Ibrahim Ben Ali

Ibrahim ben Ali was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Turkey, in 1756, the son of Ali ben Mustapha, a Muslim of Turkish origin,[2][3][4] with an estate 6 miles from the city, and Halima, a Christian slave from Zante who was captured by Venetians and bought by Mustapha in Aleppo.[5] Ben Ali was raised a Muslim but also received an introduction to Christianity from his mother,[6] and from several Spanish slaves owned by the family.[5] When Ibrahim ben Ali was thirteen, be married a 12-year-old wife, also named Halima, and made the Hajj to Mecca, subsequently taking two additional wives, named Fatima and Ayesha, and fathering of 6 children by the three.[5]

With this expanding family, a commission as captain in the Janissaries was obtained for Ibrahim by his father. About five years into this service he was wrongfully arrested for the murder or two officers with whom he was acquainted, and condemned to death. On the eve of his execution, he was encouraged by an old Spanish slave to convert to Christianity before his death, reinforcing his mother's teachings. His exoneration the next morning convinced him to pursue Christianity, and he purchased and freed the slave, keeping him in his household to provide religious instruction.[5] He also served in the army as a doctor.[7] In the fourth battle he fought against the Russians during the Russo-Turkish war he was captured in Wallachia and made prisoner at Arzenicour, in Russia.[5] While in captivity, fellow prisoners wrote to Constantinople accusing him of apostasy and treason, causing his parents, wives and children to leave the city for Izmail, where they were all killed when the Russians sacked the outpost.[5] Ibrahim was eventually freed after two years, following the intervention of either a local woman whose vision he had helped recover,[5] or of a British general,[7] but having been warned of the danger of returning home by his brother, he instead took ship for Copenhagen and Liverpool, and thence to Dublin.[5]

Arriving in the Irish city in 1791 speaking little English but fluent in Arabic and Spanish,[5] he was introduced to the Rev. Adam Clarke and received religious instruction from him on a daily basis.[5] He was baptized as 'Adam' in a ceremony translated for him into Spanish by Clarke.[6][5] He later accompanied Clarke on his ministries to Liverpool and after two years there, to Manchester, remained there for "some considerable time".[5] He also spent time in Greenock, Glasgow and Edinburgh,[8] before emigrating to the United States.

In America as Mr. Ibraham Adam Ben Ali, he set up practice as a physician in Boston, where he advertised patent medicines in late 1794,[8] followed by stints in New York City from 1795,[9] Philadelphia in 1799,[10] and Baltimore in 1800.[11] He married a Baptist[5] Englishwoman,[7] having by her a sole daughter, Adeline, who became wife of Terah Temple Haggin and mother of multi-millionaire lawyer and investor James Ben Ali Haggin (1822 – 1914).[7][2][3] In 1800, he died of a yellow fever outbreak that hit Philadelphia and Baltimore.[7]

Ben Ali's descendants include the portrait painter and stage designer Ben Ali Haggin; the businessman Richard Lounsbery; and the racehorse breeder William Haggin Perry.

• Marie Tepe, 19th-century settler to the US of Turkish origin