He was of Aromanian descent,[1][2][3] born in the village of Katranitsa, at the time in the Ottoman Empire (today Pyrgoi, Greece), a place with developed merchant traditions.

He resettled to the north, managing his own commercial business, and was employed as a dragoman in Ottoman diplomatic missions in Berlin and probably in Vienna.

He closely collaborated with the Vizier of the Pashaluk of Belgrade, Hadži Mustafa Pasha, and according to some sources both of them were members of one Masonic Lodge.

[4] After the return to power of the renegade Janissaries (Dahije), he was forced in 1802 to move to Zemun, at that time a Habsburg Military Frontier town.

[8] Ima vesti, da su Mustafa i Ičko bili u tešnjim vezama i kao članovi jedne slobodnozidarske lože u Beogradu, kojoj je možda pripadao i Aziz efendija.