products exported to Italy and sold throughout the Balkans.[76] Ali by making Ioannina stronger for his own advancement had provided the Greek merchant class a platform from which to expand their perspectives and activities.[77]



Crude goods were also widely exported from Ali Pasha's territory. There was a developed wood industry in the area, which also provided the resin that had a wide local trade. For a long period lumber from northern Epirus and southern Albania was exported from Ioannina to Toulon and used by the French for shipbuilding. The British gained control of the Ionian Islands in 1809; after then they became the major commercial partner of the region lumber trade was continued with the English. Ioannina exported fruits like lemons, oranges, and hazelnuts produced in Arta, but also olive oil, corn, and Albanian tobacco, the latter being particularly in demand for snuff. Albanian horses were sold and exported throughout the Balkans.[78]


Ioannina also operated as the hub for the distribution of many imports from different European regions, which were brought to the capital of the Pashalik on horseback from eastern Adriatic ports such as Preveza, Vlorë, and Durrës.[78]

Demography[edit]

The population of the Pashalik of Yanina under Ali's rule was quite heterogeneous, including a multitude of ethnic groups and religious groups. Among the ethnic groups there were Greeks, Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Jews, Roma, Serbs, Turks. Among the religious groups there were Orthodox Christians, Muslims (mainly Sunni, but also Bektashi and other Sufi orders) and Jews.[79]


The sole contemporary source specifically about the demography of Ali's state is from French diplomat and military commander Jean-Baptiste Bessières (1768 – 1813),[80] who reported for the early 19th century that the population of the geographical space under Ali Pasha's rule consisted of 1,430,000 inhabitants, of which 748,000 were "Greeks", 662,000 "Muslims", and 20,000 "Jews". According to Hoxha (2007) "Greeks" included both ethnic Greeks and Orthodox Albanians.[80] Extensive descriptions on the demography of the areas governed by Ali Pasha were offered by Athanasios Psalidas, counselor of Ali and leading contemporary scholar in Ioannina.[81] Fleming (1999) asserts that the Greek Orthodox Christians were the religious majority in the region, defining themselves "Orthodox" explicitly in opposition to Catholic Christians of northern Albania, as well as to "Latins" of the later Byzantine Empire.[82] Based on estimates by Dakin (1955) according to which the population of mainland Greece consisted of 1,500,000 "Greeks" and 150,000 "Turks" at the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, as well as on estiamates by Colonel William Martin Leake in 1822 according to which the population of mainland Greece was in total at most one million and with a ratio of "Greeks" to "Turks" about the same ratio as Dakin's estimates, Fleming (1999) states that "Greeks" outnumbered "Turks" by ten to one in mainland Greece, which according to her was virtually all under Ali Pasha's and his sons' rule from the first decade of the 19th century, concluding that the population of Ali's territories was predominantly Greek speaking.[83] According to Hoxha (2007) the population of Ali Pasha's state consisted mostly of Albanians and Greeks, with a minority of Aromanians and Jews.[80] Heraclides & Kromidha (2023) consider Greeks to have been the most numerous ethnic group, because the pashalik included a large part of Central Greece, most of Thessaly, a part of central Macedonia and other parts of southern Albania and even included also Patras in the Morea.[84]


Athanasios Psalidas, a local scholar from Yanina and adviser of Ali Pasha stated that the main ethnic-religious groups in southern Albania were: Christian Greeks, Christian Albanians and Muslim Albanians. According to Psalidas, Christian Greeks lived in most villages of Dropull valley, seven villages near Delvinë and 3 villages in Himara. Christian Albanians lived in the regions of Lunxhëria and Zagoria, in part of the villages of Himara, Delvinë, Përmet and Kolonjë and in 20 villages in Korçë, while southern Albania outside these villages and regions was almost entirely composed of Muslim Albanians.[85] A region which straddled the modern Albania-Greek border in the era of Psalidas was Chameria which included the modern prefectures of Thesprotia (Greece), part of Sarandë and Delvinë districts. For Psalidas, this region was inhabited by Albanians (Christians and Muslims) and Christian Greeks, the latter being the more numerous population.[86] Hoxha stated that in the regions of southern Albania and Chameria the Albanians were the dominant population, and there were also Aromanians, a small number of Greeks (mainly in the Dropull valley and villages of Himara) and few Turks and Jews.[80][87] Ioannina and its surrounding areas were largely Greek speaking,[24] but there was a large mixture of Albanians, Greeks, Aromanians and a considerable number of Jews.[80] Greek was the language of the great majority of Ali's subjects in central Greece and the Morea.[12] Spreading of Albanians into Greece and Macedonia occurred through the advantage they gained during the authority of the Albanian ruler Ali Pasha.[88]


Through Greek educational efforts from the mid-19th century in Greece, especially in the areas which composed the Pashalik of Yanina until 1822 the Albanian population, which was for a large part Orthodox Christian, experienced a substantial Hellenization.[89]

Albania under the Ottoman Empire

Greece under the Ottoman Empire

Albanian Pashaliks

Pashalik of Berat

Pashalik of Scutari

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