The Sanjak of Avlona (Turkish: Avlonya Sancağı, Albanian: Sanxhaku i Vlorës; sometimes referred to as the Sanjak of Berat because of its county town[1]) was one of the sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire whose county town was Berat in Albania. It was established in 1466, after the construction of the Elbasan Castle of the territory that belonged to the preceding Ottoman sanjak, Sanjak of Albania.
Geography
The territory of the Sanjak of Avlona extended between the Shkumbin river to the north and the Ceraunian Mountains to the south.[2]
Valona was conquered by the Ottomans in June 1417.[6] In 1431, the Sanjak of Albania was created out of areas in present-day western Albania.[7]
At the end of the 15th century, in order to stimulate trading, Ottomans settled small community of Sephardi Jews.[8]
Gedik Ahmed Pasha was sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Avlona in 1479.[9] Bali Bey, son of Yahya Pasha, became sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Avlona in 1506.[10] Mehmed Beg Isaković, son of Isa-Beg Isaković, was appointed as sanjabey of Avlona in January 1516.[11] Muzaffer Pasha was sanjakbey of Avlona before he was appointed for the first governor of Cyprus in 1570, after Cyprus was captured by the Ottoman Empire.[12][13] Mustafa Pasha (Bin Abdullah), who had been on position of sanjakbey of Bosnia and Morea, was sanjakbey of Valona at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century.[14] Avlonya was captured by Venetians in 1690, but it was recaptured by Ottomans in 1691. In 1691, centre of sanjak was relocated to Berat and the sanjak was gradually named as Sanjak of Berat. Sari Ahmed Pasha was appointed as sanjakbey of Avlona at the end of 1712 and in the 1714 he was transferred to position of beglerbeg of Rumelia.[15] In the middle of the 18th century a sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Avlona was Ahmet Kurt Pasha from the Muzaka family who was later appointed to the position of derbendci aga (guardian of the mountain passes) which he held until the sultan appointed Ahemt's grandson, Ali Pasha Tepelena, instead of him.[16]
In 1809, the sanjakbey of the Avlona was Ibrahim Pasha.[17]
According to Eqrem Vlora members of his family were de facto (not de jure) sanjakbeys of Sanjak of Avlona in period 1481—1828.[18] In 1834 Mahmood Hamdi pasha was appointed to govern the Sanjak of Delvina, Yanina and Avlona.[19]
Ismail Kemal, the first prime minister of Albania, was elected a member of Ottoman parliament in December 1908 for the Sanjak of Berat.[20]
^The journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 12. Great Britain: Royal Geographical Society. 1842. p. 69. Retrieved 12 September 2011. he sanjak or pashalik of Avlona, or Valona, extends over the most southern part of Albania, from the banks of the river Uskombin on the north, to the range of the Kimera mountains on the South.
^Smailagic, Nerkez (1990), Leksikon Islama (in Croatian), Sarajevo: Svjetlost, ISBN978-86-01-01813-6, OCLC25241734, retrieved 28 December 2011, Da bi potakla trgovinu, vlada je tu uspostavila malu židovsku koloniju od španjolskih izbjeglica (kraj15.st.)
^Çelebi, Evliya (1967). Putopis. Svjetlost. p. 73. Retrieved 12 September 2011. Izgleda da je Bali beg, onaj sin Jahja pašin što je 1506. postao valonski sandžak (Truhelka, Tursko-slovjenski spomenici dubrovačkog arhiva, Sarajevo 1911, str. 129)
^Brozović, Dalibor (1999). Hrvatska enciklopedija, Volume 1 (in Croatian). Leksikografski zavod "Miroslav Krleža". p. 175. ISBN978-953-6036-29-5. Retrieved 14 September 2011. Mehmed-beg...Od siječnja 1516. bio je sandžak-beg Valone, a od listopada 1516. sandžak-beg Jeruzalema i Gaze. Nakon toga živio je u Sarajevu, gdje je podigao džamiju te prvi bezistan pokraj Kolobara hana
^Celâl Güzel, Hasan; Cem Oğuz; Osman Karatay; Murat Ocak (2002). The Turks: Ottomans (2 v. ). Yeni Türkiye. ISBN978-975-6782-55-2. Immediately after the fall of Lefkosa (Nicosia) on September 9, 1570, the Ottoman administration was started to be established and Cyprus was deemed as a province and Muzaffer Pasha, the Sancak Beg of Avlonia, was appointed as the
^Prilozi: Contributions / Macedonian Academy of Sciences and arts. Section for Social Sciences, Volume 9 (in Macedonian). Makedonska akademija na naukite i umetnostite. Oddelenie za opštestveni nauki. 1978. p. 85. Retrieved 14 September 2011. Во својата службена кариера тој бил санџак-бег во разни области, на пример: Босна, Морсја, Валона, Драч нтн., така што достигнал и до функцијата везир. ...Презименето во Мустафа Паша му било "bin Abdullah"
^Viktor Novak, ed. (1971). Istoriski časopis, Volumes 18-19. Srpska akademija nauka. Istoriski institut. p. 312. Retrieved 14 September 2011. али су га Црногорци потукли на Цареву Лазу. Зато је, средином 1712, поново враћен под Хотин. Крајем исте године додељен му је санџак Валона, а затим Јањина и Скадар. Крајем 1714. премештен је за румелијског беглербега
^Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1842). The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Longman. p. 145. OCLC499852560. Retrieved 12 September 2011. In 1809...Ibrahim Pasha of Avlona... The pretext of this war was the secret negotiations which had been carried on between Ibrahim and the French, but the real object was the possession of the sanjak of Avlona, the most extensive in Albania, and which commands the entrance...
^Vlora, Eqrem (1968), Lebenserinnerungen, vol. 1, archived from the original on 2016-03-04, retrieved 28 December 2011, The members of his family held this position almost without interruption from 1481 to 1828, hereditarily not de jure, but de facto.
^sir Grenville Temple Temple (10th bart.) (1836). Excursions in the Mediterranean. p. 277. Retrieved 23 July 2013. Mahmood Hamdi pasha confirmed to the sanjaks of Yanina, Delvina, and Avlonia{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)