The New International Encyclopædia/Mehemet Ali Pasha

1394845The New International Encyclopædia — Mehemet Ali Pasha

MEHEMET ALI PASHA, pȧ-shä' (1827-78). A Turkish soldier. He was born in Prussia, and his name originally was Karl Detroit. In 1843 he ran away to sea and embarked for Turkey. Aali Pasha, later Grand Vizier, took an interest in him, and in 1846 sent him to a military school. He received a commission in the Ottoman army in 1853, and fought against Russia. In 1865 he was made a brigadier-general and pasha; in 1875-76 he commanded in Bosnia, and in the war of 1877-78 against Russia he was at the head of the Turkish army in Bulgaria. He was successful in his operations on the River Lom (August-September, 1877), but was afterward forced back by the enemy. He failed to effect a junction with Suleiman Pasha and was superseded by the latter. He was second plenipotentiary at the Berlin Congress, and on his return was sent to Albania, where he was mobbed and killed by insurgents at Diakova, September 7, 1878.