Paolo Avitabile
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Paolo Avitabile | |
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Légion d'Honneur Nishan-i-Shir u Khurshid Ordine di San Ferdinando e del merito Nishan-i-Daulat-i-Durrani Kaukab-i-Iqbal-i-Punjab | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Kingdom of Naples First French Empire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Qajar Iran Sikh Empire |
Unit | Fauj-i-Khas |
General Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile (25 October 1791 – 28 March 1850), also known as Abu Tabela (
He joined the army of Maharaja
Career in Europe
The young Avitabile served in the local levies of the
During this siege, he displayed great bravery and was wounded twice. The general recommended him for a promotion and a decoration, but was not heard. Avitabile was transferred instead to a position of lieutenant in a regiment of light infantry. It is said he quit in disgust over this treatment. His European career had come to an end.
In Persia
Having quit the army in Naples, Avitabile set his eyes on a career abroad. His initial idea was to, as many of his countrymen, seek fortune in
In Punjab
Together with Court, Avitabile arrived in Lahore in 1827 and was hired by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was given a position with the artillery and put in charge of the arsenal and gun foundries. He was also given a civilian position as governor of Wazirabad. It would seem he was an able administrator, as he held the position for the next seven years and as a result, Wazirabad prospered.[2]
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
In 1834 he was appointed governor of
Where as his rule of Wazirabad is described as just and rigorous, his governorship of Peshawar is depicted as a rule of "gallows and gibbets". Avitabile boasted:
"When I marched into Peshawar, I sent on in advance a number of wooden posts which my men erected around the walls of the city. The men scoffed at them and laughed at the madness of the feringhee [a disparaging local language term for Westerners], and harder still when my men came in and laid coils of rope at the foot of the posts...However, when my preparations were completed and they found one fine morning dangling from these posts, fifty of the worse characters in Peshawar, they thought different. And I repeated the exhibition every day till I had made a scarcity of brigands and murderers. Then I had to deal with the liars and tale bearers. My method with them was to cut out their tongues. When a surgeon appeared and professed to be able to restore their speech, I sent for him and cut out his tongue also. After that there was peace".[3]
With a ruthless, at times brutal, style of government, Avitabile established order in the province where he became known as Abu Tabela.
His iron fist rule over Peshawar has made a place for him in local folklore. Even today unruly children in the city are brought to control by invoking Abu Tabela's name. In times of unrest, law-abiding citizens send a small wish for the return of an Abu Tabela to finally re-impose law and order.
The control of this strategic position brought him in contact with the British army during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42), where he was able to render vital assistance. As governor of Peshawar, Avitabile controlled the southern entrance to the Khyber Pass, although the Maharaja did not allow for the British to move through the Sikh Empire to reach the Khyber pass, he ordered Avitabile to assist the British through the pass itself, into Afghanistan. During Elphinstone's advance in 1839, the British were well received in Peshawar and their officers received a princely treatment. Captain Havelock spent a month in Peshawar, and describes the splendour of Avitabile's court in his memoirs. He also gives a favourable characterisation of the governor: "He is, moreover, a frank, gay, and good-humoured person, as well as an excellent and skilful officer."
Avitabile was also a scholar and an engineer, who worked very closely with the most brilliant Sikh engineer Lehna Singh Majithia.
When the British returned in 1842, to avenge the defeat of Elphinstone, they were given every possible assistance by Avitabile's government, while he was still in the employ of the Sikh Empire as the Afghans had been a longtime enemy of the Sikhs.
Avitabile remained in the position of Governor during the First Anglo-Afghan War until he left in 1843. Having secured his retirement in Europe, he resigned his position to return home.
Back home
As one of the few European adventurers in the area, he succeeded in building a fortune and getting away with it. He returned to Naples, where he built a grand home in San Lazzaro (Agerola). He obtained in 1844 that his place of birth, Agerola, was separated from Amalfi and united to the "Provincia di Napoli". He died in "strange" circumstances soon after marrying a local girl: Enrichetta Coccia. The following legal battle over his inheritance, and the many distant relatives asserting their claims, made Avitabile's cousin something of a byword in Italy.
In fiction
Avitabile is a minor character in Flashman, a 1969 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. The narrator describes him as a "great, grey-bearded ox of a man... the Sikhs and Afghans were more scared of him than of the Devil himself."[4]
Honours and awards
Avitabile won honours in every country he served. The inscription on his tomb at Agerola lists:[5]
- Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
- Order of Merit of San Ferdinand of Naples
- Order of the Durrani Empire Afghanistan
- Grand Cordon of the Lion and the Sun
- Two Lions and Crown of Persia
- Auspicious Star of the Punjab
See also
References
- ^ a b Bansal, Bobby Singh (7 November 2010). "Firangis in Ranjit Singh's Durbar". The Tribune.
- ^ a b Gulcharan Siṅgh. "AVITABILE, PAOLO CRESCENZO MARTINO (1791-1850)". Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Punjabi University Patiala. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ^ a b Macintyre, Ben The Man Who Would Be King, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2002 pages 194-195.
- ISBN 0006176801.
- ISBN 9788120608535.
Sources
- Major Pearse, Hugh; Ranjit Singh and his white officers. In Gardner, Alexander (1999) [1898]. The Fall of Sikh Empire. Delhi, India: National Book Shop. ISBN 81-7116-231-2.
- Malatesta, Stefano (2002). Il napoletano che domò gli afghani. Vicenza, Italy: Neri Pozza. ISBN 88-7305-875-2.
- Nicola Forte: "Viaggio nella memoria persa del Regno delle Due Sicilie", ed. imagaenaria, p. 156, 2008, ISBN 978-88-89144-77-0.
- Antonio Lusardi, "Myth and reality of Paolo Avitabile, the last European Free Lancer in India", La Révolution française [En ligne], 8 | 2015, mis en ligne le 24 juin 2015, Consulté le 22 juillet 2017. URL: http://lrf.revues.org/1273