Mustafa Naili Pasha Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Giritli
Mustafa Naili
Honorific-Suffix:Pasha
Office:Wali of Crete
Term Start:1830
Term End:1851
Predecessor:Mehmed Zehrab Pasha
Successor:Salih Vamık Pasha
Term Start2:1866
Term End2:1867
Predecessor2:Hekim Ismail Pasha
Successor2:Hüseyin Avni Pasha
Office3:Grand Vizier
Term Start3:May 14, 1853
Term End3:May 29, 1854
Term Start4:August 2, 1857
Term End4:October 23, 1857
Predecessor4:Mustafa Reşid Pasha
Successor4:Mustafa Reşid Pasha
Birth Date:1798
Birth Place:Pojan, Ottoman Empire (now in Albania)
Death Date:1871 (aged 72–73)
Profession:Statesman
Battles:Cretan revolt (1866-1869)

Mustafa Naili Pasha (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: مصطفى نايلي باشا or Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha, literally "Mustafa Naili Pasha of Crete"; 1798–1871) was an Ottoman-Albanian[1] statesman, who held the office of Grand Vizier during the reign of Abdülmecid I, the first time between 14 May 1853 and 29 May 1854, and the second time between 6 August 1857 and 22 October 1857.

His office of Grand Vizier has been marked by the tensions between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. His first period of office coincides with the immediate eve of the start of the Crimean War and his second, with the aftermath of that war.[2]

Biography

He was raised and started his career in Egypt under the protection of the Albanian ruler Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha and was of Albanian descent[3] like the founder of modern Egypt. He suppressed a rebellion of Cretan Greeks during the troubles of the 1820s in various Aegean Islands in league with the Greek War of Independence and subsequently (in 1832) was appointed governor to Crete. On 18 May 1828 he regained Frangokastello (in Crete), to Ottoman control, from Hatzimichalis Dalianis. The Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II, who had been caught unprepared and without an army of his own (having suppressed the Janissaries), had been forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival in Egypt. As of 1832, when Mustafa Naili Pasha got appointed governor of Crete which was under the domains of Mehmet Ali Pasha, he already had been present on the rebellious island for four years, which is why Ottoman records immediately refer to him as "Giritli" (the Cretan).

His rule attempted to create a synthesis between the Muslim landowners and the emergent Christian commercial classes. Mustafa Naili Pasha's rule has been generally cautious, pro-British, and he has tried harder to win the support of the Cretan Greeks (having married the daughter of a priest and allowed her to remain Christian) than the Cretan Turks. In 1834, however, a Cretan committee was already set up in Athens to work for the union of the island with Greece.

In 1840, Egypt was forced by Palmerston to return Crete to direct Ottoman rule. For a time, Mustafa Naili Pasha angled unsuccessfully to become a semi-independent prince but the Cretan Greeks rose up against him, once more driving the Muslims temporarily into siege in the towns. An Anglo-Ottoman naval operation restored control in the island and Mustafa Naili Pasha was confirmed as its governor, though under command from Istanbul. He remained in Crete until 1851 when he was summoned to the capital, where at a relatively advanced age he pursued a successful career.

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Articles and Despatches [sic] from Crete, p.54 ]. Stillman . William James . 1976 .
  2. Book: Badem, Candan. The Ottoman Crimean War: (1853 - 1856). 2010 . Brill. 978-90-04-18205-9. en.
  3. İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, Istanbul, 1971, p. 81.