Hamko—Mother of Ali Pasha of Ioannina—And the Women of Her Entourage

Hamko was Ali Pasha’s mother who was the infamous ruler of Ioannina. His mother instilled revenge to him from young age. She instructed him how to be fearless but also to be greedy for money. She pushed him to merciless acts in the belief that all the above strategies would help him ascend to the higher echelons of power. Hamko was characterized as a cruel and revengeful woman who played on the indolent, superstitious and also avaricious nature of the peasantry of her native place. Furthermore, she tried to manipulate the lives of the members of her family for her own ends. Possessed of slyness and strength, she trained her children so as to develop cunningness and endurance to the outmost. The present chapter attempts to study Hamko’s personality and the lives of the women who belonged in her familial surrounding that determined her destiny. It also investigates the reasons why she was portrayed as a cruel and revengeful woman. The above personality traits were also attributed to her son who was given the appellation ‘the lion of Ioannina’. Additionally, the chapter explores her relation with the other male and female members of her clan and examines the way the representatives of the female gender interrelated with the male gender. Part of this chapter also intends to open up a new vista in an attempt to investigate the life of the Muslim women who lived in Hamko’s epoch, and to explore the reasons of factionalism as well as of humiliation existing in harems. More emphasis is given on the area of Epirus where the city of Ioannina is located. Furthermore, the chapter aims to study Hamko’s true motives and Ali’s cruel acts as well as the social biases existing especially relating to Christian women.