Ahmed Pasha Al-Jazzar - The slave who defeated Napoleon

did you know there was once a Muslim man from Bosnia Who Sold himself into slavery became a governor of Palestine and then defeated Napoleon in battle you see Ahmed that jazar was born as a Christian under the Ottoman Empire in the 1730s and when he was 17 years old he was on the run from the law because he had stabbed someone and was drifting from place to place and trying to find work as a sailor eventually he decided to sell himself into slavery even though this is actually illegal According to Islamic law you see when Islam came it made enslaving people Haram in all circumstances except for prisoners of War you could no longer enslave someone who owes your debt or enslave the non-muslims who lived in your land you could not sell yourself for your children to slavery and a child who was born to a slave was no longer considered a slave either but the reason Ahmed wanted to sell himself into slavery was because he would then have a home and food and income and even Medical Care and so Ahmed was sent to Egypt to work and there he found there was a class of rulers called the memluks who actually used to be slaves themselves but had risen to the a level of Sultan he ended up working for the governor of Egypt as a barber at first but then quickly Rose in rank working as a slave to other emirs and memluks within the Ottoman Empire and at some point during this time he accepted Islam and became a Muslim in 1760 he was sold to a slave master who he became extremely loyal to and his master was later killed by abandons in a highway robbery and so he managed to find them trap them Ambush them and get his revenge after this the mamluks would call him al-jazar meaning the butcher out of respect for his abilities and warfare and because his master had died he was no longer a slave however things would take a turn for the worse one of the memluks appointed him as a district governor of Cairo but during that time Ahmed got stuck in the middle of a political feud between that governor and one of his Rivals so in 1768 Ahmed jazar had to flee for his life running all the way to Syria it was back to his pre-slavery lifestyle wandering from town to town working on jobs and even at one point had to sell some of his clothes and order to just feed himself eventually he managed to gain the trust of one of the local emirs who made him the military commander of Beirut but that relationship with Tower when Ahmed became too powerful and a mere lost control of him and so that Emir teamed up with one of his enemies to take down Ahmad but this made another Emir who was Allied to him angry and so they got into a fight as well and that's when Ahmed basically said I'm out of here so we packed his bags and went to Palestine there he was invited to become the administrator in akre and from there he grew and Consolidated his power within the Ottoman Empire he fought and defeated various rebellions against the Ottomans in Palestine and Lebanon and Syria and later became the ruler of Damascus as well earning him one of the highest ranks in the Empire and then something happened the biggest fight of his life a military challenge like no other Napoleon had arrived in 1799 the French had conquered Egypt and were now in Palestine conquering city after City it was as if the crusaders had returned and the Muslims need to save them at first the French took the city of Jaffa marching the Muslim soldiers for days without food and water and then stabbing thousands of them to death they then took the city of Haifa and then used that as a staging ground pairing their soldiers to take jazar rushed back to his old city of akri and it's 69 years old climbed up the walls of the city and personally LED his troops in battle together with his men and with reinforcements coming in from the sea they held on to the city for 62 days before Napoleon was forced to retreat defeated a massive success for the Muslims Napoleon never came back and all this from a Bosnian Man Who Sold himself into slavery accepted Islam and became a hero of the Muslims and a defender of Palestine like a Fallout for more Muslim facts

Channel: Omar of the Orient

Views: 11,830

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Id: oAwROfMUI4Y

Length: 3min 52sec (232 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023