Ali Pasha Tepelena, with his military and diplomatic activity and the strong opposition he had made to the Ottoman Empire, with claims for the secession of the Albanian lands from the rule of Istanbul, ranks among the greatest personalities of the nation, alongside Skënderbeu, Gjergj Arianit , Halil Patrona, Mehmed Ali Pasha and dozens of viziers of Albanian origin who had acted and ruled during the time of the Ottoman Empire. The figure of Ali Pasha Tepelena has been a source of inspiration for the European romanticism of the time and has attracted the attention of the greatest personalities of the time, especially Napoleon Bonaparte, who considered him a worthy opponent. The English romantic Charles Gordon Byron, the French guide Pukëvil and others have written about Ali Pasha Tepelena. Hungary’s greatest apothecary of the 19th century, Jokai Mor wrote the novel, “The last days of the Janissaries, (The Lion of Ioannina). His attitude, heroism, diplomacy but in some moments even his rudeness have been and remain the object of study for historians, diplomats, writers, playwrights and poets.
Even the people’s memory has immortalized the magnificent figure of Ali Pasha Tepelena in dozens of songs among the most devoted everywhere in the Albanian lands. Songs about Ali Pasha Tepelena are sung everywhere in the Albanian lands by Toska and Gega, Muslims and Christians, Arvanites and Arbëreshes.
Aliu, the son of Veliu, was born in Tepelena , in the Spartan Albanian province of   Labëriof a family of military feudal lords and soon distinguished himself for his abilities and the energy with which he pursued his ambitious plans to become the sole ruler of the country. For this purpose, he is said to have used all means, violence, cunning, as well as family ties with other local feudal lords. His grandfather Myftari died with a sword in his hand, during the Ottoman expedition against Corfu in 1716. The death of his father, Veli, destroyed many families. Ali would unite a group of insurgents in his youth. He was responsible for various raids, until his arrest by the Pasha of Berat. He managed, however, to escape punishment by entering his service. He then went into the service of an enemy of the Pasha of Berat, the Pasha of Delvina. Ali married a daughter of the latter. She gave him two sons who were named: Myftar and Veli. It was not long for him to intrigue against his father-in-law. He hopes, after his execution, to inherit his pashalak.
In 1784 he earned the rank of Pasha as a military commander near the Vali of Rumelia in Sofia . This same year, he secured the governance of the sanjak of Delvina with war . In the years 1786-88 , he became the derbend-pasha and governor of the Sanjak of Tërhalla ( Thessaly ) and took over, especially with the support of the artisan-commercial bourgeoisie of the country, the government of the important Sanjak of Ioannina, thus extending his power over Epirusand a part of the southern Albanian lands. Around 1787, called to Constantinople Tepelena Dervenxhi Ali-Pasha (Marshal, – military title) for all of Thessaly. He was allowed to keep under him four thousand men to fight against Christian and Muslim bandits. Although he had caught them alive, he did not drown them, but spared their lives and put them in service. The Sultan rewards him successfully and with the name Ali Pasha (Pasha in Turkish) in Trikala, Thessaly.
As a large landowner, undertaker of state taxes, as an active participant in commercial activity and protecting the interests of the young feudal lords and the merchant bourgeoisie , which he did for himself with a policy of wide religious tolerance, Ali Pasha Tepelena avoided the supporters of the Ottoman central government and the “little tyrants” as the causes of feudal anarchy in the country. He thus transformed the territories included under his rule into a virtually autonomous state formation, which differed from the other provinces of the empire in terms of order, tranquility and economic and cultural development. Ioannina became one of the most important and prosperous cities in the Western Balkans, the center of the interprovincial market ofSouthern Rumelia , which also included a number of provinces of Albania , an educational and cultural center where, in addition to Greek , Albanian was usedas a written language. In the years 1798 – 1812 , subduing the rival governors of the neighboring sanjaks as well as the self-governing provinces of Suli, Himara, etc. and taking advantage of the difficult situation of the Ottoman Empire in the period of Napoleon Bonaparte’s wars , Ali Pasha Tepelena managed to expand and strengthen his power including the territories from the bay of Preveza to approximately the river Shkumbin .The Paschal of Ioannina became a factor of international importance in the conditions when the French and Russian forces that were stationed in the Ionian Islands as well as England directed their attention to the powerful Albanian ruler and created direct diplomatic ties with him, crossing the Porta . Ali Pasha Tepelena had thus become a de facto independent ruler, but always careful not to create premature conflicts with the central government, waiting for an opportune moment to break away from it.
he efforts of Ali Pasha Tepelena to create in the years 1812 – 1819 an agreement with the feudal rulers of Northern Albania, especially with the Bushatllinj, in order to jointly face the centralist policy started by Sultan Mahmut II , did not yield results. The rivalry between the Vizier of Ioannina and that of Shkodra pushed Mustafa Pasha Bushatliu to openly take the side of the Porte, when it began to plan military measures against the governor of Ioannina, who had already become too dangerous and was openly showing his intentions to became independent from the Porta. In the years 1820 – 1822Ali Pasha Tepelena started the war for the defense of the country from the attack of the forces of the Ottoman Empire and with this began the highest phase of the activity of the Albanian ruler to separate his possessions from the subordination of the Empire. For this purpose, he also helped the liberation movements of the Balkan peoples, especially the uprising of the Greek people, to which he gave great help both in the years of preparation and during the first year of its development. But the war alliance associated with the Greek insurgents of Aetolia and Acarnania could not develop further, it was sabotaged by the leaders of this movement.
Although the forces of Ali Pasha Tepelena in these conditions only faced the Ottoman armies that were sent against the Pasha of Ioannina, Ali Pasha Tepelena withstood the siege for a year and a half. Finally abandoned by his sons and other provincial rulers, Ali Pasha Tepelena made a persistent resistance, until, stuck on an island in Lake Ioannina , he was finally killed treacherously.
Ali Pasha Tepelena’s policy aimed at the autonomy and unification of the Albanian provinces under the rule of the Pashalak of Ioannina, and finally his open war against the Sultan, further deepened the gap between the Albanians and the Ottoman rulers and helped to prepare the ground for a new higher stage of the anti-Ottoman liberation movement of the Albanian people for the National Renaissance.
