ESSAD TOPTANI

PASHA, Albanian soldier and national leader,; born at Tirana in 1856. He was a descendant of the Toptani family who had ruled in Albania in the fifteenth century. Trained for the army, he served in Macedonia and Anatolia, and in 1897 was rewarded with the title of Pasha for his services in the war against Greece. Abdul Hamid, however, who feared the power of the Toptani family, lad the brother of E ad Pasha murdered, and the latter became the mortal enemy of the Sultan. He neverthele accepted the rank of brigadier-general, and commanded the local troops at Janina. In 1908 he joined the Yourg Turks, and was one of the deputation which brought the news of his deposition to the Sultan. He was in command of the troops at Scutari, when the powers declared in favour of the autonomy of Albania in 1912. H ad Pasha had hoped to be chosen ruler of the new state of Albania created by the Treaty of London, but as the Prince of Wied had been appointed mbret, he accepted the office of Minister of War and of the Interior. Suspected by the mbret he was compelled to fice from Durazzo. After the departure of the Prince of Wied, at the outbreak of the European War, he returned to Durazzo, and was appointed by the Senate (on 5th Oct., 1914) President of the Provisional Government. In spite of Austrian 224 ESSAY advances he declared war on the Central Powers, and escaped when the Austrians entered Albania. He rendered valuable services to the Allies at Salonica, but the Italians, who saw in the Pasha an enemy to their own views upon Albania, refused to grant him permi ion to return to his country. E ad Pasha, therefore, remained in Paris, where he was a a inated by an Albanian student named Averic Rustem on 13th June, 1920. The a a in was acquitted by a French jury in December of the same year, prominent Albanians having pleaded in favour of the murderer, and maintained that the Pasha was an ambitious adventurer and a traitor to his country.