Mustafa Naili Pasha

Mustafa Naili Pasha

Mustafa Naili Pascha ( Turkish Mustafa Naili Paşa , also Giritli Mustafa Naili Paşa , German Mustafa Naili Pascha, the Cretan ; * 1798 in Polyen, today Albania ; † December 28, 1871 probably in Constantinople ) was an Ottoman statesman and twice grand vizier under Abdülmecid I.

Life

Mustafa Naili Pascha was born in 1798 in a village on what is now the Albanian-Greek border. His father İsmail and his brothers Tahir and Hasan took part in a British-Ottoman military operation in 1801 that was supposed to liberate Egypt from French rule. Mustafa grew up in the Ottoman province of Egypt . When his uncle Tahir and his father died, he returned to his home village with his mother. But in 1809 his uncle Hasan brought him back to Egypt and Mustafa grew up in soldiers' camps in the Middle East. He began a military career under Muhammad Ali Pasha , the founder of modern Egypt, and was a soldier in the Hejaz .

In 1821 Muhammad Ali Pasha sent his uncle Hasan Pasha to Crete to put down a revolt of the Cretan Greeks during the rebellion in the 1820s in connection with the Greek War of Independence . Mustafa Naili Pascha accompanied the foster father. When he died, Mustafa Naili inherited a considerable fortune.

Although Mustafa Naili was still quite young, he took over more and more power in the Egyptian army in Crete and eventually became governor of the island and Serasker . On May 18, 1828 he was able to recapture Frangokastello from Hatzimichalis Dalianis . When the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II got into trouble in the fight against the insurgents in Greece, his Egyptian governor came to his aid. From 1832 Mustafa Naili Pascha administered the island of Crete for more than two decades, which is why the Ottoman historians gave him the nickname "Giritli" (German: the Cretans ).

His rule was marked by the attempt to pacify the coexistence of Muslim landowners and Christian traders. Although a Muslim ruler, Mustafa Naili Pascha acted rather cautiously. He tried to support the Greek Cretans. He learned Greek and also married Helena Bolanopoula, the daughter of an Orthodox priest, whom he allowed to keep the Christian faith. In spite of their efforts, the Cretans sent a committee to Athens in 1834 to seek union with Greece. During these years Mustafa Naili Pascha became one of the richest men in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1840 the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston , Egypt, urged Crete to be surrendered to the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Naili Pascha tried to become the prince of the island and achieve semi-autonomous status. But the Muslim Aghas rose up against him and the Greek population refused to support him. There were riots that could only be put down by a British-Ottoman military operation. The Ottoman Empire took control and Mustafa Naili Pascha became governor of the Ottoman Sultan.

In the summer of 1850 Sultan Abdülmecid I came to the island with the heirs to the throne Abdülaziz and Murad V and there was a reception in Mustafa Naili Pascha's private house, which probably impressed the Sultan. In 1851 the Sultan sent a ship to Crete and ordered Mustafa Naili Pascha to Constantinople, where he appointed him to the Meclis-i Vâlâ-yı Ahkâm-ı Adliyye (Supreme Court and State Councilor of the Sultan) and later made him chairman.

On May 14, 1853, Mustafa Naili Pascha was appointed Grand Vizier and was in office until May 29, 1854. He subsequently became a member of the Council of Ministers ( Meclis-i Vükelâ'ya ). On August 2, 1857 he was again Grand Vizier, but was ousted again by his predecessor Mustafa Reşid Pascha on October 23 of the same year . His terms of office were marked by the tensions between the Ottoman and Russian empires. In his first term of office the Crimean War broke out, in the second he had to deal with the aftermath of the war. This time was also marked by disputes with his adversary Mustafa Reşid Pascha.

In September 1866, Mustafa Naili Pascha returned to Crete as the Imperial Plenipotentiary. A popular uprising had broken out and Mustafa Naili was supposed to pacify the island. He tried a combination of military force and negotiation. But he failed and was ordered back to Istanbul in March 1867.

Mustafa Naili Pascha died in 1871 and was buried in the cemetery of the Fatih Mosque .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} David Barchard: The Princely Pasha of Crete . In: Cornucopia, No. 30, 2003/04
2. ↑ Candan Bath: The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856) . Brill, Leiden 2010, p. 78
3. ↑ Davut Hut: Mustafa Nâilî Paşa . In: TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, accessed April 8, 2019

predecessor	Office	successor
Damat Mehmed Ali Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire May 14, 1853–29. May 1854	Kıbrıslı Mehmed Emin Pasha
Mustafa Resid Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire August 2, 1857–23. October 1857	Mustafa Resid Pasha