Gazi Hüseyin Pasha

Ghazi Husain Pasha or Deli Husain Pasha (Turkish: Gazi Hüseyin Paşa, Gazi Deli Hüseyin Paşa, and Baltaoğlu Hüseyin Paşa) was an Ottoman military officer and stateman. He was Kapudan Pasha in the 1630s and briefly Grand Vizier in the late 1650s.

Early years

Hüseyin was of Turkish origin^[1] and was born in Yenişehir near Bursa in north west Anatolia. But other than that, nothing is known about his early days in İstanbul, the Ottoman capital. During the reign of Murat IV, he was a member of palace staff. The shah of Iran had sent Murat IV a prestigious gift, a bow which was reputed as being undrawable. Hüseyin attracted attention when he easily drew the bow. After winning sultan's appreciation, he was promoted to various posts: chief stable man, governor of Silistria in modern Bulgaria, beylerbey (high governor) of Egypt, beylerbey of Anatolia, Kapudan Pasha, etc. He participated in campaigns around Baghdad in modern Iraq and Yerevan in modern Armenia. During the reign of Ibrahim I, he worked in various European provinces as a governor and in 1646 he became the governor of Chania.

In Crete

Conquest of the Aegean island Crete from Venice was uncharacteristically trying for Ottoman Empire. While Ottoman Empire was living in stagnation, the military and naval technology of the Europeans was on the rise. Although Chania, a major Cretan city, had been captured in 1645, the rest of the island especially Heraklion was able to resist Ottomans. Ottoman Empire was unable to send reinforcements to Crete; because the strait of Dardanelles (Çanakkale) was blocked by the Venetian navy. (See Cretan War (1645–1669))

Thus, the Ottoman army in Crete was almost locked. Even under these circumstances, Hüseyin captured several forts including Rethymno^[2] and laid a siege to Heraklion. He was not only a man of war, he also reconstructed many buildings and the fort of Chania. Sultan Mehmet IV promoted him to be the grand vizier on 28 February 1656.^[3]

However he never exercised the post. Long before Huseyin's return to Istanbul, the sultan changed his mind and appointed Hüseyin's rival Zurnazen Mustafa Pasha as Grand Vizier on 6 March 1656. (Interestingly enough, Zurnazen's term was even shorter than that of Hüseyin.)

Later years

Hüseyin was assigned to be the beylerbey of Rumeli, a post inferior to that of grand vizier, but superior to the beylerbeys of the other provinces. Nevertheless the new grand vizier Köprülü Mehmet Pasha was afraid of Hüseyin's prestige.^[4] He called Hüseyin to İstanbul and persuaded the sultan to jail and later to execute Hüseyin in 1659.

References

1. ^ İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 41. (Turkish)
2. ^ Joseph von Hammer:Osmanlı Tarihi cilt II (condensation: Abdülkadir Karahan), Milliyet yayınları, İstanbul. p 238
3. ^ Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali Sevim: Türkiye tarihi Cilt III, AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, İstanbul, 1991 p 139-145
4. ^ Mevlüt Uluğtekin Yılmaz: Osmanlı'nın Arka Bahçesi, MUY Yayınları, Ankara, ISBN 975-94405-0-4 pp 162-164