Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha: Grand Vizier of Karlowitz

Amasya and its hinterland form the region that produced the Köprülü family, which gave the Ottoman state one grand vizier after another in the second half of the seventeenth century. The town of Köprü, today's Vezirköprü, from which the family's founder Köprülü Mehmed Pasha took his name, belonged at that time to Amasya, and a considerable part of the family's wealth and pious endowments lay in this region. One of the most remarkable figures of this line is Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha, known by the sobriquet Amcazade. The son of Hasan Ağa, younger brother of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, Hüseyin Pasha served as grand vizier to Mustafa II between 1697 and 1702. In Ottoman history his name is linked above all with the Treaty of Karlowitz (Karlofça), signed on 26 January 1699. The peace that ended a ruinous war of sixteen years cost the state heavy territorial losses, but it gave an exhausted country room to breathe.

To remember Hüseyin Pasha only as the grand vizier who brought about the peace would leave the picture incomplete. In the nearly four years after the treaty he undertook a broad reorganisation of the tax system, the Janissary and sipahi corps, the navy and the scribal bureaucracy. He was a patron of scholars and historians; Naima's celebrated history was written at his command and bears his name. His mosque complex at Saraçhanebaşı in Istanbul and the surviving reception hall of his waterside mansion at Anadoluhisarı are counted among the finest examples of the architectural and decorative taste of the age. In the end, unable to bear the growing interference of the sultan's tutor, the Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi, in affairs of state, he withdrew from office and died in 1702 after a short illness.

The Köprülü Family and the Amasya Region

The family traces its origins to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who was born in the village of Rudnik in the sanjak of Berat in Albania. Brought to Istanbul through the devşirme levy, Mehmed Pasha was trained in the palace school of the Enderun and, after serving in the imperial kitchens and the treasury, was posted to the provinces with a cavalry company. In these years he went to the town of Köprü, a dependency of Amasya, married Ayşe Hanım there and, having settled in the town, became known as Köprülü. After serving as treasurer to Hüsrev Pasha he was briefly sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya; as sanjak governor of Çorum he took part in the Baghdad campaign of 1638, and he was later appointed to Amasya once again. When he became grand vizier in 1656, an elderly vizier barely known in palace circles, he accepted the seal only on condition that Sultan Mehmed IV and the Valide Turhan Sultan would not interfere in his work. That his nephew Hüseyin Pasha came to the grand vizierate on a similar condition more than forty years later recalls this family tradition.

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha's bond with the Amasya region was more than a matter of a name. In Vezirköprü he built a water conduit and a fountain in the name of his wife Ayşe Hanım, and he founded charitable works in Turhal, Gümüşhacıköy and Vezirköprü. To provide them with income he endowed the revenues of his freehold villages in Köprü, Osmancık and Merzifon. The Köprülü Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Gümüşhacıköy is one of the links of this endowment network that survive today. Through his son Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, his other son Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, known for his closeness to the family, and his nephew Amcazade Hüseyin Pasha, the Köprülüs remained at the forefront of government for nearly half a century. Amcazade's life therefore also shows the weight that one family and one region carried at the Ottoman centre.

Birth, Youth and Sobriquets

Hüseyin Pasha's year of birth is generally given as 1644; this date rests on reports of his age at death and is not supported by any firm document. In Vezirköprü local tradition holds that he was born in the town in 1644, but the standard encyclopaedia entries give no information on his birthplace. His father Hasan Ağa owned a farm in the village of Kozluca near the town of Pravadi, in present-day Bulgaria. During the grand vizierates of his uncle Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and his cousin Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, Hüseyin lived a free life on this farm and at times in Istanbul, without entering state service. Little is known of his youth and education; the fact that he first appears as a high-ranking member of a commander's retinue suggests that he had received a sound scribal or military training.

He acquired the sobriquet Amcazade, "the uncle's son", during the grand vizierate of Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, because he was the grand vizier's paternal cousin. He is said to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca in Fazıl Ahmed Pasha's time and to have married on his return, which is why some sources call him Hacı Hüseyin Pasha. In some records he is also referred to as Yeğen ("the nephew") and Mevlevi. He was indeed a member of the Mevlevi order, and this bond has been associated with his closeness to the concerns of ordinary people. When Mehmed IV and the Haseki Sultan, that is, Gülnuş Emetullah Sultan, set out on the Polish campaign, he presented them with gifts and thereby attached himself to the Haseki Sultan. The fact that the Haseki Sultan's son Prince Mustafa ascended the throne years later as Mustafa II lends this old connection particular significance.

The Defeat at Vienna and Provincial Posts

In 1683 he took part in the Vienna campaign in the retinue of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. When the siege ended in disaster and Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade, those close to the Köprülü family fell from favour; Hüseyin Bey too was imprisoned because of his closeness to the grand vizier. He was released shortly afterwards and, at the beginning of 1684, removed from Istanbul with the governorship of Şehrizor. The post was less a reward than a form of exile. He was then sent to the sanjak of Kastamonu, and afterwards to the command of Çardak near Gallipoli, a fortress in a state of neglect. In 1689 he was appointed with the rank of vizier to the command of Boğazhisar, that is, Seddülbahir, at the mouth of the Dardanelles.

In May 1691 he became kaymakam (deputy governor) of Istanbul. The grand vizier at the time was his cousin Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, and the administration of the capital had been left to Hüseyin Pasha while the grand vizier was on campaign. Fazıl Mustafa Pasha fell at Slankamen that same summer. In the days following the accession of Ahmed II he was judged careless in the matter of Istanbul's fixed prices and the standard of the coinage, and at fault in disturbances that broke out in the city, and so in February 1692 he was dismissed and sent back to the command of Boğazhisar. Some time later he again held the deputy grand vizierate and the command of Boğazhisar together. These years gave him close knowledge of the defence of the Dardanelles and of the naval war in the Aegean.

Grand Admiral and the Recovery of Chios

When the Venetians seized the island of Chios (Sakız) in 1694, the Ottoman government grew seriously alarmed for the security of the straits. On 13 December 1694 Hüseyin Pasha was appointed kapudan pasha, grand admiral of the fleet, and charged with recovering the island; some sources place this appointment at the beginning of January 1695, after the dismissal of Helvacı Yusuf Pasha. His chief support in the campaign came from Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha, an experienced seaman who had risen to be dey of Algiers. In the battle off the Koyun Islands, in which galleons under Mezzo Morto's command also took part, the Venetian fleet was defeated and the Venetians were forced to evacuate the island. After the recovery of Chios the post of grand admiral was given on 6 May 1695 to Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha in recognition of his share in this success. Amcazade, for his part, was appointed governor of the island in May 1695. This cooperation between the two Hüseyin Pashas would continue years later in the reorganisation of the navy.

In November of the same year he was appointed governor of Karaman and Adana and joined the Austrian campaign at the head of the provincial troops. He is recorded as having been made kaymakam of Istanbul for a second time in 1696, and in September of that year he was appointed commander of Belgrade. Belgrade was the main base of the war along the Danube, and its commander occupied a position from which he followed the entire front closely, from the supply of the army to the defence of fortresses. It was by virtue of this post that Hüseyin Pasha spoke at the war council before Zenta.

The Belgrade War Council and the Rout at Zenta

Mustafa II set out at the end of the summer of 1697 on the last of the three campaigns he led in person against Austria. In mid-August the consultative council assembled at Belgrade in the sultan's presence debated the objective of the campaign. The grand vizier and commander-in-chief Elmas Mehmed Pasha, together with the commander of Temesvar, Koca Cafer Pasha, argued for a march towards Pančevo and Temesvar. Amcazade Hüseyin Pasha proposed instead the siege of Petrovaradin (Varadin), which lay much closer. The sultan inclined to the first view and the Temesvar route was decided upon. This route required crossing many rivers and marshes and building bridges. When his proposal was not accepted, Hüseyin Pasha returned to Belgrade.

On 11 September 1697, as the army was trying to cross the Tisza at Zenta, Austrian forces under Prince Eugene suddenly attacked the units that had not yet reached the far bank. With no help able to come from the other side, panic set in and the army broke up. The grand vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha was killed together with some twenty commanders, and an eighth of the army was lost. The treasury chests, thousands of animals and the grand vizier's seal fell into enemy hands. Mustafa II, who had witnessed the rout at close quarters, withdrew to Temesvar. The disaster made plain to everyone how sound the Petrovaradin proposal put forward at the Belgrade council had been.

His Appointment as Grand Vizier

After Zenta Hüseyin Pasha was summoned to the army at Temesvar, and on 13 September 1697 it was decided to appoint him grand vizier. Hurrying from Belgrade, the pasha came first to the tent of the deputy grand vizier Bozoklu Mustafa Pasha and from there to the sultan's pavilion. According to the sources, when the sultan wished to hand him the seal at once, Hüseyin Pasha declared that he could accept the office only on condition that there would be no interference in his affairs and that he would act with full authority. Mustafa II accepted this condition. On 17 September he was handed a newly engraved imperial seal in place of the one that had been lost with Elmas Mehmed Pasha. The start of his term is given variously in the sources as 11, 13 or 17 September; these differences arise from the interval between the day the decision was taken and the day the seal was delivered. The memory of the conditions his uncle Köprülü Mehmed Pasha had laid down forty-one years earlier is clearly felt in this bargain.

The new grand vizier's first step was to surround himself with men he trusted. Rami Mehmed Efendi, who had been dismissed and confined to his house because of his quarrel with Elmas Mehmed Pasha, was reappointed reisülküttab, chief of the scribes and head of foreign affairs, on 17 October 1697. Hüseyin Pasha trusted him so far that he left the burden of foreign affairs largely on his shoulders. After Zenta Prince Eugene entered Bosnia, advanced as far as Sarajevo and caused great devastation, while Venice kept up its pressure in Dalmatia and the Morea. Russia, for its part, had taken the fortress of Azov a year earlier, on 6 August 1696. The state no longer had the strength to carry on the war on four fronts at once.

The Turn to Peace and the Negotiations at Karlowitz

Hüseyin Pasha was convinced that the war waged since 1683 against Austria, Poland, Venice and later Russia could not be continued. As Vezirköprü tradition recounts, these years were remembered in Ottoman history as the "years of calamity". The sultan's position was more complicated. According to Dimitrie Cantemir, Mustafa II saw that peace was needed but felt it unworthy of the honour of the state that the offer of peace should come from him. The grand vizier and his government, however, were determined to end the war. Friendly relations were established with Iran, securing the eastern frontier. The mediation of the English ambassador William Paget and the Dutch ambassador Jacob Colyer, who had come to Edirne offering their good offices, was accepted.

The negotiations took place at Karlowitz near Belgrade, the small town known today in Serbia as Sremski Karlovci, and lasted more than two months. The Ottoman state was represented by the reisülküttab Rami Mehmed Efendi and the Dragoman of the Imperial Council, Alexander Mavrocordatos. Rami Efendi had been given "ruhsat-ı kâmile", that is, full powers. According to tradition, during the negotiations the parties sat around a round table for the first time in the history of peace talks; the great tent in which the talks were held had four separate entrances, so that no delegation gained precedence on entering. The knowledge and skill Rami Efendi displayed in the difficult sessions astonished the envoys of the other side, and in Europe a rumour even spread that the Christian delegates had been outwitted by the Ottomans. Rami Efendi described the whole course of the negotiations, from their preparation to the signing, in his work Sulhnâme.

One reason why Austria agreed so readily to peace lay in developments in the west. Because the Spanish king Charles II had no heir, a great war of succession between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons was approaching. Indeed, less than two years after the treaty the War of the Spanish Succession broke out. England and Holland were so eager to mediate because they wanted Austria freed of its burden in the east. Hüseyin Pasha's policy of peace rested on a calculation that read this European balance correctly.

The Terms of the Treaty and the Treaty of Constantinople

Under the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699, the whole of Hungary except the Banat and Temesvar, together with Transylvania, was ceded to Austria. Podolia and Ukraine passed to Poland, and the Morea and most of the Dalmatian coast to Venice. The duration of the peace was set at twenty-five years. Because Russia demanded Kerch in addition to Azov, no peace could be concluded with it at Karlowitz, and only a two-year truce was signed. After the treaty, the commission set up to fix the new Ottoman-Austrian frontier was headed by Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, who had taken part in the negotiations as an adviser. Karlowitz is regarded as the first treaty in which the Ottoman state lost territory on a large scale in the west, and historians mostly take its date as marking the passage from stagnation to decline. For a long time thereafter Ottoman policy was directed towards recovering the lost territories.

The actual peace with Russia came with the Treaty of Constantinople, signed on 13 July 1700, by which the fortress of Azov was ceded to Russia. Mustafa II came to Istanbul in September 1699 to receive the embassies arriving from the states with which peace had been made. The Austrian ambassador Oettingen, who came to Istanbul with the ratified texts of the treaty, was conducted by sea in a splendid ceremony to the grand vizier's waterside mansion at Anadoluhisarı on 29 April 1700, where a banquet was given in his honour. Hüseyin Pasha then busied himself with the regulation of the new frontiers and took measures against the disorder around Jerusalem, Gaza and Basra. Even the settlement clauses of Karlowitz concerning the Crimea caused internal unrest there, which was calmed only when Gazi Giray III was sent to Rhodes.

Financial and Military Reforms

After the peace the greatest problem facing the state was a population crushed under the heavy taxes of the war years and a military organisation in disarray. As reported by Stanford Shaw, Hüseyin Pasha began with financial measures. The duties on tobacco and coffee, which had been quadrupled during the war, were substantially reduced, and the taxes on basic consumer goods such as soap and cooking oil were also lightened. The extraordinary levies imposed during the war years were abolished, and those who had been heavily fined for failing to pay them were pardoned. The inhabitants of regions that had been constant battlefields, Belgrade and Temesvar above all, were exempted from the poll tax (cizye) for a year. Instructions sent to provincial administrators forbade the exaction of oppressive dues under the name of "tekâlîf-i şâkka". The debased coins struck during the war were replaced with coins of full value.

To bring new cultivators to farming districts whose population had dwindled, the settlement of nomadic Turcoman tribes was undertaken. The Mamalu Turcomans were settled in the Bozok region and some other tribes in İçil and Cyprus; according to Shaw, similar settlement efforts were also made around Urfa, Malatya and Antalya. Steps were also taken to build a new manufacturing base in place of the craft production that had collapsed during the war and to reduce imports from Europe. His successors continued this policy; Rami Mehmed Pasha supported, through economies in expenditure, a situation that had begun to improve thanks to the financial measures taken in Amcazade's time, and so balanced revenue and expenditure. The fact that the state budget began to stabilise in the years of peace after Karlowitz was the first result of these reforms.

In the military sphere, the pay rolls of the kapıkulu corps were reviewed. According to the figures given by Shaw, of the Janissaries, who had reached 70,000 on paper before Karlowitz, only about 10,000 were real fighting men; the corps was reduced to 34,000 active soldiers, and the strength of the artillery corps was cut from 6,000 to 1,250. New men were recruited into the kapıkulu cavalry regiments. Among the provincial timariot sipahis, efforts were made to prevent bribery and to ensure that fiefs went to properly maintained and trained soldiers. Decrees for the reform of the Janissaries were dispatched to Anatolia along three routes. The scribal bureaucracy at the centre and in the palace was also overhauled; inefficient old scribes were retired and newly trained scribes were taken into service. Not all of these measures proved equally lasting, but they formed one of the most comprehensive examples of the state's attempt to recover during the brief interval that the peace allowed.

The Renewal of the Navy

The best known of Hüseyin Pasha's reforms is the change in the navy. A grand vizier who knew the weaknesses at sea at first hand from his time as grand admiral, he relied in this field on his old comrade in arms, Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha. The replacement of oar-driven galleys by wind-driven galleons gathered pace in this period. In 1699-1700 Mezzo Morto added to the fleet a flagship galley (baştarda) built for him at the Imperial Arsenal, of a size never seen before, with thirty-one rowing benches and carved decoration all round. The naval officers and personnel were reorganised from top to bottom and a complete hierarchy of ranks was established. According to Shaw, the galleon crews were for the first time regularly housed in barracks, were well paid, and even their retirement was provided for.

This work was given a legal framework in the Naval Code (Bahriye Kanunnâmesi), whose preparation Mezzo Morto completed before his death. Under the code, naval affairs were to be entrusted to men trained in seafaring, the number of galleons in the fleet was to be at least forty, and promotions were to be regulated. The proclamation and application of the code fell in the time of Mezzo Morto's successor Abdülfettah Pasha. After Karlowitz Mezzo Morto had put to sea one last time, ill as he was, to clear the Mediterranean of corsairs, and he died, probably on the island of Paros, on 20 August 1701. His death meant that Hüseyin Pasha lost his most powerful ally in the government.

The Struggle with Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi

The rout at Zenta had shaken Mustafa II deeply. Leaving the affairs of state largely to the grand vizier, the sultan withdrew to a life of hunting and court entertainments, in Edirne rather than Istanbul. The most influential person around him in Edirne was the Şeyhülislam Seyyid Feyzullah Efendi, who had been his tutor since childhood. A native of Erzurum, Feyzullah Efendi had become şeyhülislam for the second time in 1695 and held the office for more than eight years. Using his influence over the sultan, he raised his sons and relatives to high positions while they were still young. For the first time in Ottoman history he obtained a decree from the sultan that his son Fethullah Efendi would succeed him as şeyhülislam. Feyzullah Efendi, who married his daughters into prominent families of scholars and viziers, is known to have formed ties of kinship with the Köprülüs as well; this closeness did not prevent the rivalry between him and the grand vizier from growing bitter.

Once the first effects of Karlowitz had passed, Feyzullah Efendi gathered around himself a faction of relatives and supporters, began to meddle in appointments and dismissals and to encroach on the grand vizier's authority. Whenever the grand vizier's policies touched his interests, he could use his influence with the sultan to halt their implementation. The delicate balance between the government in Istanbul and the court in Edirne tipped in Feyzullah Efendi's favour with the death of Mezzo Morto in August 1701. Shaw attributes Hüseyin Pasha's worsening illness to the distress caused by this helplessness. Hüseyin Pasha asked several times to be relieved of office on grounds of illness, but his request was refused.

Resignation and Death

One of the events that shook the grand vizier most was the execution of a relative. His paternal aunt's son Kıblelizade Ali Bey had been accused of a secret liaison with a princess, and the sultan had the young man executed despite all of Hüseyin Pasha's entreaties. The dismissal and killing of some other relatives deepened his distress. At last, on 4 September 1702, he sent the seal of office to the sultan, resigned and withdrew to his farm at Kumburgaz near Istanbul. Daltaban Mustafa Pasha was appointed in his place. Hüseyin Pasha died at his farm after an illness of about fifteen days.

The date of his death is given differently in the sources. The TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam accepts 22 September 1702; another account has him dying at his farm in Silivri on 19 September 1702, while the biographical tradition in Vezirköprü gives 23 August 1702. Considering that he surrendered the seal on 4 September, the second half of September appears more consistent. The location of the farm is also named as Kumburgaz in some texts and Silivri in others; both are coastal settlements west of Istanbul, close to each other. He was about sixty years old at his death. His body was brought to Istanbul and buried in the graveyard of the complex he had built at Saraçhanebaşı. According to one foreign historian, had he not died at this point he would very probably have fallen victim to his political rivals.

The events that followed shortly after his death tend to bear out this estimate. Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, who came to the grand vizierate at Feyzullah Efendi's prompting, submitted to him in order to keep his post, but was nevertheless executed through his influence. Rami Mehmed Pasha, who became grand vizier next, sought ways to break the şeyhülislam's power. In the revolt of 1703, which began in Istanbul, spread to Edirne and is known as the Edirne Incident, Feyzullah Efendi was killed in a gruesome manner, and Mustafa II was forced to leave the throne to his brother Ahmed III. Hüseyin Pasha's withdrawal from the grand vizierate is regarded as one of the first signs of this great rupture.

Patron of Scholars and Historians

Hüseyin Pasha was known as a vizier who protected the scholars and artists of his time. The most lasting result of this patronage is the history of Mustafa Naima of Aleppo. Naima, who came from a Janissary family settled in Aleppo, entered Hüseyin Pasha's patronage probably through the mediation of Rami Efendi. The grand vizier first charged him with making a fair copy of the drafts of the history written by the madrasa teacher Şarihülmenarzade Ahmed Efendi. When Naima had completed this task and presented several fascicles of his reworked history, he was granted a purse of akçe and assigned a salary of 120 akçe from the revenues of the Istanbul customs. It is accepted that Hüseyin Pasha appointed Naima as official chronicler (vakanüvis) before 1702; his reputation as the first official Ottoman chronicler rests on this.

Naima named his work after the grand vizier: Ravzatü'l-Hüseyn fî hulâsati ahbâri'l-hâfikayn, "The Garden of Hüseyin, on the Summary of the Tidings of East and West". He presented the first redaction to him in 1702, with an introduction recounting Hüseyin Pasha's services and the Treaty of Karlowitz that he had brought about. He intended to extend his history to the year 1702, but the death of his patron that same year and the Edirne Incident that followed delayed this plan. The work was printed in 1734 at the press of İbrahim Müteferrika and, with its vivid descriptions and its care in revealing the inner workings of events, became one of the most widely read texts of Ottoman historiography. The rise of Rami Mehmed Efendi is another example of Hüseyin Pasha's sound judgement in choosing men.

The Mosque Complex at Saraçhanebaşı

Hüseyin Pasha's most important charitable foundation is the complex (külliye) he built during his grand vizierate at Saraçhanebaşı in Istanbul, in the Mimar Ayas quarter. Consisting of a lecture hall that also served as a masjid, a library, a primary school, sixteen madrasa cells and a sebil (public fountain kiosk), the complex occupies an area of 2,580 square metres. Its endowment deed, dated 1700, shows that it was founded chiefly for teaching Qur'an recitation and tajwid. Built by the chief architect İbrahim Ağa, its structures were erected along classical lines at a time when the Baroque style was beginning to appear in Turkey. The buildings of cut stone and brick are arranged freely around a broad courtyard with an ablution fountain at its centre. The masjid dominates the courtyard with its portico of twenty-two marble columns surrounding it on three sides; its octagonal prayer hall is covered by a drumless dome 11 metres in diameter, has twenty-eight windows, and above its door is the construction inscription dated 1700.

The library is a square, two-storey building with a single dome; the inscription above its door belongs to a repair of 1754-55. The sebil stands on three columns in the form of a clover leaf, and the spaces between the columns are closed with brass grilles. In 1739 a fountain in the classical style was added beside the main gate of the complex by the Şeyhülislam Mustafa Efendi. The graveyard holds the tombs of Hüseyin Pasha and of his daughter Rahmiye Hanım, who took over the management of the complex after his death. The complex was damaged by fires and earthquakes in 1718, 1755, 1872 and 1896 and repaired each time, and in 1940 it was restored by Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi. In 1966 it was converted, with some alterations, into a museum building, and today it serves as the Foundations Museum of Turkish Construction and Art Works. The books of the library are preserved in the Süleymaniye Library under the name of the Amcazade Hüseyin Pasha Library.

The Waterside Mansion at Anadoluhisarı and Other Charitable Works

The waterside mansion (yalı) on the Bosphorus between Anadoluhisarı and Kanlıca was also called the Meşruta Yalı because of its connection with Hüseyin Pasha's endowments. Its endowment deed is dated 1700, though it has also been argued that a chronogram in the divan of the poet Nazim yields the date 1701-1702. The mansion must have been habitable by 1700; besides Oettingen's banquet, Mustafa II, who was staying at the Üsküdar Palace that summer, came to a banquet given here, and a few days later the Polish ambassador was entertained. The custom continued after Hüseyin Pasha's death; the Persian ambassador Murtaza Kulı Khan in 1705 and an Austrian ambassador in 1719 were received here as guests. It is also said that the final copy of the Karlowitz text was reviewed in this mansion, but there is no document to support this.

The mansion originally consisted of two large timber buildings lined along the shore, a bath and a reception hall (divanhane) projecting over the sea. In the nineteenth century the main buildings burned or were demolished, leaving only the T-shaped reception hall resting on piles. The dome, walls and ceilings of this hall, which has a marble-paved pool at its centre with a fountain jet carved in the shape of a mosque, were adorned with painted decoration dominated by gold leaf, and the cupboard doors were inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. Pierre Loti was foremost among those who wished the mansion saved; a society led by Madame Bompard, wife of the French ambassador, had the hall surveyed and its painted decoration copied, and published them in 1915 as a large album. The timber reception hall is regarded as the only surviving example in Istanbul of its kind from the period of Turkish pavilion architecture before it came under foreign influence, yet after 1926 it was neglected and for a long time could not receive a thorough repair because of disputes over ownership.

Hüseyin Pasha had fountains in Istanbul and Edirne. Among them, the Başçı Mahmud Fountain behind the Haseki Hospital bears an inscription dated 1698. He is reported to have built a pavilion at Buçuktepe in Edirne and a dervish lodge in Bursa. In Medina he had a sebil built near Bab al-Saghir; this structure later disappeared together with the Bab al-Saghir cemetery in subsequent centuries. The spread of his charitable works across Istanbul, Edirne, Bursa and the Hijaz may be seen as a continuation of the endowment tradition of his uncle Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, which stretched from Rumelia to the Amasya region.

Family and Assessments

One of Hüseyin Pasha's daughters married Kavanoz Ahmed Pasha, who served briefly as grand vizier in 1703. Another daughter, Rahmiye Hanım, took over the management of the Saraçhanebaşı complex after her father's death and was buried beside him. When Köprülüzade Numan Pasha, of a later generation of the family, became grand vizier in 1710, the family's presence in state service had already exceeded half a century. In this chain Hüseyin Pasha is the close kinsman who bore the seal after Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, the sons of the family's founder Köprülü Mehmed Pasha.

İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı describes him as "a head of government well acquainted with affairs of state and the condition of the country, prudent and far-sighted", and stresses that he liked to train men and to advance and protect people of merit and ability. In the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam he is likewise described as a statesman aware of the condition of the country, prudent, far-sighted and reform-minded by the standards of his time. In Shaw's assessment Hüseyin Pasha is one of the last strong representatives of the Köprülü talent that kept Ottoman power intact after a great defeat, though in the end he was driven from office by a powerful cleric. Although the great territorial losses of Karlowitz have at times tied his name to a moment of decline, his contemporaries and later historians have seen the peace as a realistic decision that acknowledged the war could not be sustained. That he is still remembered in Vezirköprü together with the family's other grand viziers reflects the way the Amasya region counts this statesman as part of its own history.

Chronology

1644: Generally accepted year of birth (according to local tradition in Vezirköprü, in that town).

1683: Takes part in the Vienna campaign in the retinue of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha; imprisoned after the defeat.

1684: Removed from Istanbul with the governorship of Şehrizor; then the sanjak of Kastamonu and the command of Çardak.

1689: Becomes commander of Boğazhisar (Seddülbahir) with the rank of vizier.

May 1691: Becomes kaymakam of Istanbul; dismissed in February 1692 and returns to Boğazhisar.

13 December 1694: Appointed grand admiral (in some sources January 1695).

1695: Victory off the Koyun Islands and recovery of Chios; governor of Chios in May, governor of Karaman and Adana in November.

September 1696: Appointed commander of Belgrade.

August 1697: At the Belgrade war council proposes a march on Petrovaradin; the proposal is rejected.

11 September 1697: Rout at Zenta; the grand vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha is killed.

13-17 September 1697: Appointed grand vizier; receives the imperial seal on 17 September.

17 October 1697: Rami Mehmed Efendi is reappointed reisülküttab.

1698: Date of the inscription of the Başçı Mahmud Fountain.

26 January 1699: The Treaty of Karlowitz is signed.

29 April 1700: The Austrian ambassador Oettingen is received at the waterside mansion at Anadoluhisarı.

1700: Date of the endowment deed and inscription of the Saraçhanebaşı complex.

13 July 1700: Treaty of Constantinople with Russia; Azov is ceded to Russia.

20 August 1701: Death of the grand admiral Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha.

1702: Naima presents the first redaction of his history to Hüseyin Pasha.

4 September 1702: Sends back the seal of office, resigns and withdraws to his farm at Kumburgaz.

22 September 1702: Death (in other sources 19 September or 23 August 1702); buried in the graveyard of his complex at Saraçhanebaşı.

1734: Naima's history is printed at the press of İbrahim Müteferrika.

1915: An album containing the survey drawings and painted decoration of the mansion's reception hall is published.

1966: The complex is converted into a museum.

Bibliography

Official sources

• District Governorship of Vezirköprü, "Köprülü Amcazade Hüseyin Paşa". vezirkopru.gov.tr

Books

• İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Osmanlı Tarihi, vol. III/1, pp. 578-679; vol. III/2, pp. 444-448; vol. IV/1, pp. 1-10, Ankara: Turkish Historical Society.

Other sources

• M. Münir Aktepe, "Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, Istanbul 1991, pp. 8-9. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• "Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa Külliyesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, Istanbul 1991, pp. 9-10. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• "Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa Yalısı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, Istanbul 1991, pp. 11-12. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• "Köprülü Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• "Mezemorta Hüseyin Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
• "Mustafa II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
• "Naîmâ", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
• "Râmi Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
• "Feyzullah Efendi, Seyyid", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
• Stanford J. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 1, Cambridge 1976, pp. 225-227.
• Alan Palmer, Bir Çöküşün Yeni Tarihi (Turkish translation), Istanbul 1992, p. 29.
• Wikipedia (Turkish), "Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa" and "Karlofça Antlaşması"; Wikipedia (English), "Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha".