Bakırcı Ahmed Pasha
Murat IV | |
---|---|
Preceded by | Halil Pasha |
Succeeded by | Gazi Hüseyin Pasha |
Personal details | |
Born | Kayseri, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 1635 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
Nationality | Ottoman |
Bakırcı Ahmed Pasha (Ahmed Pasha the Coppersmith; also known with the epithet Kara; died 1635)
Background
Ahmed Pasha was born in the city of Kayseri in the Ottoman Empire.[1] He was made a "chief of the states" or "stablemaster" (Turkish: imrahor or mirahur) at one point.[3] He was made a vizier in 1633, the same year that he was appointed as governor of Egypt.[1]
Governorship of Egypt
In August 1633,
Ahmed Pasha gained his epithet bakırcı ("coppersmith") through the main issue surrounding his term: coining new copper money for Egypt in the wake of the copper shortage in the province.[3] When transferring power to Ahmed Pasha, Hasan Bey reported to him the state of matters. In order to coin small denominations, Ahmed Pasha asked the sultan to send him 1,000 hundredweights (100,000 lbs.) of copper. Instead, the sultan sent him 12 times as much copper, 12,000 hundredweights (1,200,000 lbs.), and asked for its value in coins back, which amounted to 300,000 gold pieces.[3] To convert the copper into coinage, Ahmed Pasha assembled the sanjak-beys to give opinions on the subject; they suggested that the copper be turned into obol coins. Thus, Ahmed Pasha gathered as many smiths and workmen as he could to convert the copper into a usable form.[4] However, the coinage produced by the workmen turned out to only be worth about half of the ancient obol coins.[5] This resulted in severe inflation in Egypt, and furthermore, many of the workmen began to die from the hot conditions of the workhouses. After inspecting the workhouses, Ahmed Pasha cancelled the coinage and sent the workers home.[5]
A few days later, Ahmed Pasha gathered the local emirs and
Also in February 1635, the sultan ordered Ahmed Pasha to send him 3,000 troops and 3,000 kantars (300,000 lbs) of gunpowder, this time for an expedition against the Persians.[6]
Ahmed Pasha was dismissed from office in 1635 either for cruelty[1] or because of the sultan's displeasure with his monetary (losing the government money by giving specie for 80 kuruş per 100 lbs. instead of 45 kuruş) and military policy (sending only poor soldiers and exempting the rich in exchange for money).[7] When leaving Egypt, he refused to pay the customary dues that Ottoman governors of Egypt paid to the provincial treasury for the damage inflicted during their term, instead choosing to submit to the judgment of the sultan Murad IV.[7] When he arrived in Istanbul, Ahmed Pasha was soon afterwards executed on the sultan's orders.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Süreyya, Bey Mehmet, Nuri Akbayar, and Seyit Ali. Kahraman. Sicill-i Osmanî. Beşiktaş, İstanbul: Kültür Bakanlığı Ile Türkiye Ekonomik Ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı'nın Ortak Yayınıdır, 1890. Print.
- ISBN 975-437-141-5.
- ^ a b c d e Accounts and Extracts of the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France. Vol. 2. R. Faulder. 1789. p. 80.
- ^ Accounts and Extracts of the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France. Vol. 2. R. Faulder. 1789. pp. 80, 81.
- ^ a b c d Accounts and Extracts of the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France. Vol. 2. R. Faulder. 1789. p. 81.
- ^ a b c Accounts and Extracts of the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France. Vol. 2. R. Faulder. 1789. p. 82.
- ^ a b Accounts and Extracts of the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France. Vol. 2. R. Faulder. 1789. p. 83.