Józef Zachariasz Bem

Józef Zachariasz Bem (born March 14, 1794, Tarnów, Galicia [now in Poland]—died Dec. 10, 1850, Aleppo, Syria) was a Polish army general whose military feats in Transylvania and the region of Banat made him a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49. He was the author of treatises on artillery, mathematics, and history.

Educated at the Warsaw Military School, he distinguished himself with a Polish artillery regiment in Napoleon’s Russian campaign (1812) and in the defense of Danzig (1813). He returned to Polish service in 1815 and fought with distinction in the rebellion against Russia (1830–31).

In 1848 he offered his services to the Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth and was assigned the defense of Transylvania. With a small army he performed prodigiously against the Austrians, especially in his stand at the bridge of Piski (Feb. 9, 1849), where he repulsed superior forces. Bem occupied the Banat region but had to return to the defense of Transylvania when the Russians invaded. Finally, on July 31, overwhelming forces wiped out his army. Bem escaped only by feigning death.

On the collapse of the Hungarian rebellion he fled to Turkey, adopted Islām, and, as Murad Pasha, became governor of Aleppo, where, at the risk of his life, he saved the Christian population from being massacred.