il Napoletano che domò gli Afghani

[Princ.Citeriore (POL)]

Paolo Di Avitabile

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General Avitabile.


General Paolo Bartolomeo Avitabile (Abu Tabela) (25 October 1791 - 28 March 1850), was a Neapolitan soldier, mercenary and adventurer. A peasant's son born in Agerola, near Amalfi in Italy, he served in the Neapolitan militia during the Napoleonic wars. After Waterloo he drifted east like many other adventurous soldiers. He first served as a mercenary in Persia, before he was hired by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Punjab.
Contents

[hide]

• 1 Career in Europe
• 2 In Persia
• 3 In Punjab
• 4 Back home
• 5 Sources
• 6 External links

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[edit] Career in Europe

The young Avitabile served in the local levies of the Kingdom of Naples between 1807 and 1809, when he joined the artillery of the regular army. As a part of the Imperial Army, Avitabile served under Murat on several campaigns. In these campaigns he earned the rank of Lieutenant, as well as the command of the 15th Battery. After the fall of Napoleon and the defeat of Murat at Tolentino, Naples was restored to Ferdinand III of Sicily. Avitabile retained his rank and command and joined the army of the new Kingdom of Two Sicilies, where he joined the siege of Gaeta under the command of the Austrian general Delaver.
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.

[edit] 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 America but this ended in a shipwreck off Marseille. Instead, he was advised to seek employment to the east. In Constantinople he was approached by an agent of the Persian Shah Fath Ali Shah recruiting European officers; in 1820, Avitabile took service with the Persian Shah. He remained in this employment for six years, during which period he rose to the rank of khan and a grade of colonel in the Persian army. Here he also met Claude August Court who would later accompany him on the travel to Punjab. Avitabile was rewarded for his services by two of Persia's highest decorations as Grand Commander of The Lion and Sun and of The Two Lions and Crown, but found the pay lacking. When he heard favourable notice from Jean-Baptiste Ventura of his employment in Punjab Ventura again broke up to travel further to the east.

[edit] In Punjab

Together with Court, Avitabile arrived in Lahore in 1827 and was hired by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh. While Court was given a position with the artillery, Avitabile was 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. He governed the city with a firm - at times, cruel - hand and managed to impose order and discipline. As a result, Wazirabad prospered.
In 1834 he was appointed governor of Peshawar, an area the Maharaja has conquered from the Afghans the previous year. Predominatly a Muslim Afghan province, the unruly region had proved too much of a task to govern for the Sikhs.
With a ruthless, at times brutal, style of government, Avitabile established order in the province where he became known as Abu Tabela. Summary executions became usual, and it is said that he would have people executed by throwing them from the top of Mahabat Khan's mosque. While this brutality was shocking to visiting Europeans (in the words of Sir Henry Lawrence: he acts like a savage among savage men, instead of showing them that a Christian can wield the iron sceptre without staining it by needless cruelty), it proved both successful in maintaining order and even popular among the peaceful inhabitants.
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.
As governor of Peshawar, Avitabile controlled the southern entrance to the Khyber Pass. 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. 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 characterization of the governor: "He is, moreover, a frank, gay, and good-humoured person, as well as an excellent and skillfull officer."
When the British returned in 1842, to avenge the defeat of Elphinstone, they were given any possible assistance by Avaitabile's government. In addition to supplies and transportation, he also personally advanced large sums of money to the British campaign treasury. By lending the British as much as ten lakhs (1 million) of rupees, he not only helped them paying their troops. He also managed to transfer a considerable fortune to safety in Europe.

General Avitabile's tomb in S. Lazzaro



ps
ho fondate ragioni per ritenere mlt probabile che Avitabile sia un mio avo, mia nonna si chiamava Avitabile e suo nonno era di Lettere, paese nei pressi di Agerola !

[Auriga]

Il generale di ritorno dall'Afganistan si stabilì in un primo momento a Castellammare di Stabia dove edificò un palazzo che è possibile trovare ancora oggi anche se suddiviso in numerose proprità ed in evidenti condizioni di degrado, in seguito si trasferì definitivamente ad Agerola dove fece costruire un'altro palazzo che la comunità montana pensò bene di abbattere per far posto a quello che oggi è uno squallido rudere.
Il palazzo di Castellammare diventò in seguito un albergo (H.Weiss) ma la sua decadenza si deve alla politica edile del dopoguerra che trasformò letteralmente lo scenario intorno alla costruzione che perse il suo originale fascino.

[Princ.Citeriore (POL)]

*Tremendissimo Abu Tabela!*

*Paolo Ernesto Martino Avitabile, originario di Agerola, combattè
nell'esercito borbonico, poi sotto Murat, divenendo colonnello, infine,
per scampare alla Restaurazione, si accodò alla diaspora degli ufficiali
ex napoleonici che si misero al soldo dei ricchi e bellicosi principi
persiani o indiani, in perenne guerra tra loro. *

Astuto e spregiudicato, dopo molte vicissitudini, e tante battaglie, il
rajaà Ranjit Singh, che era riuscito ad unificare tutto il Nord Indiano,
lo nominò governatore di Peshawar, che, unico caso nella storia
dell'Afganistan, l'energico Agerolese ridusse all'ordine, e governò per
circa un ventennio.

Carico di ricchezze e di avventure, il generale volle tornare all'amata
Agerola, dove prese moglie, ed iniziò la costruzione di un magnifico
castello, che però non vide ultimato, finendo avvelenato dalla stessa
moglie, con un capretto arrosto la vigilia di Pasqua.

*"Ancora oggi, dopo centocinquant'anni, il nome del generale,
pronunciato all'afghana, Abu Tabela, evoca terrorizzato rispetto presso
gli abitanti di Peshawar. Nessuno lo ha mai superato, né prima né dopo,
nell'escogitare le sevizie più tremende per chi non voleva pagare le
tasse e o per i sobillatori del popolo"*