…Venice also takes possession of the Epirus region of northern Greece.

Michael Komnenos Doukas, a prince from the deposed imperial ruling family, makes alliances with Albanian chiefs and drives the Venetians from lands that now make up southern Albania and northern Greece, and in 1205 he sets up an independent principality, the Despotate of Epirus, with Janina (now Ioánnina in northwest Greece) as its capital.

Michael is the illegitimate son of the sebastokrator John Doukas and is thus a first cousin of the emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos.

Alexios III, following his unsuccessful attempt to recover the imperial throne, has wandered about Greece, eventually surrendering to Boniface of Montferrat, now master of a great part of the Balkan Peninsula, but leaves his protection to seek shelter with Michael of Epirus.

Ali Pasha (1741-1822), the Lion of Janina, was born to a powerful clan from Tepelene and spent much of his youth as a bandit.

He had risen to become governor of the Ottoman province of Rumelia, which includes Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace, before establishing himself in Janina.

Like Kara Mahmud Bushati, Ali Pasha wants to create an autonomous state under his rule.

When Ali Pasha forges links with the Greek revolutionaries, Sultan Mahmud II decides to destroy him.

The sultan first discharges the Albanian from his official posts and recalls him to Constantinople.

Ali Pasha refuses and puts up a formidable resistance that Britain's Lord Byron immortalizes in poems and letters.

In January 1822, however, Ottoman agents assassinate Ali Pasha and send his head to Constantinople.

Nevertheless, it will take eight more years before the Sublime Porte willl move against Mustafa Pasha Bushati.

...Janina, under Ali Pasha of Tepelene.

When it suits their goals, both places cooperate with the Sublime Porte, and when it is expedient to defy the central government, each acts independently.

Ali Pasa Tepelenë of Janina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a colorful despot who rules over southern Albania and northern Greece from 1788, is another Ottoman vassal in the Balkan peninsula.

The revolt of the brigand Ali Pasha Tepelenë, the most infamous of the local Ottoman authorities who have profited from the weakening control of Constantinople over its empire, is the precipitating factor in the Greek War of Independence.

Ali Pasha, born to a powerful clan from Tepelenë, had spent much of his youth as a bandit.

He had risen to become governor of the Ottoman province of Rumelia, which includes Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace, before establishing himself in 1788 in Janina (now Ioánnina), building in northwest Greece a sizable and wealthy personal fiefdom that threatens the sultan's rule in the southern Balkans.

Like the late Kara Mahmud Bushati, his counterpart in northern Albania, Ali Pasha, called the Lion of Janina, wants to create an autonomous state under his rule.

When Ali Pasha forges links with the Greek revolutionaries, Sultan Mahmud II decides to destroy him.

The sultan first discharges the Albanian from his official posts and recalls him to Constantinople.

Ali Pasha refuses and puts up a formidable resistance (which Britain's Lord Byron will soon immortalize in poems and letters).

Ottoman agents assassinate Ali Pasha in January 1822 and send his head to Constantinople. (It will nevertheless take eight more years before the Sublime Porte will move against Mustafa Pasha Bushati in Shkodër, which has been virtually independent since 1760, when the Bushati family took control.)

The Sublime Porte, having crushed the Bushatis and Ali Pasha, in 1835 divides the Albanian-populated lands into the vilayets of Janina and ...

...Janina, ...