page_title: Ali-paša Rizvanbegović
section_title: Opposition to the Bosnian uprising
hierarchical_section_title: Ali-paša Rizvanbegović / Opposition to the Bosnian uprising
context_page_description: Ali-paša Rizvanbegović-Stočević was a Herzegovinian Ottoman captain of Stolac from 1813 to 1833 and the semi-independent ruler of the Herzegovina Eyalet from 1833 to 1851. The eyalet had been created specifically for him as a reward for helping to suppress the local Gradaščević Rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. However, he was deposed and summarily executed when the authorities in Constantinople discovered that he was hatching plans to rule Herzegovina independently of the Porte.
context_section_description: Ali-paša Rizvanbegović was strongly opposed to the 1831 Bosnian uprising, led by Husein Gradaščević. He made Stolac a rallying point for the forces loyal to the Ottoman government – in conjunction with fellow loyalist Smail-aga Čengić, Captain of Gacko, who acted similarly in his own place.
  In the early phase of the uprising, Ali-paša gave refuge in Stolac to the Ottoman governor Namik-paša, who had fled after the rebels' capture of Travnik. A rebel army set out from  Sarajevo to attack Stolac, but this was put on hold when the rebels found that Namik-paša had left the city.
  In the final months of 1831, however, the rebels launched an overall offensive against the loyalist captains, aimed at ending domestic opposition to the uprising and bringing the whole of Herzegovina under rebel rule. Rebel forces led by the captain of Livno, Ibrahim-beg Fidrus, attacked and defeated  Sulejman-beg, captain of Ljubuški.
  That victory placed most of Herzegovina in rebel hands, leaving Stolac isolated and under a rebel siege. Ali-paša Rizvanbegović conducted well the city's defense. In early March 1832 he received information that the Bosnian rebels' ranks were depleted due to the winter and broke the siege, counterattacking the rebels and dispersing their forces. At the time, a rebel force under the command of Mujaga Zlatar had been sent from Sarajevo with the intention of reinforcing the force besieging Stolac – but was recalled by the rebel leadership on 16 March 1832, after news arrived of an impending major Ottoman offensive.
  With the Ottoman armies closing in on Sarajevo in a following months, Ali-paša Rizvanbegović advanced with his own forces, as did his fellow loyalist Smail-aga Čengić of Gacko. Their armies arrived on 4 June at Stup, a small locality on the road between Sarajevo and Ilidža, where a long, intense battle had already been going on between the main Ottoman armies and the rebel army led by Gradaščević himself.
  The Herzegovinian loyalist troops broke through defenses Gradaščević had set up on his flank and joined the fighting. Overwhelmed by the unexpected attack from behind, the rebel army was forced to retreat into the city of Sarajevo itself, where their leaders decided that further military resistance would be futile. The imperial army entered Sarajevo on 5 June and Gradaščević went into exile in Austria.
caption: Territories under the control of Ali-paša Rizvanbegović  and his allies (in darker shade).
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