Shemsi Pasha (general)
Ottoman general
Shemsi Pasha (Turkish: Şemsi Paşa, Serbo-Croatian: Šemsi-paša Biševac, Albanian: Shemsi Pasha; 1846–1908) was an Ottoman general active in the Balkans.
Biography
Early life and military career
Shemsi was born in the village of Biševo near Rožaje in 1846. Biševo was a small village within the İpek Sanjak of the Kosovo Vilayet. His father was hajji Destan Čolović and his mother was from the Hankušić family. His paternal family had distant origin in Kuči and his maternal family belonged to the Hoti tribe of Peja. Although apparently of "mixed Albanian-Bosnian background", he was known as an Albanian, according to G. Gawrych (2006).
Originating from a humble background and being unschooled, he began his military career first as a private and later was promoted to ferik (general). Shemsi as such was an alaylı (a person that rises through the army ranks to become an officer) and not a mektepli (a person who gets military school education and then enters the officer corps). At 16 years of age he volunteered in a division based in Montenegro. In 1866 he was based in Bosnia and was promoted to lieutenant and captain.
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