4.
Vasa Pasha (1883–1892)

Vasa was born in 1824 in Skodra (Scutari), in northern Albania. He was of the Mirdites clan and a Roman Catholic. Vasa was sent to Rome for his education. He devoted much of his time to studying languages and literature. He wrote and translated poems, plays, and literary and historical essays. A collection of his poems in Italian was eventually published. He also wrote a book on Albanian cultural history which was translated into English under the title The Truth on Albania and the Albanians: Historical and Critical (London, 1879).

When he was about twenty years old, he came to Istanbul as much to participate in the lively literary activities of the capital as to improve his Turkish and to seek a career in the service of the Ottoman government. He joined the Foreign Ministry and rose to the position of counselor (müstesâr ) in the Ottoman Embassy in London. Later he switched to the Interior Ministry and was assigned to several important missions which involved the pacification of restive areas and implementation of administrative reforms. He served mostly in the European provinces but also in Aleppo, where he stayed for six years and added Arabic to his collection of languages. At the time of his appointment to Mount Lebanon, he was the counselor of the Province of Edirne.

Vasa was appointed to Mount Lebanon for a term of ten years on the basis of the protocol of 8 May 1883 and imperial decrees of 3 and 10 B 1300 (10–17 May 1883). Unlike his predecessors, Vasa had serious competition during his selection. The other candidates were Nasri Franko Kusa, who was at the time chief secretary of the Ottoman Embassy in Vienna; Danis Efendi, the Ottoman consul general in Ragusa; Bedros Efendi Kuyumcuyan, an Armenian Catholic and director of the Mines and Forests Department; and Bartev Antuan Efendi from the Ministry of Justice. Vasa emerged as a compromise candidate in this competition. He served in Mount Lebanon until his death on 26 June 1892, shortly before the completion of his term.

Vasa was married three times. His second wife, a Greek Orthodox, died while he was serving in Mount Lebanon. He remarried to a French woman settled in Beirut, and this union produced two sons. Vasa also had a daughter from his first marriage. His son-in-law, Kupelyan (Küpeliyan?) Efendi, worked as head of the Foreign Correspondence Bureau under Vasa in Mount Lebanon, becoming as famous for his cupidity as his intelligence.^[6]