Egyptian and Albanian troops overturn the Greek revolt on Crete

Background. The suppression of the Cretan revolt drew on hired manpower. Short of men and money, the Ottoman state turned to hiring Albanian tribesmen to fight the Greeks, and by 1823 the bulk of the Ottoman forces in Greece were Albanian mercenaries engaged for a campaigning season rather than the regular Ottoman Army. The supplied passages do not explicitly tie these mercenaries to the Cretan campaign itself, though the wider war also saw the Ottomans aided by vassals such as the Eyalet of Egypt.

Military Operations. Egyptian naval forces arrived at Souda Bay in May 1822 under Hasan Pasha, who burned villages across Crete. After Hasan's death in 1823, Hussein Bey led a joint Turkish-Egyptian force of 12,000 soldiers. This well-organized force defeated Cretan resistance at the battle of Amourgelles in August 1823, limiting the rebellion to mountain enclaves by spring 1824.

Local Resistance. The Greek revolutionary government appointed Emmanouil Tombazis as Commissioner of Crete, and on 22 June 1823 he held the Convention of Arcoudaina in an attempt to reconcile the factions of local captains and unite them against the common threat. A force of 3,000 men was gathered in Gergeri to face Hussein, but the Cretans were defeated by the much larger and better-organised force, losing 300 men at the battle of Amourgelles on 20 August 1823. By spring 1824, Hussein had limited Cretan resistance to a few mountain enclaves.