Omar Pasha
| Omar Pasha Serdar-ı Ekrem Ömer Paşa |
|
|---|---|
Omar Pasha, picture by Adolf Dauthage
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| Birth name | Mihajlo Latas / Михајло Латас |
| Born | 1806 Janja Gora near Plaški, Military Frontier, Austrian Empire |
| Died | 1871 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
| Allegiance |
 Austrian Empire (to 1823) Ottoman Empire (to 1871) |
| Service/branch |
 Ottoman Army
|
| Years of service | 1823-1869 |
| Rank | Field marshal |
| Commands held | Commander of Ottoman Forces in Moldavia & Wallachia |
| Battles/wars |
Albanian Revolt of 1843–1844
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| Spouse(s) | Ida Hanım (divorced without issue) Adviye Hanım (with issues) |
Albanian Revolt of 1843–1844
Kurdish Revolts
Bosnian uprising
Crimean War
Omar Pasha Latas (Turkish: , Serbian: Омер-паша Латас/Omer-paša Latas; 1806–1871) was an Ottoman general and governor. He was born in Austrian territory, to Serbian Orthodox Christian parents, and was initially an Austrian soldier. When faced with the charges of embezzlement, he fled to Ottoman Bosnia and converted to Islam, and then joined the Ottoman army where he quickly climbed in ranks. Latas crushed several rebellions throughout the Empire, and was a commander in the Crimean War, where he won outstanding victories at Silistra and Eupatoria and participated in the siege of Sevastopol.
Omar Pasha was born Mihajlo Latas (Serbian: Михајло Латас), an ethnic Serb and Orthodox Christian, in Janja Gora, at the time part of the Croatian Military Frontier of the Austrian Empire (in modern Plaški, Lika region, Croatia).
His father Petar served in the Austrian Army and in time was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Ogulin district. His uncle was an Orthodox priest. Mihajlo was an intelligent and lively child, if rather sickly. He developed a passion for the military, and on leaving school in Gospić, he went to a military school in Zadar and was accepted as a cadet in his father's Ogulin Regiment on the frontier. He had beautiful handwriting, and was assigned to clerical duties. There he might have languished, if his father had not upset someone along the corruption line and suffered a conviction for misappropriation. Mihajlo escaped charges of embezzlement, having stolen 180 florins from the military safe, by fleeing to the Ottoman Bosnia Eyalet in 1823.
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Wikipedia