Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa (Born 1634/1635 – died 25 December 1683) was an Ottoman military leader and grand vizier who was a central character in the empire's last attempts at expansion into both Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
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In contemporary sources, Mustafa is universally described as both greedy and villainous. The veracity of this is naturally open to conjecture, although his nickname of Kara (black or handsome [1]) can certainly be interpreted in this way.
He was adopted into the powerful Rumelian Köprülü family at a young age, and served as a messenger to Damascus for his brother-in-law, the grand vizier Ahmed Köprülü. He directed in the name of Köprülü family's mukata' or tımar fields in Merzifon . After distinguishing himself, Mustafa became a vizier in his own right, and by 1663, commander of the Ottoman Grand Fleet of the Aegean Sea.
He served as a commander of ground troops in a war against Poland in 1672, negotiating a settlement that added the province of Podolia to the empire. The victory enabled the Ottomans to transform the Cossack regions of the southern Ukraine into a protectorate. In 1676, when the grand vizier died, Mustafa succeeded him.
He was less successful in combating a Cossack rebellion that began in 1678. After some initial victories, intervention by Russia turned the tide and forced the Turks to conclude peace in 1681, effectively returning the Cossack lands to Russian rule with the exception of a few forts on the Dnieper and Bug rivers.
In 1683, he launched a campaign northward into Austria in a last effort to expand the Ottoman empire after more than 150 years of war. By mid-July, his 100,000-man army had besieged Vienna (guarded by 10,000 Habsburg soldiers), following in the footsteps of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529. By September, he had taken a portion of the walls and appeared to be on his way to victory.
But on 12 September 1683, the Austrians and their Polish allies under King Jan Sobieski took advantage of dissent within the Turkish military command and poor disposition of his troops, winning the Battle of Vienna with a devastating flank attack led by Sobieski's Polish cavalry. The Turks retreated into Hungary, and then leaving the kingdom for being retaken by the germans in 1686. These defeats at the cities of Vien and Buda persuaded the turkish to never threaten Central Europe again.
The defeat cost Mustafa his position, and ultimately, his life. On 25 December 1683, Kara Mustafa was executed in Belgrade by the order of the commander of the Janissaries. He suffered death by strangulation with a silk cord which was the capital punishment inflicted on high-ranking persons in the Ottoman Empire. His last words were, in effect, "Make sure you tie the knot right." Mustafa's head was presented to Sultan Mehmed IV in a velvet bag.
His headstone was originally in Belgrade. But it was eventually brought to Edirne, the second Ottoman capital. Visitors can still see it today in the city.
As Mustafa Pasha's army retreated it left several large bags of green beans behind in Vienna. These sacks contained unroasted coffee beans which as legend has it, formed the nucleus from which the Viennese coffee trade began.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed |
Ottoman Grand
Vizier 19 October 1676 – 25 December 1683 |
Succeeded by Kara İbrahim Pasha |
Basic Books.
KARA MUSTAFA (d. 1683), Turkish vizier, surnamed "Merzifunli," was a son of Uruj Bey, a notable Sipahi of Merzifun (Marsovan), and brother-in-law to Ahmed Kuprili, whom he succeeded as grand vizier in 1676, after having for some years held the office of Kaimmakam or locum tenens. His greed and ostentation were equalled by his incapacity, and he behaved with characteristic insolence to the foreign ambassadors, from whom he extorted large bribes. After conducting a campaign in Poland which terminated unfortunately, he gave a ready response to the appeal for aid made by the Hungarians under Imre ThOkoly (q.v.) when they rose against Austria, his hope being to form out of the Habsburg dominions a Mussulman empire of the West, of which he should be the sultan. The plan was foiled in part by his own lack of military skill, but chiefly through the heroic resistance of Vienna and its timely relief by John Sobieski, king of Poland. Kara Mustafa paid for his defeat with his life; he was beheaded at Belgrade in 1683 and his head was brought to the sultan on a silver dish.
Another Kara Mustafa Pasha (d. 1643), who figures in Turkish history, was by birth a Hungarian, who was enrolled in the Janissaries, rose to be Kapudan Pasha under Murad IV., and after the capture of Bagdad was made grand vizier. He was severe, but just and impartial, and strove to effect necessary reforms by reducing the numbers of the Janissaries, improving the coinage, and checking the state expenditure. But the discontent of the Janissaries led to his dismissal and death in 1643.
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Categories: K-KAR | History of Turkey and the Middle East
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