User:Bes-ART/sandbox2

Essad Pasha Toptani or Esad Pasha Toptani (Esad Pashë Toptani; 1863 – 13 June 1920), Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis knostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Name
He himself wrote his name in the form Essad Toptani, but in modern Albanian spelling, generally, it is used the form Esat Toptani or Esad Toptani, adding the Ottoman honorary title of Pasha or Pashë before the family name, thus creating Esat Pashë Toptani used as full name, or in some cases Esad Pashë Toptani. The name in contemporary English language journals is typically used as Essad Pasha, a form that is still used in modern literature.

Early life and family
Essad Toptani was born in c. 1863 in the so-called Sarajet e Toptaneve in what is today's city center of Tirana. The town at that time was a Kaza of the Sanjak of Durrës, which in itself was a subdivision of the Vilayet of Shkodra. Essad would become one of the most prominent members of the Toptani family, which was undoubtedly the most powerful and wealthiest landowning family in central Albania at the time. The Toptanis originated from Krujë, wherewith the dissolution of the timariot system moved to Tirana. Around 1900, the Toptanis became one of the families with the most civil and military servants at the highest levels in Constantinople. While within Durrës sanjak it was estimated that they owned about three-quarters of the usable area.

Essad was born to Ali Bey Toptani, a local leader, and Vasfije hanëm Toptani (Alizoti). Eqrem Vlora gives the most accurate genealogy of Essad's immediate family since he and his father Syrja were very close associates and had family connections to the Toptanis. While many other authors seem to be based on misconceptions circulating since the late 19th century and continue to this day. Essad had three sisters: Nejre, Sabushe and Merushe; each enjoyed the Ottoman title "hanëm" given to female members of the families with a certain status within the empire. His older and only brother Gani Bey Toptani served as adjutant to Sultan Abdülhamid II in the imperial capital of Constantinople. Apparently, both brothers had not completed a single day of school, except for a few lessons provided by private tutors paid for and incited by their father. Being illiterate would not prevent them from obtaining official positions or military ranks in the Ottoman Empire. To Essad, this fact would be often mentioned to him during his career, also he himself would not deny it, as Eqrem Vlora quotes in his Lebenserinnerungen, published posthumously.

Essad Pasha was married at a young age to Sejrie hanëm, with whom he also had two daughters, Mahmude and Petrefe. He divorced his first wife around the age of 25. At the age of 27, he went to Constantinople for the first time with the intention of marrying Fatma Şadiye hanëm Toptani (Aziz), a Turkish–Circassian woman. He stayed there only a few weeks because he had to return to Tirana, wherein in the absence of his older brother he had to manage the properties he had inherited from his father. The properties that, according to his brother-in-law Fikret Aziz, in 1920 generated an income 200,000 old francs. The power and influence of well-known families, such as that of the Toptanis, was measured not much by the amount of land they owned than by the number of men who were ready to respond to their call for war. This power had its own unit of measurement, which was "with rifles" (me pushkë), and in everyday language sayings such as that family has 500 rifles, the other 300, and so on were often heard. Such local influence, in the middle of the nineteenth century translated into considerable political power in Constantinople, resulting in Toptanis gaining many favors and privileges from the Sultan as part of the so-called Hamidian policy. Essad in particular was awarded the rank of Kaymakam and commanded as head of the local gendarmerie in Tirana. However, despite being part of an elite element of Ottoman power circles, both in the Hamidian and the Young Turk periods, Essad Pasha nevertheless had to intervene constantly on his own behalf in order to secure that privilege.

Brother's assassination and revenge
On the evening of 21 December 1898, in a Pudding Shop in the Pera district of Constantinople after a verbal conflict, apparently on the spot, Gani bey Toptani was shot dead. Gani Toptani was the older brother of Essad Pasha. The 39-year-old at the time was an adjutant to the Sultan and one of his most trusted men. The murder, due to the names of the people involved, was also covered in some western media besides the Ottoman ones. Although the killer remained undisclosed by the authorities, rumors started circulating in the capital that the shooter was Hafiz Pasha, then intendant of Ibrahim Cavid Bey. The latter was a member of the Imperial Council and also the son of Grand vizier Halil Rifat Pasha. Cavid Bey was considered as ruthless and unscrupulous person as Gani Bey himself in the capital. Some contemporary newspapers began to cite "crime of passion" as the reason for the murder, where a quarrel broke out because of a woman. While others driven by rumors, go further by saying that the assassination had a political background given the persons involved, to the extent that it was rumored that the Sultan himself was involved and he was behind the order to eliminate Gani Bey. Apparently Hafiz Pasha had no personal reason to kill Gani Bay, with whom he had been friends for months, so it was thought to be a tool in the hands of quite high circles in Constantinople. The murder of Gani Bey, despite the great commotion made at the beginning, soon began to be neglected and not talked about anymore, as if it were a normal thing that happened from time to time. But the rumors about who could be behind its organization were not left unheard in Tirana. There was a belief that the murder had been committed by order of the Grand Vizier, and perhaps even higher. Preparations for revenge had begun, and such would not be long in coming. On Saturday, 7 October 1899, around 4.pm near the Galata Bridge, Cavid Bey, the son of the Grand Vizier, had just dismounted from the carriage accompanied by his family to take the steamer for a voyage. When suddenly was shot several times by a stranger and left dead on the spot. The event created a great panic in one of the most frequented areas of Constantinople. However, on the run, an officer managed to arrest the suspect. He was a 49-year-old man dressed in typical Albanian clothes, who was later identified as Haxhi Mustafa Merlika, otherwise known by the nickname "Xhiu i Fajes", a villager from Krujë, region that was under the influence of the Toptanis. According to the investigation, Mustafa had been in Constantinople since 19 August and was staying in a guesthouse near the train station. He refused to plead guilty before the court but it was clear that he was not there by chance. Later, in the memoirs of his nephew Mustafa Merlika, it is said that he had been a servant of the Toptanis, and especially of Gani Bey Toptani with whom he had established a friendship relation. According to him, Haxhi Mustafa had gone to meet Essad Pasha days after Gani Bey's assassination and had sought approval to carry out the revenge for his master according to Albanian traditional laws of Gjakmarrja (lit. 'blood-taking'). He had asked support by helping and guiding him on how to act in Constantinople. Essad had initially refused seeing it as too risky but later agreed to cover the costs and everything needed to organize the assassination.

The legal process became extremely difficult as Albanians filled the hall creating noises and ovations, often interfering also to the sultan, who tended to make concessions only to maintain order in the peripheries of the empire. On the day of the final court decision on 10 February 1900, no Albanian was allowed to enter the courtroom. Haxhi Mustafa was sentenced to death for the crime committed, but the sultan spared his life and the sentence was converted into life imprisonment. He would be released about 8 years later during the Young Turk Revolution. In Albania, he was welcomed as a hero, to whom folk songs were composed and which are still sung to this day.

Military and early political career
In 1893, before he was in his 30s, Essad Pasha was appointed Regiment Commander of the Gendarmerie in Vilayet of Janina, the first time he had taken an official duty. According to some sources, Essad had no military experience before, but would soon be tested in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1897, Ottoman troops commanded by Ahmed Hifzi Pasha were defeated in the Battle of Pente Pigadia. Among the Turkish formations, there were also 4 battalions of Albanian volunteers, mainly Ghegs teenagers, where after the defeat they began to have distrust and dissatisfaction with the command, which later resulted in a revolt and a disorderly retreat towards Ioannina. There Essad Pasha helped restore military discipline and Turkish forces launched a counterattack that pushed the Greek armies back across the Arta River to the south. The Sublime Porte awarded Essad the Second Class Order of Osmanieh, and shortly afterward he was promoted to Mirliva. In Tirana, meanwhile, the situation had long since escalated as local authorities imposed extra taxes. The situation escalated on 9 September 1901 when influential people of Tirana, including well-known members of the Toptani family, rose in protest and occupied the Post-Telegraph office, demanding the dismissal of Mutasarrif. Although the Sublime Porte initially complied with some of their demands, the Vali of Shkodër would soon intervene and pursue the same policy, this time sending gendarmerie forces to restore order, arrest the initiators of the protest and collect arrears. The conflict situation would last throughout 1902. In Janina, things did not go well for Essad either, where he had started an open conflict with the Vali of Janina. The conflict between them was said to have lasted for a long time, the Porte sent a commission from Constantinople to resolve the conflict. The conflict had escalated into a physical conflict, where Essad used his gendarmes to surround the house of a Greek woman in the city where the Vali spent time in the company of his friend. The gendarmes, in the presence of Essad, broke down the door and dragged the governor to the city streets, insulting him. In these circumstances, the Porte considered the return of Essad Pasha to Tirana as a solution, appointing him to the post of Commander of the Gendarmerie of Shkodër, similar to the one he held in Janina. Of course, after his transfer, the Sublime Porte had taken into account the fact that members of his family, such as Abdi Bey Toptani, Fuat Bey Toptani and Masar Bey Toptani, had joined the movement rejecting local reforms and increasing tax. On 15 September 1902, Essad Pasha left for Tirana to take up the post of gendarmerie commander with the mission to suppress the revolts, establish order and reorganize the gendarmerie. Essad's arrival in Tirana was relatively successful as the Toptanis obeyed, having interests in their çifligs near Tirana and Krujë. The situation in the urban areas was calmed down, but on the contrary in the Highlands of Tirana it continued to be serious. Add to this the complicated situation on the outskirts of Shkodër where the gendarmerie forces have long been in constant confrontation with the Albanian Catholic tribes of the north, mainly those of the Malësia (lit. 'Highlands'), who also opposed Constantinople's attempts to collect taxes and recruit among the Ghegs. The Malësoris had previously enjoyed privileges under the empire by being exempt from taxes, having the right to bear arms, and benefiting from a semi-autonomy long accepted by the empire itself in exchange for a call to arms. The new imperial reforms had brought them into conflict with the northern tribes, and Essad Pasha was the best solution to bring order without going into an open conflict with the Albanians. Although with offices in Shkodër, Essad spent most of the time near his çiflig in Tirana or its environs. Essad would stay gendarmerie commander until the summer of 1908 when he would be elected deputy of the Sanjak of Durrës in the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman politics
In early 1908 Essad Pasha had sensed that the Hamidian regime was coming to an end and had left the country for some time fearing for himself because in the past he was considered a supporter of Abdülhamid II. On 25 July 1908, following the Young Turk Revolution, the restoration of the liberal constitution of the 1876 was officially announced and the autocratic regime of Sultan Abdülhamid II ended. By mid-August 1908 he would return to Shkodër, where he was still acting as head of the local gendarmerie, and the next month would meet with the Committee of Shkodra, a local branch of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), trying to persuade them and in order to pledge allegiance to the Constitution. According to Italian and Austrian sources, Essad then accompanied by a local delegation traveled to Selanik (today Thessaloniki) where he secured the support and trust of the Central Committee based there. The Central Committee would support Essad Pasha Toptani rather than his cousin Fazil Pasha Toptani, who, although he enjoyed more support from the Tirana's Local Committee, did not hesitate to occasionally oppose the CUP policies. From CUP's perspective, it was better to negotiate with a character like Essad Pasha than to let an uncontrolled figure, ready to use Albanianism against the Committee, take center stage. Although the CUP proclaimed antifeudalism as a policy to gain the support of the poor, it did not hesitate to include in its ranks the so-called Pashas, large landowners and wealthy people. Such was the case of Essad Pasha Toptani.

On 17 December 1908, Essad Pasha Toptani would join the newly elected parliament as a deputy of the Sanjak of Durrës, in the general elections held between November and early December. Albanian candidates won 26 to 29 seats out of the forty-one contested in Albania, among them: Essad Toptani, Ismail Qemali, Shahin Kolonja, Aziz Vrioni, Hasan Prishtina, Mufid Libohova, Nexhip Draga, and others divided into several political camps, but also independent MPs. Despite the constitution of a parliament in which the winners were the Young Turks, Abdülhamid's final days as sultan did not come with the constitution’s restoration but on the contrary 9 months would pass before the day his dethronement would be announced. The end of the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II would come by the end of April 1909. The events that had led to this point had begun on 17 December 1908, when with a sudden decision, the sultan announced to temporarily suspend the legislature and had considered abolishing the constitution for the second time. The worst had arrived at the night between 12 and 13 April 1909, when an armed insurrection broke out in the capital in the name of the restoration of Islam and Sharia law, thus resulting to a counter-coup. The events is known today as the 31 March Incident (according to the old Rumi calendar), which coincides with the Gregorian calendar on 13 April 1909. Behind this was accused of being the Sultan himself. The Young Turks responded by creating the Action Army led by Mahmud Shevket Pasha which marched from Selanik to Constantinople. The Young Turks emerged victorious with even greater popular support and had besieged the imperial palace, in which the sultan stood isolated for fear of bloodshed. On 27 April 1909 a delegation of military and civilian officials presented themselves before the gates of the Yıldız Palace. Essad Pasha, already an esteemed general who had served for decades under the sultan's authority, was the head of the men who had undertaken the task to dethrone the monarch. By his side were Emanuel Karasu, a Jewish member of the General Assembly and the Central Committee of the Young Turks in Selanik, Aram Efendi and Arif Hikmet Pasha, these two less known in Constantinople's high circles. Before entering the palace, the men were warned that the sultan was armed and could shoot due to his fragile state of mind. Apparently this was one of the reasons why Essad Pasha was chosen to lead the delegation. The guards of the palace were mostly Albanian, loyal to the sultan, and Essad because of his origin could be seen as the most suitable for this task. The men and their entourage entered the residence and after a short wait were invited to the main hall where the sultan was waiting for them. The sultan knew Essad Toptani very well, as it had even been one of his favorites in the past. But after the assassination of his brother where the sultan himself was thought of being behind the order for the murder, he began harbor hatred and contempt toward the sultan. However, it was nearly impossible to see such emotions in Essad's face that day. After greeting him militarily, Essad respectfully informs him that şeyhülislam (the chief Islamic jurist) had made a decision in accordance with the nation's will to depose him from the throne. He was quoted saying: —"In accordance to the fatwa, the nation has deposed you. The National Assembly takes over the safety of you and your family. For this be sure!"— while the sultan somewhat saddened, responds —"I am not guilty of anything, but so was destiny"—. The whole discussion lasted about 18 minutes. After receiving further assurances about his safety, that of his family and Essad's oath that nothing would happen to him, the delegation left. The event was described by Karasu himself the next day for the Daily Telegraph but was also described in a very similar way by Essad himself and published in Francis McCullagh's book The Fall of Abd-ul-Hamid in 1910 in London. The next day, Abdülhamid, along with his entourage and part of the harem, was taken by train to Selânik, where a long internment awaited him in Villa Allatini.

After some time Abdülhamid II, feeling betrayed by Essad Pasha, referred to him as the "wicked man". As for Essad, the whole event at Yildiz Palace, which for many would be a motive to be proud of, would be narrated as —"Every time I remember that, a sour, lemon-like taste slanders me"—.

Separation from CUP
While the Young Turk movement was in the early stages of organizing the revolution, many Albanians joined the organization. As a matter of the fact one of its founding fathers, Ibrahim Temo was Albanian. However, the conflict had found Albanians divided on both sides, some who had benefited from the sultan for years continued to remain loyal to him, but there were also those who nurtured distrust in the new regime. Essad Pasha himself had joined the movement much later, but soon secured a convenient position within its ranks. After the change of regime and the coming to power of the Young Turks, Essad does not seem to have been very active in parliamentary life, he even spent a large part of his time in Tirana, and he cared more about his own interests than about the CUP's efforts to save the empire from disintegration. Initially, the restoration of the constitution in general was well received by Albanians, as the constitutional government also promised guarantees for life, freedom, the pursuit of wealth and the right to learn the Albanian language in schools, which until then had been truncated or completely banned. During the first ten months of the revolution, 66 Albanian patriotic clubs were established with the aim of seeking and protecting their rights. But very soon the signs of a negative and repressive attitude towards Albanians would be seen. Despite the slogans of equality and fraternity, the Committee began to raise doubts about the loyalty of Albanians, noting the circulation of the "idea of independence" through Tanin, its official newspaper, and seeing it as a threat to Ottomanism. An even more radical attitude had Mahmud Shevket Pasha, who due to his role in suppressing the counter-revolution, had secured himself an independence of action in the new Young Turk regime. He was initially appointed inspector general of the 3 field armies (Istanbul, Edirne and Selanik), while in January 1910 he would be appointed Minister of War. As one contemporary later wrote: —"According to him, the only solution to the Albanian Question was the stick... Mahmud Shevket always believed in putting down revolts harshly"—. The situation would escalate with the start of the Albanian revolt of 1910 in northern provinces of Albania, mainly in Kosovo and Shkodër, where the northern tribes would take up arms against the central government and its centralization policies. After the initial underestimation of the situation in the Albanian provinces, Mahmud Shevket Pasha personally took command of an army of 35 to 40,000 troops strong, alongside Shevket Turgut Pasha newly appointed to deal with the "Albanian Question". After the suppression of the uprising in Kosovo, the army would move to Shkodër and then to Durrës. Throughout its operations, in addition to suppressing the rebels, it would use repressive measures against the local population giving orders to hand over weapons and calling for censuses to be conducted with the scope to force military conscription of young males aged 18-26. In Durres Turgut Pasha was welcomed by Essad Pasha himself who had returned to the city. On 5 August 1910, the army moved to Tirana where on arrival he declared a state of siege, threatened to imprison anyone who did not surrender their weapons, and launched a population census to recruit those who had reached the age of majority. The operation ended with the imprisonment of members of Albanian patriotic clubs formed in the city and the immediate closure of Albanian-language schools. Apparently, Essad did not like this at all, and when he returned to Constantinople, he joined other Albanian MPs critical of the regime in which the ruling party was accused of excessive use of force, imposing exclusive taxes only to Albanians, collecting weapons without warning, and publicly defaming local influential figures. Essad feared losing the local support he had spent time and money securing.

It is during this time that Essad began to assert himself again at the local level, often playing the role of mediator between the locals and Constantinople and taking advantage of the insurgent situations in the Vilayet of Kosovo. He was very active in defending the interests of the Albanians of these provinces, denouncing the military policies, massacres, and violent repression that the central government itself carried out at Albanians expense. In an interview given on 20 January 1911 to Corriere d'Italia, at the journalist's question whether the rumors about his separation from the CUP were true, Essad answers —"It is completely true. I left Union and Progress because I saw that I had no freedom of action. I found myself at such a position that I felt indifferent and what was worse, I became an accomplice to all the vicious persecutions of which my compatriots were suffering from a military government"—.

Taksim Plot and the General Revolt
The revolts of 1910-1911 had severely deteriorated relations between the Albanians and the Committee of Union and Progress government. In fact, the insurrection in the Spring of 1911 and the government's inability to introduce certain promised reforms had made the Albanians the Unionists' most bitter opponents. At the end of 1911, the numerous departures from the ranks of the CUP had led the latter to think seriously about the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies and the holding of new elections. Eventually, the parliament was officially dissolved at the instigation of CUP on 18 January 1912, paving the way for new elections to be held between March–April period. From mid-January, at the initiative of Hasan Bey Prishtina and Ismail Bey Qemali, it was decided to hold a secret meeting which would be known later as the "Taksim Plot", with the aim of organizing a general uprising in all provinces of Albania. As one of the few participants in the meeting, Essad Pasha assured it would deal with the organization of the uprising in the area of ​​Central Albania and Mirditë.

Essad Pasha without delay returned to Tirana to deal with the election campaign, where this time he ran as an independent against the CUPs' candidate Musa Qazimi. To settle down the situation in Albania, the government at the same time had sent the so-called Reform Commission headed by Interior Minister Haji Adil Arda, as well as foreign observers, such as was the case of the British consul Sir Robert Windham Graves. Sending the commission at a time when elections were taking place in the provinces in question raised suspicions that it would serve as a tool to intimidate voters and favor pro-government candidates rather than pursue the stated goal. Essad was apparently afraid of the fact that a minister coming from the CUP could have a negative impact on his re-election as a deputy in the Sanjak of Durrës, therefore his presence in Tirana was necessary. Musa Qazimi, the CUPs' candidate, was an Islamist fanatic and a proponent of centralized policies implemented during the post-revolutionary years, and who would play a central role in the following years, especially during the Peasant Uprising of 1914 in independent Albania. The commission, after visits to the province of Macedonia, moved towards the Vilayet of Kosovo, then to Mirditë and Shkodër. Minister Haji Adil Arda after meeting with prominent leaders in the area, decided to immediately dismiss the vali of Shkodra Hayri Pasha and in his place appointed Hasan Rıza Pasha who at that time served as commander of the city garrison and deputy governor. After Shkodër, the delegation headed for Sanjak of Durrës where at the border near the Mat river were met by Essad Pasha himself with his personal guard armed as if to say that the area is under his control. They headed to spend the night in the town of Krujë and were greeted by the kaymakam of the city, who was a vassal of Essad Pasha. As Sir Robert Graves points out, Essad Pasha did not leave for a single moment until late evening from the house the commission lodged, often complaining how the Young Turks had failed to recognize his merits. But as soon as the minister left, he did not hesitate to speak much harshly, how cordially he detested and feared the new regime in Turkey, whose programme if carried out would put an end to his privileged position and oblige him to fly the country. However, both Essad Pasha and Adil Bey did not hesitate also to talk about bargains between them. The minister and the central government were not keen on supporting a person with such influence as Essad, all the more so by allowing him to stay in an area where he enjoyed such influence fearing further uprisings. The next day they arrived in Tirana where the elections were taking place that same day and Essad seemed to be clearly winning in all the kazas of the sanjak without much effort. The commission's staying in Central Albania was extended by another day, as neither Essad nor minister Haji Adil wanted to leave without reaching a compromise between them. Essad was offered a suitable position in the War Ministry administration in accordance with his rank as a mirliva (general), in exchange for the subsequent handover of the newly won parliamentary mandate. According to Graves, the compromise was accepted by the Pasha and the next day he accompanied the commission in the direction of the Sanjak of Elbasan. After the election, CUP secured an overwhelming victory. The Albanian provinces were probably the only ones in the whole empire where the CUP had found a resistance, so much so that in several kazas were forced to repeat the elections and manipulate the results. Beside Essad in Durrës, in Avlona was elected Syrja Vlora who had taken the place of his cousin Ismail Qemali. Syrja Bey was considered no less problematic by CUP. In April 1912, Essad was summoned by telegram to Constantinople to take up the post of general, which was agreed upon, but which he himself had had second thoughts about and initially refused. After an ultimatum from the minister that if refused, he would be declared a traitor and arrested, he accepted. On his way to the capital, he initially went to Vlorë to meet and consult with Syrja Bey Vlora. They also had a family connection because Syrja Bey was married to Essad's first cousin, Mihri hanëm. However, after arriving in Constantinople, it appears that Essad did not hand over the mandate as promised. In fact, together with Syrja and Shahin Kolonja in the following months, they will be the most vocal opponents of the CUP, now turned into a single-party state. During his stay in Constantinople, Essad appears to have met several times with Hasan Pristina to talk about the continuation of the revolt in Kosovo and other parts of Albania. Essad's cousin, Abdi Bey Toptani, was also present at these meetings. The Albanian leaders of the Kosovo vilayet now had more reasons to take up arms, where according to their point of view, through military force and manipulation they were barred from being re-elected in parliament. The uprising began to take shape in April but intensified in July when Albanians took over several major cities in Kosovo and formulated a list of 14 conditions. That same month, in the Monastir area, a group of pro-monarchist affiliated army officers led by Tajar Bey Dibra, with an Albanian majority in their ranks deserted the garrisons taking with their weapons and ammunition. The officers, who would later be known as the "Savior Officers", gave their public support to the Albanian Cause, although the ultimate goal of the two rebel movements did not seem to be in cohesion with each other. Nevertheless, the two, gave the final blow to the government by pushing the Minister of War, Mahmud Shevket Pasha to resign, and 8 days later the government itself was overthrown. On 22 July 1912, a non-partisan government that in fact was dominated by Savior Officers and the Liberal Entente, led by the elderly field marshal Ghazi Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, was formed to resolve the situation in Rumelia and negotiate with the rebel forces.

In early August the sultan began to seriously consider the dissolution of parliament for the second time in several months. After some legal maneuvers between the Senate and him, the imperial decree was signed on August 5 and read in the Chamber of Deputies by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha at 1:00 p.m. in the presence of only a few Albanian MPs who were in favor of dissolution, among them Essad Pasha. Later, after a scene in the speaker's room, Essad Pasha Toptani behaved so violently that Halil Menteşe was forced to call the police, the Chamber of Deputies was closed by order of Damad Ferid Pasha and the cabinet convened to discuss the situation.

Siege of Scutari
During the summer of 1912, in addition to the Albanian Question, in the high circles of Constantinople fears about an imminent declaration of war coordinated by the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia began to be taken seriously. Thus, the Ministry of War began to organize a defense in areas at risk of invasion. Among them were the southern city of Janina, bordering Greece and in the north the city of Shkodër, long desired by the Russian-backed small monarchy of Montenegro. Hasan Riza Pasha, at the time the governor of Shkodra, considering insufficient troops and weapons available for the city's defense, sends a telegram to the Ministry of War specifically requesting the general staff to send Essad Pasha with reinforcements as soon as possible. This request was argued by the fact that the Muslim community of Shkodra had asked that the Pasha comes to their aid, but also by the fact that Riza Pasha considered Essad as an influential man and a good connoisseur of the fragile situation between the religious communities, having served for years as Commander of the Gendarmerie in the city. As a result of these fears, in August of that year, Essad Pasha would be instructed to return to the Sanjak of Durrës and mobilize the redifs (reservist) troops and local volunteers as soon as possible and head for Shkodër as soon as possible to join the city's garrison.

The Ottoman suspicions were confirmed when on 8 October 1912, Montenegro submitted to the Sublime Porte an ultimatum to be expired 13th of the same month. The demands were deliberately unfulfillable and consequently the official declaration of war came on the day set. Four days after, on 17 October one after another, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia followed by declaring the same by officially starting the First Balkan War. Weeks prior, the aligned kingdoms had formed an alliance known as the Balkan League. Hasan Riza Pasha was in charge of 13,600 thousand Ottoman imperial soldiers who were deployed to defend the city. As for the involvement or circumstances in which Essad Pasha joined the defense, the sources are divided. Some sources report that at the beginning of October he was near Elbasan at the head of a corps of about 10,000 militants and only on October 25 he would join the defense of the city. However, in light of archival documents and recently discovered diplomatic letters, it is suggested that all happened weeks earlier and the militants were much less than 10,000. Essad Pasha started organizing and summoning of the redifs in mid-September and within a few weeks under his command were placed around 5500 Albanian reservists and volunteers from Durrës, Tirana, Kavaja, Kruja and Shijaku. On 27 September, he headed for Shkodra but in the Breg Matja area, his troops would encounter armed opposition from Ded Çoku and his followers, mostly Catholic tribes of the area. The suspicions were that as an Ottoman officer, Essad Pasha had been sent to launch another retaliation against the northern tribes who a few months earlier had revolted against the empire. In these circumstances, Essad Pasha ordered the artillery and a part of the logistics to be sent through the port of Durrës by ships, while he himself set out to face the troops of Ded Çoku. After several short skirmishes, the rebel troops withdrew and Essad Pasha managed to break the blockade and decided to leave two battalions in Zadrima to ensure the further passage of reinforcements and materials. The reservist army led by Essad Pasha, would arrive in Shkodra on 3 October 1912. Considering his military rank but also the substantial number of reinforcements he had managed to gather around himself, Essad Pasha was appointed second in command by Hasan Riza Pasha.

Peasant Revolt
He reluctantly stepped down when forced to do so by the Great Powers on 1 February 1914, being given as a consolation prize the right to lead the Albanian delegation that travelled to Neuwied on the Rhine, in Germany, to offer the Albanian throne to Prince Wilhem zu Wied. Back in Albania, relations between the Prince and the scheming Toptani, now minister of war and minister of the interior soon soured. Essad Pasha led a faction of his own in the Peasant Revolt in Albania against Prince Wilhem. He was the only person in Albania to have a self-contained army of his own, and strove to grab as much of the country as he could. On 9 January, his men tried to take Elbasan, but they were repulsed by the governor of the town, Aqif Pasha Elbasani.

On 19 May 1914, when Toptani refused to lay down his weapons, armed forces under Dutch gendarmerie officer Johan Sluys surrounded and shelled his house in Durrës, forcing him to surrender. He was arrested for conspiracy, though after consultations with Prince zu Wied, he was not court-martialled but sent to Bari in southern Italy and banned from returning to Albania.

Exile and the Treaty of Niš
From exile in Rome, he maintained close links with the Serbian and Montenegrin governments. After the outbreak of the First World War, Toptani travelled to Niš, Kingdom of Serbia, where he and Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić signed the secret Treaty of Serbian-Albanian Alliance on 17 September 1914. With Italian and Serbian financial backing he established armed forces, Toptani invaded Dibër on 20 September, and by 3 October 1914 he had taken Durrës without a fight. Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić ordered that his followers be aided with money and arms.

His power base in central Albania was weakened in November 1914 by an uprising of Muslim rebels who turned against him, but he managed, with Italian support, to hold on to the town of Durrës. When Serbian forces invaded Albania in mid-June 1915, swiftly occupying Pogradec, Elbasan, Tirana and Kavaja, Toptani was put in place as ruler of central Albania from Durrës. Though his rule was not stable because of the First World War. In the end of 1914, Essad secretly agreed with the Greek government to support the annexation of the southern provinces, known to Greeks as Northern Epirus, to the Kingdom of Greece. He soon declared war on Austria-Hungary to show support for the Entente, and profited from the situation enormously by taxing all the Allied supplies sent to the Serbs. When Austro-Hungarian forces swept through much of central and northern Albania in the spring of 1916, Toptani fled to Salonika from there went to France, to represent Albania at the Paris Peace Conference.

For the next two years, Essad Pasha remained in Paris, attempting to organize recognition for Albania from the Great Powers and reject the secret pact of London, which planned the division of Albania. During this time Tirana and much of central Albania was controlled by his Field Commander, Osman Bali and his most trusted adviser Ramazan Biba, member of a prominent Tirana family.

Death
On 13 June 1920, Avni Rustemi assassinated Essad Pasha in Paris when he left the Hotel Continental. Essad Pasha was buried in the Serbian Military Cemetery in Paris, after staying for a long time unburied in the mortuary.

Perception
Toptani is remembered among Albanians as one of the most negative historical figures and the symbol of treason. Essad Pasha had a reputation as an unscrupulous opportunist, Edith Durham viewed Essad Pasha as "a strange relic of the middle ages ... one with the handsome swashbucklers who sold themselves and their services to the rival monarchs, princelings and dukes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and cheerfully transferred themselves to the enemy if he offered better pay – men in whom the sense of nationality was not developed at all, and whose sense of honour was, to put it mildly, deficient."

In 2014, the Serbian Minister of Labor, Aleksandar Vulin paid homage at his grave, for his contributions to Serbia.

WIP
Two shots in Paris (sq:Dy krisma në Paris) is a drama by Sheri Mita, Pëllumb Kulla with the subject of Essad Pasha Toptani murder in Paris and trial of Avni Rustemi.

There is some uncertainty in the sources around the date of his birth. Historical work and general literature put its birth year in 1863, without mentioning the exact day or month. In 2017, Roland Qafoku, who had been researching the biographies of the prime ministers of Albanian history for ten years, marked the exact date on 13 June 1863 but may be confused with the date of death which is similar both in the day and on the month. Ilir Ikonomi, in his monograph about Esat Toptani published in 2016, sets the birth year in 1864.
 * Date of Birth

During the period of the Albanian uprisings of 1910‒1912, Essad Pasha seems to have spent time between Constantinople and Tirana. Although critical in parliament against the CUP, it appears that from this conflictual situation he was one of the biggest beneficiaries. The Italians identified him as the biggest arm smuggler in Central Albania.
 * WIP

Awards and honours
He received awards and decorations before, during, and after World War I.

Ottoman Empire

 * Order of the Medjidie - Ribbon bar.svg 1st Class Order of the Medjidie
 * Order of Osmanieh - Ribbon bar.svg 2nd Class Order of Osmanieh (1897)
 * Order of Osmanieh - Ribbon bar.svg 2nd Class Order of Osmanieh (1897)

Foreign honours

 * Commendatore OCI Kingdom BAR.svg Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy (28 February 1914)
 * Cavaliere di gran Croce Regno SSML BAR.svg Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (February 1916)
 * Cavaliere di gran Croce Regno SSML BAR.svg Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (February 1916)


 * Ord.Franz.Joseph-GC.png Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph (28 February 1914)
 * Ord.Franz.Joseph-GC.png Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph (28 February 1914)


 * Legion Honneur Commandeur ribbon.svg Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (12 April 1916)
 * Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon.svg Croix de Guerre (1917)
 * Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon.svg Croix de Guerre (1917)


 * UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg Grand Officer of the Order of St Michael and St George (April 1916)
 * UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg Grand Officer of the Order of St Michael and St George (April 1916)


 * GRE Order Redeemer 1Class.png Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer (January 1918)
 * GRE Order Redeemer 1Class.png Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer (January 1918)


 * SRB-SHS-YUG Orden Belog Orla VKrst BAR.svg Granc Cross of the Order of the White Eagle.
 * SRB-SHS-YUG Orden Belog Orla VKrst BAR.svg Granc Cross of the Order of the White Eagle.