Ahmed or Ahmed Karamanli or Qaramanli or al-Qaramanli, (most commonly Ahmed Karamanli) (1686–1745) was of

Janissary A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ...

origin and a Member from the Karamanids.The City in the Islamic world, Volume 1,

Salma Khadra Jayyusi Salma Khadra Jayyusi ( ar, سلمى الخضراء الجيوسي; born 1926 or 1927) is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provi ...

, Renata Holod, Attilio Petruccioli, André Raymond, 2008, page 394 He founded the Karamanli dynasty (1711–1835) of

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

or Tripoli (in present-day

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

). He reigned (1711–1745), as the first Karamanli Pasha of

. In the early 18th century, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

was losing its grip on its

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

n holdings, including Tripoli. A period of civil war ensued, with no ruler able to hold office for more than a year. Ahmed Karamanli, a Janissary and popular cavalry officer, murdered the Ottoman governor and seized the throne in the 1711 Karamanli coup. After persuading the Ottomans to recognize him as governor, Ahmed established himself as pasha and made his post hereditary. Though Tripoli continued to pay nominal tribute to the Ottoman

padishah Padishah ( fa, پادشاه; ; from Persian: r Old Persian: *">Old_Persian.html" ;"title="r Old Persian">r Old Persian: * 'master', and ''shāh'', 'king'), sometimes Romanization of Persian, romanised as padeshah or padshah ( fa, پادشاه ...

, it acted otherwise as an independent kingdom. An intelligent and able man, Ahmed greatly expanded his city's economy, particularly through the employment of corsairs on crucial

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

shipping routes. Nations that wished to protect their ships from the corsairs were forced to pay tribute to the pasha. On land, Ahmed expanded Tripoli's control as far as

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

and

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

before his death in 1745. Ahmed's successors proved less capable rulers, however, and the kingdom was soon wracked by internal strife. The Karamanli dynasty would end a century later as the Ottomans retook control.

References

*McLachlan, K. S. "Tripoli and Tripolitania: Conflict and Cohesion during the Period of the Barbary Corsairs (1551-1850)". ''Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series'' 3.3 (1978): 285–294. * Nora Lafi. "Une villed du Maghreb entre ancien régime et réformes ottomanes"; Tripoli 1795–1911, Paris, 2002

External links

US Country Studies: Karamanlis
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060813060134/http://www.hostkingdom.net/noafrica.html#Tripoli#Tripoli Hostkingdom.net's History and list of rulers of Tripolitania {{DEFAULTSORT:Karamanli, Ahmed 1686 births 1745 deaths Ahmed Karamanli Turkic rulers Ottoman Tripolitania Greek slaves from the Ottoman Empire Libyan people of Turkish descent

See also

References

External links