Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha

Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha (born 1769 ; died March 3, 1855 in Istanbul ), also known as Khosrew Pasha and Ḳoca ("the Great") or Topal Paşa ("the Lame Pasha"), was a Grand Admiral ( ḳapudān-i derya ) of the Ottoman Navy , influential politician, and from July 2, 1839 to June 8, 1840, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdülmecid I.

As Grand Admiral, Hüsrev Pascha commanded the Ottoman Aegean fleet from 1822 to 1826/27 in the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829). As an opponent of the Ottoman governor and later viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha , he played a decisive role on the Ottoman side in the conflict over Muhammad Ali's independent rule over Egypt, which had been under Ottoman rule since 1517 . In contrast to his rival at the Sultan's court, the nişancı (Imperial Chancellor) Mehmet Said Halet Efendi , he achieved his rise to power and influence not through central offices at the Sultanate, but through a career as an official and military commander in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Both secured their position of power by means of a clever clientele policy . He was able to hold his position at court for over 35 years and played a decisive role in the reforms of the Sultans Selim III. , Mahmud II. And Abdülmecid I.

Life

Wālī of Egypt

Hüsrev Mehmed was probably of Abasin origin and was brought up at the Sultan's court. 1789 he was on the occasion of the accession to the throne Selim III. appointed čukhadār . He obtained the protection of Küçük Hüseyin Pasha . In 1801, with British support, he led the resistance against the French invasion of Egypt under Napoleon I. In recognition of his services, he was appointed governor ( Wālī ) of Eyâlet Egypt in 1802 . Muhammad Ali Pasha came to the country along with the Rumelian Başı Bozuk mercenaries who had been brought to Egypt to fight. Hüsrev Pascha's attempt to dismiss the mercenaries without pay and to establish the Nizâm-ı Cedîd corps, which were trained on the Western European model, as a regular force, led to a mercenary revolt. The Mamluk prince Ṭahir Pascha took advantage of this and forced Hüsrev Pasha to flee from Cairo to Damiette . In July 1803 he suffered a heavy defeat against the Mamluks there and was himself taken prisoner. After Ṭahir Pasha was murdered, Muhammad Ali Pasha and the Mamluks remained as the real rulers in Egypt. In February 1804, Muhammad Ali Pasha released him; he was removed from office as governor. After he had left Egypt, Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha was active as governor of various Romanian Eyâlet, including the Eyâlet Diyarbakır , Salonika, the Eyâlet Bosnia (1804) and again in 1806 Governor of Salonika.

Grand Admiral and Serʿasker

The military reforms of Selim III. encountered resistance from the Janissaries , who saw their political power and economic privileges endangered by the reforms. On May 29, 1807 the Janissaries overthrew in alliance with conservative Ottoman religious scholars and the nişancı (Imperial Chancellor) Mehmet Said Halet Efendi Sultan Selim III. However, Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha managed to maintain his political position. As Wālī des Eyâlet Silistra he was in the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812) at the same time commander on the Danube front. In recognition of his military achievements, he was appointed Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman fleet in 1811 (until 1818) and then governor of Eyâlet Trebizond. As a wali of Erzurum, as a serʿasker , he received supreme command in the east with the task of subjugating rebellious Kurdish tribes who endangered peace with Persia. His inept approach led to the rebellion of the former Mutassarryf of Bayezid. The Persian Empire under Fath Ali Shah took advantage of this and annexed several border towns.

Greek revolution

In December 1822, with the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, Hüsrev Pasha was reappointed Kapudan Pasha and was supposed to fight the rebels in the Aegean at sea. Under his command, the Ottoman fleet captured the island of Kasos and on July 3, 1824, the island of Psara , devastating the island and killing about 15,000 people or selling them into slavery. Several attempts by Hüsrev to conquer the island of Samos failed. After the conquest of Mesolongi , a power struggle broke out between Hüsrev and Ibrahim Pasha , the son of Muhammad Ali Pasha and commander of the Egyptian fleet and land troops. Ibrahim and Muhammad Ali Pascha succeeded in getting Hüsrev's release in late 1826 or early 1827. However, due to his achievements in the army and naval reforms, he retained the trust of Sultan Mahmud and was able to expand his position of power in the capital.

Military reforms as Minister of War

In June 1826 he was instrumental in the violent removal of the Janissary Corps. In 1827 he was appointed serʿasker of the "new army" (Aṣākir-i Manṣūre-i Muḥammedīye) , which he trained with the help of Western European advisors. The Serʿaskeriye established by him represents the first Ottoman general staff. His political influence allowed him to found his own "household" of protégés, which he placed in important offices. In January 1829 he achieved the removal of the Grand Vizier Mehmed Selim Paschas and the appointment of his former slave and protégé Reşid Mehmed Pascha to this office (until 1833).

In the conflict with Muhammad Ali Pascha, who had penetrated as far as Anatolia in the Russo-Ottoman War (1828–1829) and threatened the capital Istanbul, Hüsrev Pascha invited Western European military advisers, including Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. Ä. This time represents the height of his influence at the Sultan's court. He filled numerous offices with his protégés and consolidated his position at the court by marrying them with sultan's daughters. In January 1837 he was dismissed from the office of serʿasker at the instigation of two of his own protégés, in June 1837 his rival Mustafa Reşid Pascha was appointed foreign minister. As early as March 1838, however, he was appointed head of the reform agency (medjlis-i wālā) . He led the negotiations with Muhammad Ali Pascha, whose army under Ibrahim Pascha had defeated an Ottoman army on June 24, 1839 in the battle of Nizip .

Grand Vizier

After Mahmud II's death in 1839, Hüsrev Pascha publicly raised a claim to the office of the incumbent Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Rauf Pascha . However, this time foreign minister Mustafa Reşid Pascha , who was instrumental in the decree of the Hatt-ı Şerif von Gülhane, took the domestic political initiative . This edict initiated the reform period of the Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire . In 1840, Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha was charged with corruption at Reşid Pasha's instigation and exiled to Tekirdağ on June 8, 1840 . Sultan Abdülmecid called him back to Istanbul in 1841 and reappointed him in 1846 as Commander-in-Chief. Again he managed to fill important offices with his partisans. Under his direction, the Küçük Taksim Military Academy was opened. Grand Vizier Reşid Pasha achieved his removal and removal from all offices. Hüsrev Mehmet Pascha died on March 3, 1855 in Istanbul.

Trivia

As governor of Eyâlet Bosnia, Hüsrev Mehmed Pascha plays a role in Ivo Andric's novel Travnička hronika (German viziers and consuls , 1942): “Around the same time, the new vizier, Husref Mehmed-Pascha, arrived in Travnik and brought veneration for Napoleon and Interest in everything that was French, and indeed, as the Travnics found, to a far greater extent than it should be for an Ottoman and governor of the Sultan. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ George Finlay : History of the Greek Revolution, Vol. 2 . Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London 1861, pp. 14 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Halil Inalcık: " Khosrew Pasha ". In: Gibb, HAR The Encyclopaedia of Islam , New Ed., Vol. V, Fascicules 79-80, pp. 35 and EJ Brill (Leiden), 1979. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
3. ^ Arnold Hottinger: The Arabs: Their History, Culture and Place in the Modern World . Praeger, 1982, ISBN 978-0-313-23501-6 , pp. 157 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ↑ Christine M. Philliou: Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution . University of California Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-520-26633-9 , pp. 100 .
5. ↑ George Finlay : History of the Greek Revolution, Vol. 2 . Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London 1861, pp. 48-52 .
6. ↑ George Finlay : History of the Greek Revolution, Vol. 2 . Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London 1861, pp. 48–99 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
7. ^ Mustafa Reşid Paşa In: Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
8. ↑ Helmuth von Moltke: Under the Crescent. Letters about conditions and events in Turkey from the years 1835 - 1839 . Mittler, Berlin, Posen & Bromberg 1841, p. 378-399 . Digitized version of the Bavarian State Library , accessed on December 16, 2017.
9. ^ Ivo Andric (ex .: Hans Thurn, edited by Katharina Wolf-Grießhaber): Wesire and Consuls . Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-552-05802-6 , p. 19 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire July 8, 1839 - May 29, 1840	Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha