HOUSEHOLDS IN OTTOMAN POLITICS: THE RIVALRY BETWEEN HUSREV MEHMED PASHA AND MEHMED ALI PASHA OF EGYPT by Azize F. Çakır Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University August 2013 I HOUSEHOLDS IN OTTOMAN POLITICS: THE RIVALRY BETWEEN HUSREV MEHMED PASHA AND MEHMED ALI PASHA OF EGYPT APPROVED BY: YUSUF HAKAN ERDEM .……………………….. (Thesis Supervisor) SELÇUK AKŞİN SOMEL ………………………… ÖZGE KEMAHLIOĞLU ……………………….... DATE OF APPROVAL: 12 August 2013 II © Azize F. Çakır, 2013 All Rights Reserved III ABSTRACT HOUSEHOLDS IN OTTOMAN POLITICS: THE RIVALRY BETWEEN HUSREV MEHMED PASHA AND MEHMED ALI PASHA OF EGYPT by Azize F. Çakır History, M.A. Thesis, Spring 2013 Thesis Supervisor: Yusuf Hakan Erdem This thesis aims to present an analysis of households in the Ottoman politics through rivalry of Husrev Mehmed Pasha and Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt. Especially with the adoption of tax-farming system, households of the Ottoman ruling elite began to assume former functions of timar and devşirme systems as well as the palace school. Parallel to this development, the forming or the attachment to a powerful household became a necessity for the Ottoman bureaucrats for both obtaining office in the Ottoman administration and for gathering influence and wealth. Accordingly, intra-elite rivalries of factions formed around households and patronage networks left its mark on the Ottoman politics. One of the most important intra-elite rivalries in the first half of the nineteenth century was the contestation between Husrev Mehmed Pasha and Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt. In this period, the Egyptian Question, the Morea Campaign, the military modernization, the Syrian Campaigns of Mehmed Ali, promulgation and implementation of Tanzimat were leading issues in Ottoman politics. Since the rivalry between Husrev Mehmed Pasha and Mehmed Ali Pasha had considerable impact on the course of all these events, this thesis focuses on their interactions to create a better understanding of interconnectedness during the late Ottoman period. Keywords: households, intra-elite contestations, Husrev Mehmed Pasha, Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt IV ÖZET OSMANLI SİYASETİNDE HANELER: HUSREV MEHMED PAŞA İLE MISIR VALİSİ MEHMED ALİ PAŞA ARASINDAKİ REKABET Azize F. Çakır Tarih, Master Tezi, Bahar 2013 Tez Danışmanı: Yusuf Hakan Erdem Bu tez, Husrev Mehmed Paşa ile Mısır Valisi Mehmed Ali Paşa arasındaki rekabet üzerinden hanelerin Osmanlı siyasetindeki yerini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Osmanlı yönetici zümresinin haneleri özellikle de iltizam sistemine geçişten sonra, tımar ve devşirme sistemlerinin yanı sıra saray okulunun da işlevlerini bünyelerinde toplamaya başlamışlardır. Bu gelişmeyle birlikte, güçlü bir hane kurmak ya da güçlü bir hamiye sahip olmak, Osmanlı imparatorluk sistemi içinde güvenli bir mevki, nüfuz ve zenginlik edinmenin temel şartlarından biri olmuş ve haneler ile intisab ilişkileri etrafında şekillenen kişisel çatışmalar Osmanlı siyasetine damgasını vurmuştur. 19.yy’ın ilk yarısında, Osmanlı siyasetini belirleyen en büyük elitler arası çatışmalardan biri Husrev Mehmed Paşa ile Mısır Valisi Mehmed Ali Paşa arasında yaşanmıştır. Mısır Sorunu, Mora Seferi, askeri modernleşme, Mehmed Ali Paşa’nın Suriye Seferleri, Tanzimat’ın ilanı ve reformların uygulanması gibi bu dönemin en önemli olaylarında belirleyici bir rol oynayan bu çatışmayı incelemek, bahsi geçen olayların birbirleriyle ilişkisini ortaya çıkarmaya da yardımcı olacaktır. Anahtar kelimeler: haneler, elitler arası çatışmalar, Husrev Mehmed Paşa, Mısır Valisi Mehmed Ali Paşa V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis advisor Hakan Erdem for his comments, corrections and especially patience, and to jury members Akşin Somel and Özge Kemahlıoğlu for their contributions. I am thankful to the Sabancı University which provided me with an ideal academic environment for my thesis and with opportunities to gain teaching experience. I am also grateful to all my professors in my undergraduate university Bilgi. A special thanks to M. Erdem Kabadayı for his constant encouragement, support and guidance. Last but not least, I would like to thank my friends Ayşe Kalkan, Nursen Şakar, and Hatice Çakır for their endless support. Above all, I would like to thank Hüseyin Alsancak for his love and encouragement. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER I: THE SULTAN AND HIS SERVANTS ......................................................... 12 I.1: The Formation of the House of Osman ...................................................................... 12 I.2: Recruitment of Kuls into the Imperial Household ...................................................... 15 I.3: Rise of the Households .............................................................................................. 18 I.4: Organization of Households ...................................................................................... 27 I.5: Household-building Strategies ................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER II: THE KETHÜDA AND TÜFENGCİBAŞI IN EGYPT ................................... 35 II.1: Wars and the Changing Power Balance .................................................................... 35 II.2: Egypt: First scene of Husrev Mehmed-Mehmed Ali Rivalry .................................... 40 II.3: The Rise of Küçük Hüseyin Pasha, Patron of Husrev ............................................... 43 II.4: The Kethüda and the Tüfengcibaşı in the Retinue of the Grand Admiral ................... 47 II.5: How to Exchange Governors: Barrack-Household versus Office-Household ............ 53 II.6: The Serçeşme, the Vâli, and the Unpaid Irregular Troops ......................................... 56 II.7: How a Serçeşme becomes the Vâli of Egypt? ........................................................... 60 CHAPTER III: THE GRAND ADMIRAL AND THE VÂLİ of EGYPT IN THE MOREA CAMPAIGN……………………………………………………………………………..…...64 III.1 Changing Household Strategy of Mehmed Ali after 1805......................................... 64 III. 2:Husrev Mehmed Pasha’s Career after 1805 ............................................................. 66 III.3: Greek Revolt of 1821 and Intra-elite Contestations ................................................. 68 III.4: The Morea Campaign ............................................................................................. 70 III.5: Father and Son, Patron and Slave in the Morea Campaign....................................... 72 VII III.6: Dismissal or Promotion: Husrev Mehmed Pasha at the Command of the Mansure Army ............................................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER IV: THE SERASKER AND THE FERMANLU VÂLİ IN THE SYRIAN CAMPAIGNS (1831-1833 and 1839) ................................................................................. 84 IV.1: Mehmed Ali and the Sultan’s Unsatisfied Subjects ................................................. 85 IV.2: The Sultan, Civil Bureaucrats and European Allies ................................................. 93 IV.3: Mustafa Reşid and the Centralization Projects ...................................................... 100 IV.4: The Second Syrian Campaign ............................................................................... 104 IV.5: Coup d’etat of Husrev Pasha and the Promulgation of the Tanzimat ..................... 108 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 116 BIBLIOGRAPHY……..……………………………………………………………………119 VIII Introduction The first four decades of the long nineteenth-century Ottoman politics witnessed the challenge of Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt. Many historians1 focus on the relation between the Ottoman Empire and the European Powers while analyzing this internationalized crisis. Focusing on the international aspect, these researchers put forth the power shifts between the European Powers and the Porte, and their impacts on the latter. Although very insightful, they give scant attention to the internal dynamics of the Ottoman administration. A more complete research needs to focus not only the external but also internal factors. A closer look to the internal dynamics illuminates the importance of the intra-elite rivalries among the Ottoman ruling elites, as well as the struggle between them and the sultan. Indeed, these rivalries had a decisive influence in the development of the leading issues of the Ottoman politics. The literature on intra-elite struggles shed lights on the different patterns of contestation among the members of the Ottoman ruling class. Some scholars take these struggles as contestation between the center and periphery; others emphasize the conflict between those who belong to the palace culture and those who belong to the culture of province; or between reformist and traditionalist bureaucrats.2 Still others emphasize struggles among the Ottoman elites of different ethnic-regional and religious origins or the conflicts between the members of different departments of the Ottoman administration.3 Although the rivalries can be resulted from such group affiliations such as reformist vs. 1 Schroeder W. Paul, The Transformation of Eurpoean Politics 1763-1848, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994; Clayton,