Sulejman Bargjini

For other people with the same name, see Suleiman Pasha.

Sulejman Pashë Bargjini (also known as Sulejman Pasha) was a general of the Ottoman Empire. He was originally from Bargjin, but he settled in the village of Mullet, Albania[1] and probably served as a Janissary, he was given the title Pasha. He transformed the existing settlement of Tirana,[2] now the capital of Albania, in 1614 into an oriental-style town of those times. At the time he had built a mosque (the Sylejman Pasha Mosque), a bakery and a hammam (Turkish sauna). Tirana soon became the center of Albanian art, culture and religion (especially with the Spread of Islam and the Bektashi Sufism), it became famous because of its strategic position at the heart of Albania.

A statue of Sulejman Pasha stands in the square named after him in downtown Tirana. A small street in another part of Tirana also bears his name.

Sulejman Pasha was responsible for the massacre of an unarmed population near the Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora and villages in the surrounding area. From 19th to 21st of July his regular army and mercenaries killed 25,500 people under his command. Another 10, 000 people, mostly young girls, were captured and sold as slaves.

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References

  1. ↑ Harald Heppner (1994). Hauptstädte in Südosteuropa: Geschichte, Funktion, nationale Symbolkraft. Böhlau Verlag Wien. pp. 137–. ISBN 978-3-205-98255-5. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  2. ↑ E. J. Van Donzel (1994), Islamic Desk Reference, E.J. Brill, p. 451, ISBN 9780585305561, OCLC 45731063, "il borgo di Tirana" is already mentioned as early as 1572


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