EGYPT IN THE WORLD OF ISLAM 77of piratical seafaring, outfitted a horde of corsairs and quickly outclassed
the Ottomans in the Aegean and cut off the Turkish lines of communi-
cation, capturing vessels of every nation that entered the Aegean.
When the Greeks took Tripolitza, the capital of the Vilayet, the Greek
commander Kolokotrones rode in triumph to the citadel over streets car-
peted with the dead. More than 10,000 Turks were murdered. The large
number of documented massacres of Turks by Greeks and the savagery
with which they were executed is hard for modern readers to comprehend.
Such massacres occurred at the hands of the Ottomans as well. The war
was not without Greek reverses and setbacks, but overall the early part of
the fighting was successful for the revolutionaries.
As the war progressed, it became one of mutual extermination. Both
sides acted with great barbarity. In the spring of 1822 two Ottoman armies
advanced into the Morea. One, under Omar Vrioni, moved along the coast
of western Hellas and the other, under Ali, Pasha of Drama (Dramali),
moved through Boeotia and Attica. Omar was stopped by the mud ram-
parts at Missolonghi, but Dramali crossed the Isthmus and, smugly con-
fident, marched to relieve the Ottoman garrison of Nauplia. However, as
he came to the acropolis of ancient Argos, he found the Larissa Castle
garrisoned by a band of 100 determined Greeks under the command of
Demetrios Ypsilanti. Dramali’s advance was stalled, and Kolokotrones
collected an army. Lacking a fleet to support them, Dramali’s Ottoman
army was forced to retreat. The Greeks waited for Dramali’s undisciplined
army at the pass of Dervenaki. After rolling boulders down on them, the
Greeks swooped down on the dazed Turks and annihilated them.
This victory went to the heads of the Greek leaders, and in 1823 they
fell into a civil war as each faction struggled to establish dominance. This
allowed the Turks to rebuild and reorganize for their next thrust back into
Greece.
The Sultan Mahmud summoned Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, to assist.
His army had subdued Crete the year before and had also worked in
Arabia. It now marched against the Greeks. His moves were decisive and
destructive. The Greeks, stuck in their petty squabbles, fell easy prey to
his disciplined troops.
Surprisingly, many Greeks looked favorably on Mehmet Ali’s success.
The peasants in the open country looked upon the restoration of order by
the Ottomans with relief from the chaos that had existed under the
revolutionaries.
At this point Western Europe intervened. The European powers de-
ployed their fleets into the Aegean and forced an armistice on both parties.
They were determined to compel Ibrahim to evacuate Morea and at-