The Life of Ali Pacha, of Jannina, Late Vizier of Epirus, Surnamed Aslan, or the Lion. Including a Compendious History of Modern Greece. Second Edition, with considerable alterations and additions

Description

Original half red calf, marbled paper to boards. Raised bands and remains of gilt decor, rubbed, to spine. Spine label lost, though impression of title remains. Sunning to spine. Wear to board edges. 8vo (14.3 x 21.7cm). All edges speckled red, top edges darkened. Front endpapers cracked at gutter; rear endpapers just starting. Child’s pencil doodle of man in tailcoat and horse to blank front endpage. Portrait frontis, plate of Ali Pacha with facsimile signature, folding view of ‘Yannina’, and folding map (slight loss to margin not affecting map). Mild offsetting from map to following page. Very minor scattered foxing. Published anonymously; apparently a translation of the 1822 ‘Vie d’Ali Pacha, visir de Janina, surnommé Aslan, ou le Lion’, by French historian Alphonse de Beauchamp, although the preface to this English edition sees the editor acknowledge ‘Mr. Theophilus Richards, from whose interesting diary a great proportion of the matter in the following volume has been drawn’ (p. vi). Ali Pasha (1740-1822), an Albanian ruler who served as Ottoman pasha of Yanina (Ioannina or Yannena). Despite nominally holding his position only through his appointment by the Ottoman Sultan, Ali Pasha established himself as the ruler of an almost independent state, which included a large part of Albania and mainland Greece. Ultimately, he was declared an enemy of the Sublime Porte and, after two years of warfare, was killed and beheaded in 1822; his head was displayed outside the Sultan’s palace. He remains a hugely significant figure in the history of both Greece and Albania. Robust packaging. Tracking can be added to overseas orders on request.