Claude Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval (14 July 1675 – 23 March 1747), was a French army officer who later went into the service of the Ottoman Empire, eventually converting to Islam and becoming known as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa. Life The descendant of an old family of Limousin, Alexandre joined the Royal Marine Corps at the age of thirteen. After three years he entered the army and eventually rose to command a regiment. He served in the Italian campaigns under Catinat, Villeroi and Vendôme, and in the Netherlands under Luxembourg, showing indomitable courage and great military ability. However, his insolent attitude towards the minister of war led to a court martial (1704) in which he was condemned to death. He saved himself by fleeing to Germany. Through the influence of Prince Eugene of Savoy he obtained a general's command in the Austrian army, and fought with great bravery and distinction against France and afterwards against the Ottoman Empire. In 1706 he removed and then lost the only manuscript of Rutilius Namatianus from Bobbio in Italy. He was present at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709 and was severely wounded at Peterwardein. The proceedings against him in France were then allowed to drop, and he visited Paris and married Judith-Charlotte, a daughter of Marshal de Biron. Shortly afterwards he returned to the Austrian army and fought with distinction at the Siege of Belgrade. He might have risen to the highest rank, had he not made himself disagreeable to Prince Eugene, who sent him as master of the ordnance to the Low Countries. There his ungovernable temper led him into a quarrel with the Marquis de Prié, Eugene's deputy governor in the Netherlands, who answered his challenge by placing him in confinement. He was again court martialled and condemned to death although the emperor commuted the sentence to one year's imprisonment and banishment. Bonneval was returned to Vienna, stripped of his rank, titles and honours, and exiled to Venice. Soon after his release, Bonneval offered his services to the Turkish government, professed Islam and took the name of Ahmed. He was made a pasha, and appointed to organise and command the Turkish artillery, eventually contributing to the Austrian defeat at Niš and the subsequent end of the Austrian-Ottoman war marked by the Treaty of Belgrade, where Austria lost northern Serbia with Belgrade, Lesser Wallachia, and territories in northern Bosnia. He was also close