Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha is remembered under three names, and each one carries a different side of his life. In Western sources he is simply "Kara", the name that calls to mind the grand vizier at the head of a vast army before the walls of Vienna. In Turkey he is "Merzifonlu", the man from Merzifon, a name that recalls a life that began in the village of Marınca, in what is now the Merzifon district of Amasya. After his death the state records added a third epithet: "Maktul", the one who was put to death, because he was killed in Belgrade by imperial decree. A child who lost his father at the age of four, grew up in the Köprülü household and ruled the empire for seven years, who transformed his home town with a mosque, a caravanserai, a covered market and water channels, and who finally paid for a defeat with his life: this is the skeleton of the story that lies between those three names. In the account below, what is known has been kept apart from what is merely reported, and the points where the sources diverge are stated openly.

From Marınca to the Köprülü Household

Kara Mustafa Pasha was born in the Hijri year 1044 (1634-35) in the village of Marınca, attached to Merzifon. The sources write the village name as Marınca, Narince or Mirince; today the village bears his name and is called Karamustafapaşa. His exact date of birth is unknown, and the sources give the year as 1634 or 1635. At the beginning of the sixteenth century Merzifon was a district made up of villages such as Urumcuk, Muşruf, Samadola, Yassıviran and Hırka, together with Marınca. The Ottoman land registers record Marınca as the most populous village of the district. The setting in which Mustafa Pasha grew up was therefore less a poor hamlet than the edge of a lively provincial centre.

His father, Oruç Bey, was a timar-holding sipahi (cavalryman). Some sources give his mother's name as Âbide Hatun. According to the entry on Merzifon's history, Âbide Hatun was also a woman inclined to charitable works; in the seventeenth century she had a mosque built in the village of Bahçekent, and it is still known by her name. Oruç Bey fell as a martyr during Murad IV's siege of Baghdad (1638). Little Mustafa was left an orphan at the age of four. Köprülü Mehmed Bey, one of his father's friends, was then the sanjak governor of Amasya and took the child under his protection. Mustafa received a madrasa education together with Köprülü's sons, in the same household and from the same teachers. Köprülü Mehmed's son Fâzıl Ahmed was the man who would later precede him in the grand vizierate and open the way for him. This share of the Amasya sanjak in Mustafa's upbringing is one of the strongest ties binding his life to Amasya.

The sources do not speak with a single voice about his origins. According to another account, Mustafa was the son of a sipahi named Derviş, was born in 1626-27, came under Köprülü's protection at the age of eighteen and became deputy governor of Tripoli (Trablusşam) while Köprülü was serving as deputy governor of Damascus; this information rests on Cantemir and Galland. He is said to have been Köprülü Mehmed Pasha's son-in-law, but the date of the marriage and the name of his wife are uncertain. An account reflected in European sources reports that the children from his marriage to the Köprülü daughter died young and that his wife passed away soon afterwards. Yusuf, Mehmed and Ali are named among his sons; according to the Ottoman records, his estate passed to Vizier Ali Pasha and Fatma Hanım.

The Köprülü household was the school of administration that kept the state upright in the second half of the seventeenth century. In that household Mustafa learned not only reading and writing; he saw at close quarters how the divan worked, how delicate official correspondence could be, and how heavy a grand vizier's daily burden was. The Köprülü family was of Albanian origin, and among them Mustafa was known as a pure Anatolian. European observers who were his contemporaries describe him as coarse in appearance, physically strong, cool-headed and proud. It is also written that he did not drink, wore no silk and used neither gold nor silver; these prohibitions, which Islamic custom required, were hardly observed at the time.

From the Köprülü Household to Grand Admiral

When Köprülü Mehmed Pasha became grand vizier in 1656, Mustafa entered his entourage as well. During his father-in-law's grand vizierate he served first as silahdar (armour-bearer) and then as telhisçi (the officer who prepared summaries for the sultan), and he took part with him in the Transylvanian campaign. After bringing the news of the conquest of Yanova he was appointed by Mehmed IV as second master of the horse (mîrâhûr-ı sânî); the appointment is dated 3 Dhu'l-Hijja 1068, which corresponds to 1 September 1658. About two years later he became beylerbey (governor-general) of Silistra. He came to Istanbul by serving as host to the Valide Turhan Sultan on her return from Edirne, and was then sent to the beylerbeylik of Diyarbekir with the rank of vizier. According to some sources he was about twenty-five years old when he became a vizier.

After Köprülü Mehmed Pasha's death the grand vizierate passed to his son Fâzıl Ahmed. Mustafa Pasha, the new grand vizier's childhood friend, became kapudan pasha (grand admiral) in his time and held that post for more than four years, from 1661 to 1666. When the grand vizier went out on the Uyvar (Érsekújvár) campaign, he also served as deputy grand vizier (sadaret kaymakamlığı) alongside the admiralty. When Kaplan Mustafa Pasha became grand admiral, only the vizierate remained in his hands. When Fâzıl Ahmed set out for the Cretan campaign he was appointed deputy again, on 9 May 1666, and he held this post for nearly three years. After the grand vizier returned from Crete he accompanied him on the Kamaniçe (Kamianets) campaign, and the services he rendered during the siege are recorded. He conducted the negotiations for the Treaty of Buczacz (Bucaş), signed with Poland on 18 October 1672. He stayed with the grand vizier for a while at Babadağı, was then appointed deputy once more, and in August 1674 received the surrender of Human (Uman), one of the Polish fortresses. In 1675, during the festivities at Edirne, he became a candidate for the hand of Ümmü Sultan, one of Mehmed IV's daughters. During Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha's illness he acted in his place, and on his death he became grand vizier on 28 Sha'ban 1087 (5 November 1676). In some accounts the date is given as 3 November.

It is reported that when Mehmed IV handed him the seal, he said that he had made him his absolute deputy and entrusted God's servants to him. The words appear in biographies compiled from Ottoman chronicles, and their meaning matters more than their exact wording. At the start of a grand vizierate that would last about seven years and one month, Mustafa Pasha inherited from the Köprülüs a country whose internal and external problems had been largely settled. It is clear that he tied his survival in office to achieving great successes on the scale of his predecessors.

The Grand Vizierate

Ukraine and the Chyhyryn Campaign

The first great question of the period was the status of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century the Ottomans had wanted to use the Cossack hetmans against the growing Russian threat in the north. They had made Doroshenko hetman of the Cossack lands on both banks of the Özü (Dnieper) and had created a buffer principality centred on Chyhyryn (Çehrin) in 1668. Doroshenko's turn towards Russia and his surrender of Chyhyryn to the Russians (1675) upset this arrangement. With the support of Selim Giray, Khan of Crimea, the Ottoman government first sent Melek (Şeytan) İbrâhim Pasha; this first campaign lasted three weeks, the steep fortress of Chyhyryn, defended by some six thousand Russian, Cossack and German soldiers, could not be taken, and many cannon fell into enemy hands. Kara Mustafa Pasha tried to settle the matter by peaceful means in talks with the Polish envoy while continuing to prepare for a campaign. The army set out on 30 April 1678; Mehmed IV stayed at Hacıoğlupazarcığı, and Mustafa Pasha conducted operations as serdâr-ı ekrem (commander-in-chief).

The siege of Chyhyryn began on 21 July 1678. The fortress, which was surrounded by marsh on three sides, could be approached from only one direction. It was defended with about 150 cannon, and the Russian general Romodanovsky had come to its aid and pitched camp on the far side of the Tasmyn river. One night the Russians even managed to bring some twenty thousand soldiers into the fortress. At the council in the grand vizier's tent a decision to continue the siege was taken despite the opposition of some commanders. The commander-in-chief's composure and his skilful conduct of the artillery duel raised the morale of commanders and troops. In the end two mines dug beneath the walls were exploded, a general assault followed, and Chyhyryn was taken on the 33rd day of the siege, 21 August 1678. Because it was hard to hold, the fortress was razed, and two new fortresses were built on the bank of the Özü. In the great clash with Romodanovsky both sides suffered heavy losses and neither established a clear superiority; the logistical difficulties of the steppe forced the Ottoman army to turn back. The army took Kaniv by siege. As winter approached, Mustafa Pasha handed the command to Kara Mehmed Pasha and returned to Edirne, where the sultan received him with great favour. Chyhyryn remained under Ottoman rule for only about eight years, which is why the campaign, though it ended in victory, is regarded as somewhat unnecessary and costly.

When the Russians crossed the Özü and attacked again, a second campaign was decided on, but when the Russian tsar learned that the Ottoman army was on the move he asked for peace through the Khan of Crimea. The talks, which began at Bakhchisarai in 1679, ended on 11 February 1681 with Mehmed IV's approval. With this text, regarded as the first Turkish-Russian treaty, a twenty-year truce was concluded, the Özü was accepted as the frontier, and it was stipulated that the annual tribute paid to the khans of Crimea must be sent without delay. No fortress was to be built between the Özü and the Aksu, and Kiev was to remain with the Russians. For a long time afterwards Crimean-Russian relations were regulated according to this treaty.

Hungary and Thököly

The decisive event of Mustafa Pasha's grand vizierate was the Siege of Vienna, regarded as a turning point in Ottoman history. The road to that siege ran through Hungary. After the Habsburg emperor crushed the Protestant Hungarians, their leader Imre Thököly had rebelled and asked for Ottoman protection. Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, unwilling to break the Treaty of Vasvár signed in 1664, had not looked kindly on the request. Soon after taking office Kara Mustafa Pasha proclaimed Thököly king of Middle Hungary. Encouraged by this, the Hungarian prince went into action along the Austrian frontier, and places such as Kassa, Eperjes, Fülek and Eger in central Hungary came under Ottoman control. According to one account, Thököly had won the grand vizier's full support with the Hungarian gold he sent. It is also said that the grand vizier concealed Austria's complaints on this matter from the sultan.

Emperor Leopold I, who was under the threat of war with France, did not want a clash with the Ottomans and sent an envoy to Edirne asking for the Treaty of Vasvár, which had not yet expired, to be renewed. Mehmed IV was also in favour of peace. France, on the other hand, which had been at war with Austria for thirty years, was working to prevent the Ottomans from making peace. Relying also on the support of the Janissaries and the other palace troops, Mustafa Pasha said that he wished to make good the defeat of Saint Gotthard and refused to let peace be renewed. It is recorded that he even had petitions of complaint about Austrian raids sent from the frontier districts, that he mobilised the mosque preachers, Vanî Mehmed Efendi foremost among them, and won public opinion over, and that he thereby persuaded the sultan. The Austrian envoy obtained from the shaykh al-Islam a fatwa to the effect that "war is not declared on one who asks for quarter", but it had no effect on the outcome. This opinion of the shaykh al-Islam shows how divided the Ottoman leadership was over the question of war.

The Grand Vizier's Character and Rivals

The sources paint contradictory pictures of Mustafa Pasha. Ottoman sources describe him as intelligent, dignified, brave, a capable soldier and a man of good character; the same sources also write that he was very proud, obstinate, and fond of rank and fame. European envoys passed harsher judgements. The Venetian bailo calls him "wholly venal, cruel and unfair", and the English ambassador John Finch writes that he was a "grievous oppressor of Christendom". The Dutch representative Justinus Colyer, on the other hand, at first introduced him as "a most agreeable and pleasant creature". The researcher Merlijn Olnon attributes this difference to the grand vizier's treating the Dutch differently for political reasons; once the French wars ended and preferential treatment of the Dutch lost its point, the relationship soured. According to the same researcher, his bad reputation in Europe arose from his effort to preserve Ottoman supremacy and from his clashes with ambitious foreign ministers.

Because of his obstinacy, harshness, grudge-bearing and capacity to wound, he had powerful enemies not only in the camp but also in the palace. The foremost were the chief black eunuch Yûsuf and the chief master of the horse Sarı Süleyman Agha. In an article published in Türkiyat Mecmuası, Ömer Faruk Akün studied the struggle between Mustafa Pasha and Sarı Süleyman Agha on the basis of a record of conversation. As for the claims Cantemir makes, that the grand vizier wanted to become German emperor or to overthrow Sultan Mehmed and take his place, the Islamic Encyclopaedia of the Turkish Religious Foundation (TDV) calls them baseless.

The Road to Vienna

After the decision for war was taken, the army began preparations to move on 21 January 1682, and war was declared on 6 August 1682. Mehmed IV authorised the grand vizier to operate as far as the fortresses of Győr (Yanık) and Komárom (Komorn) and to besiege them. The sultan's expectation of the campaign was this limited. Mustafa Pasha, however, intended, with a campaign launched before the Treaty of Vasvár expired, to carry Ottoman power to the middle of Europe and to eliminate the Habsburg Empire. Almost fifteen months passed between mobilisation and the actual march; this gap gave Vienna time to prepare its defence, Leopold time to raise troops within the Empire and to form an alliance of Poland, Venice and the Pope. The defensive alliance between Leopold and Poland was concluded by the Treaty of Warsaw in 1683. The army set out from Edirne in the spring of 1683.

Belgrade was reached in early May; Mehmed IV also came as far as Belgrade. Prince Apafi of Transylvania and Thököly's Hungarian force joined the army, and Murad Giray, Khan of Crimea, reached the army at Istolni Belgrade (Székesfehérvár) on 27 June 1683. At the war council held there the target of the campaign was discussed. Everyone, even the sultan, thought that the target was Győr. Prompted also by the chief secretary Mustafa Efendi, the grand vizier proposed besieging Vienna rather than conquering Győr, an unimportant place for so large an army. It is related that when a silence fell over the council he snapped at the most senior vizier, Sarı Hüseyin Pasha: "Is your mouth tied? Why do you not speak?" Murad Giray, Khan of Crimea, and İbrâhim Pasha, the governor of Buda, said that Győr and Komárom should be taken first and only then should the army advance on Vienna. The grand vizier turned on these two as enemies and forbade anyone to speak against the campaign. According to another account, when the commander of Győr refused to surrender, he convened a second council and argued for going straight to Vienna without wasting time. At this stage the sources diverge. Most Turkish sources write that the change of objective was decided at the Belgrade council with the sultan's knowledge. Some foreign sources, on the other hand, claim that the campaign was conducted on the grand vizier's own initiative, without Mehmed IV's knowledge. It is reported that when the sultan learned that the army was heading for Vienna he expressed his astonishment: our intention was Győr and Komárom, the castle of Vienna was not on our tongue, the pasha has fallen in love with this idea, may God make it easy, but had he told me beforehand I would not have consented.

The size of the army is disputed. One estimate speaks of 500,000 people, of whom 350,000 were combatants and 150,000 rear-service personnel including auxiliary forces; the TDV notes that this is exaggerated. The royal armour-bearer Silahdar Fındıklılı Mehmed Agha writes that among this crowd were many tradesmen such as greengrocers and grocers who had come in hope of booty. Another estimate gives 100,000-120,000; from the battle-order documents found in the grand vizier's tent, a force of 170,000 emerges at the start of the campaign. It is reported that in 1933, at a conference, Atatürk defended Kara Mustafa Pasha by saying that marching an army of 173,000 men from Istanbul to Vienna was in itself a colossal undertaking.

The grand vizier reached Vienna on 19 Rajab 1094 (14 July 1683). Emperor Leopold left the defence of the city to Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg and withdrew into the interior of Austria; the commander-in-chief of the Austrian armies was his brother-in-law, Charles of Lorraine. In the first engagements, the Austrian army, outflanked by the Crimean cavalry, had been routed and driven back as far as Vienna. The size of the garrison in the city is given as between 10,000 and 20,000, depending on the source. The Saxon engineer Georg Rimpler directed the fortification work for the defence. When the offer of surrender was rejected, the siege began.

The Siege and Kahlenberg

Because the siege had not been planned in advance, the great siege guns had not been brought. The army had nineteen heavy cannon capable of firing large shot, a number of howitzers and about 120 light field guns (şâhî darbzen); the Austrians had greater artillery strength. The commander-in-chief wanted Vienna taken by surrender rather than by assault. This inadequacy left the war of mines and trenches dragging on for two months. When the siege passed the two-month mark, weariness spread among the troops; while aid reached Austria, food shortages began in the Ottoman camp. With the help that arrived, the strength of the defence had passed 100,000. Mustafa Pasha ordered Uzun İbrâhim Pasha, whom he had left near Győr, to come to Vienna at once. In a great assault on 26 August he took some of the bastions, but the city did not surrender.

At that very moment it was learned that King John III Sobieski of Poland was approaching with a large army and some 200 cannon of various sizes. Mustafa Pasha assigned the task of stopping this army to Murad Giray, but the Khan of Crimea, because of his estrangement from the grand vizier, undertook no serious operation. It is related that at a meeting held on the preceding days the khan proposed withdrawing troops and guns from the trenches before Vienna and preparing them against the relief army, and that the grand vizier rejected the proposal with the words "let him go and graze his horses, I will have my tent boys trample the infidels who come". At the council it was decided that all the pashas would fight the enemy while the soldiers in the trenches would continue the siege. A force of about 100,000 under Sobieski occupied the Kahlenberg and moved behind the Ottoman army. In response Mustafa Pasha sent some 6,000 çarhacı (light skirmishers) under Kara Mehmed Pasha, and he charged Uzun İbrâhim Pasha with holding, with a force of 23,000, the road that ran over the Kahlenberg on the right of the army.

12 September 1683

The battle began on the morning of 12 September. In the centre of the Ottoman army stood the commander-in-chief, with Uzun İbrâhim Pasha on his right and Murad Giray and Sarı Hüseyin Pasha on his left. The first to break was İbrâhim Pasha's wing. Hüseyin Pasha's forces held out for a while, but when the expected help from the Khan of Crimea did not come, panic began on this wing too. Sobieski then charged straight at the centre. Kara Mustafa Pasha held on for five or six hours and was forced to withdraw after the right and left wings collapsed. He then ordered the force of 30,000 waiting in the trenches before Vienna to come out, but it was of no use. It is written that he tried to fight to the death, and that on the warning of his close companions he took the sacred banner and withdrew to Győr. In the rescue of the sacred banner the role of Hacı Giray, one of the Crimean princes, is mentioned. Some 300 cannon, nearly 15,000 tents, countless war supplies and the army treasury were left behind. Ottoman losses during the siege are estimated at no fewer than 20,000 dead and no fewer than 5,000 prisoners. Silahdar Mehmed Agha describes this rout as the greatest defeat the Ottoman state had suffered since its foundation.

Among the causes of the defeat are counted the Ottoman army's failure to keep pace with developments in firearms, a campaign organisation that no longer had its old strength, the failure to bring heavy guns, the lateness of the season, resentments among the commanders, and the severed relationship between the Khan of Crimea and the grand vizier. How much of the responsibility belongs to the grand vizier and how much to those around him is still debated among historians.

When he reached Győr in retreat, Mustafa Pasha had Uzun İbrâhim Pasha, who had left the camp before anyone else, put to death, and he also punished those he held at fault in the battle. He deposed Murad Giray from the khanate and put Hacı Giray II in his place. He then came to Buda, tried to set the situation right and sent reinforcements to the frontier fortresses. When attacks were launched on Komárom and Esztergom he dispatched a force of 30,000 under Kara Mehmed Pasha (5 October 1683). The battle of Párkány fought in the same autumn did not change the course of events, and the loss of many valuable commanders as martyrs weakened the army still further. After staying three weeks in Buda he returned to Belgrade to pass the winter. He sent reinforcements to the fortresses of Kanije and Szigetvár, but news came that the fortified places of Ciğerdelen and Esztergom had fallen into Austrian hands. From then on a process of retreat began in Ottoman Europe; the wars of the Holy League lasted until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, and the greater part of Hungary, the Morea and Azov were lost. It is also recorded that in Safavid Iran the defeat at Vienna caused great celebrations, that Shah Suleiman considered marching on Baghdad, but that he gave up the idea because of the weakness of Safavid military strength.

Belgrade and the Execution

Mustafa Pasha's intention was to spend the winter in Belgrade, to regroup the army and in spring to go out on a new campaign against Austria in answer to the defeat. His rivals in the palace, however, were ready. When the news of the rout arrived, Yûsuf Agha and Sarı Süleyman Agha are said to have taken macramé cloths in their hands and danced round and round. Kara İbrâhim Pasha, whom the grand vizier had trained and left behind as his deputy, had also joined them with the promise of the grand vizierate. Hammer adds to this camp the sultan's sister, the wife of the executed Uzun İbrâhim Pasha. Mehmed IV, who had first sent his grand vizier a robe of honour and a sword, turned against him through their intrigues and issued an order for his execution. The chronicler Râşid reports it as a story that Uzun İbrâhim Pasha, who had been executed some time earlier, had said that so powerful a vizier should not be killed on a charge of causing the rout, and that no vizier other than he could resolve this trouble. In some accounts it is also said that the sultan withdrew the order for execution by a second command, but that the sentence was carried out before the command arrived.

The chief gatekeeper (kapıcıbaşı) and the executioners sent by the sultan reached Belgrade. On 6 Muharram 1095 (25 December 1683) Kara Mustafa Pasha was put to death in Belgrade. According to the sources, he was strangled with a silk cord pulled by several men at each end, the method applied to high-ranking statesmen. The accounts of his last moments differ. In one account he said to those who asked for the seal, "The command is the sultan's, here you are", asked "Is death written for me?", then said "If so, may God not part me from faith", performed the noon prayer, told those around him to pray, and, pointing out that the mat beneath him belonged to the state, asked for it to be removed so that his blood should not stain it. According to another record his last words were "Am I to die?" and "As God pleases". It cannot be documented which of these words is literally accurate; all remain accounts handed down through witnesses.

The sources also disagree about where his body was buried. The TDV writes that his body was buried in the courtyard of the mosque opposite the palace in Belgrade, or, according to another account, outside the walls, and that his head, or the flayed scalp, was brought to Edirne and buried in the graveyard of the Saruca Pasha Mosque. Silahdar Mehmed Agha and Cantemir, on the other hand, state that his head was buried in his complex in Istanbul by the sultan's order. A skull claimed to be Mustafa Pasha's is also shown in a Vienna museum. These three accounts cannot be merged into a single verdict.

His Estate and Descendants

After his death 2,500 purses of cash and jewels worth 2,000 purses were confiscated. His fortune of 491 purses in Belgrade was given to the new commander-in-chief, Bekrî Mustafa Pasha, for the soldiers' pay and the costs of the campaign. Apart from his palace in Süleymaniye in Istanbul, his waterfront residence and garden in Eyüp, his palace in Edirne and his farm in Timurtaş, his properties in Anatolia and Rumelia were left to his children, Vizier Ali Pasha and Fatma Hanım. Ali Pasha, known by the epithet "Maktulzâde" (son of the slain), held various offices of state. Fatma Hanım was the mother of Kaymak Mustafa Pasha, son-in-law of Nevşehirli Damad İbrâhim Pasha. His foundations became one of the largest of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic and were managed by his descendants into the twentieth century; Ahmed Asım Bey, his son Mehmed Nebil Bey and the latter's son, the painter Yılmaz Merzifonlu (1928-2010), are the last links of this chain. Abdülbâki Ârif Efendi, who lived under his patronage, wrote odes for Mustafa Pasha, who also founded endowments at Kamaniçe, Çorum, Tokat, İzmir and Aleppo.

His Works in Merzifon

Kara Mustafa Pasha's charitable works are not confined to Merzifon. Besides the complex whose construction he began at Çarşıkapı in Istanbul, he had a mosque and a caravanserai built at Hocapaşa, a mosque at Galata (Karaköy), a mosque and fountain near Kazlıçeşme, a fountain at Süleymaniye, a pavilion and garden outside the Topkapı walls, a waterfront residence and garden on the Eyüp shore, and a summer residence at Kuruçeşme. A caravanserai, bath and mosque at Jeddah, a mosque, madrasa, library, bath and caravanserai at İncesu in Kayseri, and a palace and fountains at Edirne are also associated with his name. The deeds of endowment show that these structures were spread across Istanbul, İzmir, Aleppo, Mudanya, Jeddah, Kayseri and Merzifon. Sultan Murat Topçu, who has written on his works in Merzifon, argues that these building activities came to a halt because Mustafa Pasha was executed after the defeat at Vienna, and that otherwise he could have become one of the greatest patrons of construction of the Ottoman era.

The Merzifon Complex

Merzifon's historic fabric was rich even before the Pasha. The town, which acquired the appearance of a typical Turkish-Islamic city from the time of the Danishmendids, had buildings such as the Muînüddin Pervâne Süleyman Mosque (1265), the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Madrasa (1414), the soup kitchen that Çelebi Mehmed's mother Devlet Hatun built in 1419 together with a mosque and a lodge, and the Medreseönü Mosque. Adding a grand vizier's complex to Merzifon therefore meant giving an old settlement of the Amasya sanjak a new commercial centre. The mosque, caravanserai (Taşhan), covered market, library, two baths and shops that the Pasha had built between 1666 and 1679 left a lasting mark on the physical fabric of the town; it is noted that these works and the water channels of the endowments brought significant changes to Merzifon's social and economic life. The complex lies in the Gazi Mahbub quarter.

The inscription above the main door of the mosque gives the year of construction as Hijri 1077 (1666-67). The Paşa Hamamı (Pasha's Bath) was completed in Hijri 1090 (1679). The other structures, which have no inscription, were built between these two dates. One of the baths lies a good distance from the complex, in the Hacı Bâlî quarter. The mosque has a rectangular plan and its outer walls are built of smooth ashlar. The last congregation porch, formed by four columns joined by pointed arches, has three bays and a wooden ceiling. The prayer hall is covered by a large dome. The corner spaces of the dome's octagonal drum are supported by weight towers that are likewise octagonal; each face of the drum has two small windows, and the body walls have six windows each, three below and three above. The painted decoration of the interior is of nineteenth-century character. The entrance from the Taşhan side into the courtyard of the single-minaret building is framed by a deep arch; the arch is built of coloured stone and has a small room above it. In the courtyard stand two old plane trees, each about three metres in diameter.

The courtyard's ablution fountain (şadırvan) is largely of wood and is thought to have been built in the nineteenth century. Its pointed copper roof is carried by eight wooden columns. What draws most attention is the painted decoration on its ceiling; from the date and name set among it, it is understood that this decoration was made in 1875 by Zileli Emin. Three scenes are depicted. The first is Istanbul, where one can make out the Galata and Bayezid towers, the Golden Horn, the Galata Bridge, the Sultanahmet, Hagia Sophia and Süleymaniye mosques and the Çemberlitaş. The second scene is likened to Amasya; a castle, water mills on the river and buildings resembling the Bayezid Mosque can be seen. The third scene is thought to show the Ottoman army before Vienna; in keeping with the outlook of the time there are no human figures, only bursting cannon, guns and tents. Around the pictures, in six cartouches, runs a hadith written in thuluth script, which urges haste in prayer before death comes and haste in repentance before death comes. Bedrettin Tanman has also separately studied Zileli Emin's world and its relationship to Mustafa Pasha's personality. The Taşhan and the covered market stand right beside the mosque in the town centre and were long used for trade and lodging.

According to the endowment records, the complex also included a courthouse, an oil press (bezirhane), a tannery, a dye-house, five fountains, many dwellings, storehouses and enclosing walls; they have not survived. Merzifon also had a primary school and a library. The conditions of the deed of endowment of 1681 were laid down for the Çarşıkapı library in Istanbul, and the books were first kept in a building at Hocapaşa. The mosque libraries at Merzifon and İncesu are also known by the Pasha's name.

Water Channels

Topçu's article reports that, to solve the town's water problem, the Pasha had water brought from the mountain to the town and had many fountains built along the route. In the article the mountain's name appears as Taşan Dağı, in another text it is written as Tavşan Dağı; it is not possible to settle the name with certainty. Most of the fountains have not survived to the present, while the main buildings still stand. The entry on Merzifon states plainly the share of these water installations in the town's social and economic change.

The İncesu Staging-Post Complex

The complex in the İncesu district of Kayseri is a wayside complex built in 1670 and known as a "menzil külliyesi" (staging-post complex). It consists of a caravanserai, an arasta (row of shops) with 32 shops, a madrasa initially with 15 student rooms, a primary school, a bath and a mosque. The General Directorate of Foundations carried out restoration between 1972 and 1975, and the complex has been a registered monument since 1977. It is associated with Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel's poem "Han Duvarları" (Walls of the Caravanserai). This work shows that Mustafa Pasha's investment in Merzifon did not stand alone, and that he was trying to build a network of roads and trade across Anatolia.

The Çarşıkapı Complex in Istanbul

The complex in Istanbul lies on the Divanyolu. The Pasha began its construction before the Vienna campaign (Hijri 1094 / before 1683), and his son Ali Bey completed it in Hijri 1102 (1690-91), by the hand of the architect Hamdi. It consists of a madrasa, a lecture-hall mosque, a primary school, a fountain, a water cistern, shops, and a tomb with its graveyard. The library had about 500 works of religious learning; today the collection in the Beyazıt State Library consists of 467 manuscripts (8 Turkish, 14 Persian, 445 Arabic). The complex was damaged in the earthquakes of 1837 and 1894, its shops were demolished and its fountain moved eastward in the road widening of 1953-54, and the General Directorate of Foundations carried out repairs between 1960 and 1964. Today its sections are allotted to institutions such as the Istanbul Conquest Society and the Kubbealtı Academy.

Kara Mustafa Pasha in Amasya's Memory

Merzifon is a district attached to Amasya; the grand vizier who came from there is remembered among those sons of Amasya's land who reached the highest office of the state. That Köprülü Mehmed Bey took an orphan child under his protection during his term as sanjak governor of Amasya also explains the part this city plays in his story. The village where he was born bears his name today, his mosque is still open for worship and it is one of Merzifon's emblematic buildings. The Taşhan and the covered market continue to stand in the town centre.

The view of Kara Mustafa Pasha in modern Turkish historiography is balanced. Some researchers assess him as a capable commander, others as a bold but imprudent commander-in-chief. He has been the subject of novels, plays and an opera, and many Turkish and foreign studies have been written about him. It has also been suggested that part of his negative image in Europe arose from the clashes of a minister trying to preserve Ottoman supremacy with foreign diplomats. In his own home country he continues to be called "Merzifonlu".

Chronology

1634-35 (H.1044): Born in the village of Marınca (today Karamustafapaşa). His father is the sipahi Oruç Bey.

1638: His father falls as a martyr at the siege of Baghdad; he comes under the protection of Köprülü Mehmed Bey.

1658 (1 September): Appointed second master of the horse.

c. 1659-60: Becomes beylerbey of Silistra, then beylerbey of Diyarbekir (vizier).

1661-1666: Serves as kapudan pasha (grand admiral).

1666 (9 May): Appointed deputy grand vizier.

1666-67 (H.1077): Date of the inscription of the Merzifon Mosque.

1670: The İncesu staging-post complex.

1672 (18 October): Conducts the negotiations for the Treaty of Buczacz with Poland.

1674 (August): Receives the surrender of the fortress of Human (Uman).

1676 (5 November; 3 November in some accounts): Becomes grand vizier.

1678 (21 July-21 August): Siege and capture of Chyhyryn.

1679 (H.1090): The Paşa Hamamı is completed.

1681 (11 February): The Treaty of Bakhchisarai is ratified.

1681: Deed of endowment of the Çarşıkapı library in Istanbul.

1682 (6 August): War is declared on the Habsburgs.

1683 (14 July): The Siege of Vienna begins.

1683 (12 September): Defeat at the Kahlenberg.

1683 (25 December): Executed in Belgrade.

1690-91 (H.1102): The Çarşıkapı complex is completed by his son Ali Bey.

Sources

Academic studies

  • Abdülkadir Özcan, "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 29, 2004, pp. 246-249 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Çehrin Seferi", "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa Külliyesi" (Istanbul, İncesu, Merzifon) and "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa Kütüphanesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Merzifon" entry, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Sultan Murat Topçu, "Kara Mustafa Paşa'nın Merzifon'daki İmar Faaliyetleri", TÜRKAV Kamu Yönetimi Enstitüsü Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 2, no. 2, 2022, pp. 87-122 (DergiPark). dergipark.org.tr

Official sources

  • Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa Camii, Kültür Portalı (kulturportali.gov.tr), source: Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. kulturportali.gov.tr
  • Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa, Osmanlı Tarihi Ansiklopedisi and the ADEMDER biography page; "Batı'da Kara, Türkiye'de Merzifonlu, öldürülmesinden sonra ise Maktul", Dünya Bizim Kültür Portalı.

Other sources

  • Ömer Faruk Akün, "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa ve Mîrâhur Sarı Süleyman Ağa Mücâdelesi ile İlgili Bir Konuşma Zabtı", Türkiyat Mecmuası, vol. 19, 1980, pp. 3 ff.
  • Kara Mustafa Paşa Külliyesi (İncesu) and Kara Mustafa Paşa Camii ve Külliyesi, Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi.
  • "II. Viyana Kuşatması" and "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa", Turkish Wikipedia; "Kara Mustafa Pasha", English Wikipedia (auxiliary source only). tr.wikipedia.org
  • Merlijn Olnon, "'A Most Agreeable and Pleasant Creature'? Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa in the Correspondence of Justinus Colyer (1668-1682)", Oriente Moderno, 83/3, 2003, pp. 649-669.