Sárukjí Mustafa Páshá Is Murdered — Súfí Sinán Succeeds Him
It was not very long after Sárukjí Mustafa Páshá had entered on the duties of his office as deputy of Constantinople, when some violence began to be manifested by the troops on account of the pay which was due to them. Whilst the lord high treasurer, Mohammed Páshá, son of Músá Chelebí, was straining every nerve to meet the demands of the military, some of his enemies had an interview with the emperor’s chaplain, who lodged accusations with his excellency the deputy against him. The deputy, not perceiving the evil that was soon to happen to himself, deposed him and appointed one Háfiz Mahmúd to succeed him; a man who was every way unfit for so high and important a situation as that of chief treasurer, and one, too, whom the emperor abhorred. The deputy’s infatuation did not stop here; he endeavoured, with all his might, to get Siná-allah Effendí, the reverend mufti, removed from his spiritual jurisdiction, and to place Mohammed Effendí, the eldest son of Khojeh, in his stead. The reverend mufti no sooner received intelligence of the deputy’s manœuvres, than he immediately entered, with the emperor’s chaplain, into a conspiracy against the life of Sárukjí Páshá. They used every means they could think of to blacken his character in the opinion of the emperor, and succeeded but too well in exciting his displeasure against him. One day, as he went on some business connected with his office to the royal palace, he was desired to wait on his majesty; but on his retiring he was seized, an executioner was called, and in an instant his head was cut off. His body was thrown into a well in the court of the diván,14 and Súfí Sinán Páshá was appointed káímakám in his stead.
Gúzelcheh Mahmúd Páshá, who had been restored to favour and was raised to a vezírship, again fell under his majesty’s displeasure, and was degraded. This took place on the 12th of the first Rabia, and Nesúh Páshá, who had been removed from the government of Aleppo, was appointed to succeed him in the vezírship, and also to the command of the army employed in Anatolia in quelling the rebellion in that quarter. On the 2d of Dhu’l kadah, Nukásh Hasan Páshá, beglerbeg of Romeili, reached the rank and dignity of vezír, and Tarú Hasan Páshá was confirmed in the above government.