Faced with crisis, the palace chose Mehmed Paşa, an old vizier in retirement who had been recommended to the sultan’s mother by a clique as the wisest and most experienced man available. Enjoying the absolute confidence of the palace, Mehmed Paşa tried to reestablish central authority over the vassal princes beyond the Danube and in the provinces of Anadolu, Syria, and Egypt. Like his relatives, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha was a skilled administrator and military commander. Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was a powerful political figure during the reign of Mehmed IV, and was appointed to the office of grand vizier in 1656.
Fazıl Mustafa Pasha's 1690 campaign brought further success, with the recapture of Niš, Vidin, Smederevo, and Golubac. A product of the peculiar Ottoman institution of trained palace pages, he came from a village in Albania. He also conducted campaigns against Venice … He then besieged Belgrade, using 40,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry. Born in the city of Köprülü, Fazıl Mustafa became a member of the Sultan's guards and spent much of his time on military campaigns with his brother Fazıl Ahmed. [7] Yet it also facilitated the formation of a large international coalition to oppose the Ottomans, leading to defeats and territorial losses following the disastrous Siege of Vienna in 1683. By 1695, the Ottomans were left with only one piece of territory in Hungary. For more than half a century, power in the Ottoman state had been determined as a result of struggles and compromises between rival groups. Power was centralized in the position of the Grand Vizier during the Köprülü era. The course of the ongoing Great Turkish War worsened when Russia began its involvement and formally joined an alliance of European powers by launching the devastating Crimean campaigns. [1] The Köprülüs were generally skilled administrators, and are credited with reviving the empire's fortunes after a period of military defeat and economic instability. After the initial shock of the loss of Hungary, the empire's leadership began an enthusiastic process of reform intended to strengthen the state's military and fiscal organization. This policy of aggressive expansion, continued by Fazıl Ahmed's brother-in-law and successor Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, expanded the borders of the Ottoman Empire to their greatest extent in Europe. [5], Having suffered from factionalism in the court and government, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha attempted to limit the number of viziers in the imperial council. After a series of defeats culminating in the loss of Hungary, the Ottomans managed to stabilize their position, reconquering Belgrade in 1690. The skillful tactics of the old vizier eventually made his rivals powerless, and all the rebel pashas were executed (February 1659). This measure, aimed primarily at the suppression of the sekbans, reestablished central authority in the region. The family provided six grand viziers, (including Kara Mustafa Pasha, who was a stepson) with several others becoming high-ranking officers. Grand Viziers gained immense political supremacy in the later days of the Ottoman Empire. Fazıl Mustafa Pasha was the fifth member of the Köprülü family to serve as grand vizier.
On 19 August 1691, Fazıl Mustafa Pasha was struck in the forehead by a bullet at the Battle of Slankamen (northwest of Belgrade). Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha reformed the poll tax, paid by the empire's non-Muslim subjects, by restoring the policy of having taxes collected on individual adults (instead of collective assessment, which harmed communities whose populations had decreased due to war and other factors). Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Paşa, eldest son of Köprülü Mehmed Paşa and his successor as grand vizier (1661–76) under the Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV. He suppressed insurgents and rivals, reorganized the army, and defeated the Venetian fleet (1657), thereby restoring the central authority of the Ottoman Empire. These measures enabled the Ottoman Empire to resolve its budget deficits and enter the eighteenth century with a considerable surplus. [14], The period in which the Ottoman Empire's politics were set by the Grand Viziers, mainly the Köprülü family, Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, Rhoads Murphey, "Continuity and Discontinuity in Ottoman Administrative Theory and Practice during the Late Seventeenth Century,", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Köprülü_era&oldid=961496173, Articles containing Turkish-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 8 June 2020, at 20:22. [10] This period, contrary to the views of earlier generations of historians, is no longer viewed as one of decline. In the subsequent conflict, the Ottomans struggled under the strain of multi-front warfare with the Habsburgs, the princes of the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Poland-Lithuania, and Russia. Köprülüzade Fazıl Mustafa Pasha ("Köprülü Mustafa Pasha the Wise", also known as Gazi Fazıl Mustafa Köprülü (Albanian: Fazil Mustafa Kypriljoti; 1637 – 19 August 1691, Slankamen) served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1689 to 1691, when the Empire was engaged in a war against the Holy League countries in the Great Turkish War. Morea was transferred to Venice, while Podolia was returned to Poland-Lithuania. İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish), Civankapıcıbaşı Sultanzade Semiz Mehmed Pasha, Yağlıkçızade Nişancı Hacı Mehmed Emin Pasha, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Köprülüzade_Fazıl_Mustafa_Pasha&oldid=973305066, Ottoman military personnel killed in action, 17th-century Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire, Albanian Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire, Pages using infobox officeholder with unknown parameters, Articles containing Albanian-language text, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 August 2020, at 14:03.
He consolidated power within the position and sent the Sultan away from the city on hunting … His second test came when he organized and led an expedition against the Venetians the next summer. [3][4] Thus, in September 1656 Valide Sultan Turhan Hatice selected Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as grand vizier, as well as guaranteeing him absolute security of office. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... A Study of History: Who, What, Where, and When?