Kara Mustafa Pasha
Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha (
1634/
1635 –
December 25,
1683) was an
Ottoman military leader and
vizier who was a central character in the empire's last attempts at expansion into central and eastern
Europe.
According to Turkish records, Kara Mustafa was born in the Islamic year 1044 (i.e.
AD 1634 or 1635). His name,
Merzifonlu, hints that he was born in or near the city of
Merzifon,
Turkey). He was the son of Uruc Hasan Bey, a Turkish
timariot (fief-holder), and rose through the ranks of the Ottoman military and government structure.
In contemporary
Christian sources, Mustafa is universally described as both greedy and villainous. The veracity of this is naturally open to conjecture, although his nickname of
Kara (black) can be interpreted in many ways.
He was adopted into the powerful
Köprülü family at a young age, and served as a messenger to
Damascus for his brother-in-law, the
grand vizier Ahmed Köprülü. After distinguishing himself, Mustafa became a vizier in his own right, and by
1663, commander of the Ottoman Grand Fleet of the
Aegean Sea.
He served as a commander of ground troops in a war against
Poland in
1672, negotiating a peace settlement that added the province of
Podolia to the empire. The victory enabled the Ottomans to transform the
Cossack regions of the southern
Ukraine into a
protectorate. In
1676, when the grand vizier died, Mustafa succeeded him.
|
Headstone of Kara Mustafa, Edirne, Turkey |
He was less successful in combatting a Cossack rebellion that began in
1678. After some initial victories, intervention by
Russia turned the tide and forced the Turks to conclude peace in
1681, effectively returning the Cossack lands to Russian rule with the exception of a few forts on the
Dnieper and
Bug rivers.
In
1683, he launched a campaign northward into
Austria in an effort to put a final end to more than 150 years of war. By mid-July, his 200,000-man army had besieged Vienna (guarded by 10,000
Habsburg soldiers), following in the footsteps of
Suleiman the Magnificent in
1529. By September, he had taken a portion of the walls and appeared to be on his way to victory.
But on
September 12,
1683, the Austrians and their Polish allies under King
Jan Sobieski took advantage of Mustafa's incompetence and poor disposition of his troops winning the
Battle of Vienna with a devastating flank attack led by Sobieski's Polish cavalry. The Turks retreated into
Hungary, never again to threaten central Europe.
The defeat cost Mustafa his position, and ultimately, his life. On
December 25,
1683, Kara Mustafa was executed in
Belgrade by the order of the commander of the
Janissaries. He suffered death by strangulation, and his head was delivered to Sultan
Mehmed IV in a velvet bag, which was the capital punishment inflicted on high-ranking persons in the Ottoman Empire. Apparently his
last words were, in effect, "Make sure you tie the knot right." The stone on which his head, brought from Belgrade to
Edirne, the second Ottoman capital, has been displayed to the public in today a visitor's curiosity in Edirne.
*Goodwin, Jason -
Lords of the Horizons (book)
