Ali Pasha of Ioannina (?1750-1822), the Ottoman-appointed governor of the northern mainland of Greece, was a towering figure in Ottoman, Greek, and European history. Based on an array of literatures, paintings, and musical scores, this is the first English-language critical biography about him in recent decades. K. E. Fleming shows that the British and French diplomatic experience of Ali was at odds with the ""orientalist"" literatures that he inspired. Dubbed by Byron the ""Muslim Bonaparte,"" Ali enjoyed a position of diplomatic strength in the eastern Adriatic; in his attempt to secede from the Ottoman state, he cleverly took advantage of the diplomatic relations of Britain, Russia, France, and Venice. As he reached the peak of his powers, however, European accounts of him portrayed him in ever more ""orientalist"" terms--as irrational, despotic, cruel, and undependable. Fleming focuses on the tension between these two experiences of Ali--the diplomatic and the cultural.
She also places the history of modern Greece in the context of European history, as well as that of Ottoman decline, and demonstrates the ways in which contemporary European visions of Greece, particularly those generated by Romanticist philhellenism, contributed to a unique form of ""orientalism"" in the south Balkans. Greece, a territory never formally colonized by Western Europe, was subject instead to a surrogate form of colonial control--one in which the country's history and culture, rather than its actual land, was annexed, invaded, and colonized. Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
By:
K. E. Fleming
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 30
Dimensions:
Height: 279mm,
Width: 216mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 794g
ISBN: 9780691631431
ISBN 10: 0691631433
Series: Princeton Legacy Library
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 28 June 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1Introduction32Historiography, Historical Context, Sources, and a Brief Biography183Ali and the Economy of Ioannina364Ethnicity, Language, and Religion: The Bases for Nationalism within Ali's Borders575The European Context: An Overview706Initial Contact with the French787The Russo-Turkish Alliance, the Septinsular Republic, and the British958Orientalist Strategies1189Orientalist Themes13510Ali's Manipulation of the Orientalist Image15611Conclusion181Bibliography187Index201
Reviews for The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece
""K. E. Fleming . . . raises significant questions about the dynamic complexity of cultural representation. [She] invites the critical rethinking of a number of crucial notions such as hegemony, power, and history.""—Liana H. Theodoratou, New York University ""K. E. Fleming shows that the cultural representation of Ali Pasha by the West was not simply nor mainly a way of dominating him. It was also a process by which Ali Pasha was able to limit that domination, and, for a time, even turn it around. An interesting and sound undertaking.""—Traian Stoianovich, Rutgers University
