The Grand Vezír, Ibrahím Páshá, Deposed — Khádum Hasan Páshá Succeeds to the Premiership
Satúrjí Mohammed Páshá, the commander-in-chief in the late campaign, in order to exonerate himself from any blame which might attach to him for not having been so successful in the late war as had been expected, represented his want of success to the failure of the Tátár khán’s fulfilling his injunctions to come to his assistance, and to the smallness of the number of troops which acted under him. This statement made no pleasant impression on the mind of the emperor, who was by this time but too much displeased with the grand vezír for the part he had acted towards this khán on a former occasion, as we have already related in a preceding chapter. On this account, therefore, as well as for some offence which the grand vezír had given to the queen-mother; and also on account of some handsome presents which Khádum Hasan Páshá had made: and moreover, because Ibrahím’s capacity for governing had become more and more disputed, the emperor, for these reasons, one day called the mufti into his royal presence and began his conversation thus: “I purpose,” said the monarch, “to make a change in the premiership: whom do you think worthy of being elevated to that station?” The reverend mufti replied, that if he meant to dismiss his servant Ibrahím, it must, of course, be for some crime. What is that crime? The emperor, having thought a little, said “that there was no end to his crimes,” and adverted to the part he had acted with regard to the two Tátár princes. “Was it, think you,” said the sublime monarch, “a crime of small magnitude that he should have been the means of the death of Fateh Gheráí, and all its consequent evils?” The reverend mufti, after hearkening to this apostrophe, proposed Jeráh Páshá, the senior vezír. The emperor demurred, and said Jeráh had no capacity for managing affairs; and that therefore he preferred giving the office to Khádum Hasan Páshá, whose superior wisdom and prudence was spoken of through the whole city of Constantinople. The reverend mufti bowed, joined in his praises, and exaggerated his endowments.
On the 23d of Rabia II., after the sitting of the diván, the ketkhodá of the household troops, Abdullah Aghá, was deputed by his majesty to wait on Ibrahím and receive back the seals from him, and to present them to Khádum Hasan Páshá. Ibrahím Páshá went to live in his own garden, near the new emporium at Uskudár.
Khádum Hasan Páshá, in consequence of his splendid gifts and presents to the queen-mother, and of his many promises of rendering service to the state, was raised, in the course of that passing week, to the dignity of grand vezír. This man, as might easily have been anticipated, was attentive to nothing but his own aggrandizement, and how to increase his own wealth. During the whole time he continued in office, he sold places, received immense bribes, and amassed vast riches. When any one asked him for a situation he used to say: “Do you know to whom I shall give the presents you have sent me?” and other similar impertinent questions. This exalted personage, however, soon fell under the execrations of the people, and became every day more and more hated and despised, but yet no one was able to oppose him.
One day, when his majesty went to St. Sophia, to offer up his devotions in that temple, some desperate fellows approached him and requested permission to slay his minister. His majesty, thinking it was out of mere ill will they had so petitioned him, did not give his consent, and they immediately desisted from their purpose. The emperor, however, mentioned the circumstance to his mother, who let Ghaznafer Aghá into the secret, and with him she concerted the overthrow of the prime minister. He maintained that Hasan Páshá not only openly received bribes, but that he had also cut off the supplies of the queen-mother; that he had published complaints against her among all ranks of the community, and thus made her the subject of conversation; that by these and similar means he sought to rouse her servants to rebellion, and herself to be removed to a distance from the court, in order that he might obtain absolute power. All this representation, or rather accusation, was confirmed by the ághá of the Janissaries, Ternakjí Hasan. The emperor issued orders to investigate into the fact. But those who were appointed to do this returned a verdict similar to the above statement of accusation, or at least confirmatory of it.
In the meantime the reverend mufti, Bostání Zádeh, died, when Hasan Páshá conferred the duty of expounding the law on the poet Bákí Effendí, in conjunction with Karah Chelebí Zádeh. But the emperor not approving of his choice, appointed Khoja Sa’d-ud-dín Effendí, with a part of whose history we are already acquainted, and whom we saw lately condemned to live the life of a hermit, to be mufti in room of Bostání Zádeh. Notwithstanding this, however, Hasan Páshá wrote three times officially on this subject to Bákí Effendí, and tried what he could to prevent Sa’d-ud-dín succeeding to the muftiship; a circumstance which awakened old but buried animosity and unpleasant correspondence between the old prelate and the grand vezír. The conduct of the latter roused the emperor’s anger, and without further delay he installed the old reverend prelate into the office of mufti.
Khoja Effendí (i.e. Sa’d-ud-dín), the new mufti, Ghaznafer Aghá, and Ternakjí Aghá, all three joined in accusing Hasan Páshá. They represented his conduct with regard to the queen-mother, and the other enormities of his life, in such a clear light before the emperor, as showed him to be worthy of death. He was accordingly seized on the 2d of Ramazán, conveyed on board a vessel, and was conducted to the Seven Towers by Ferhád Aghá, the chief of the Bostánjís, and in five or six days afterwards he was strangled during the night. The ághá of the Janissaries, Ternakjí Hasan Aghá, sealed the doors of his palace, and transferred the whole of his property to the imperial coffers; but it did not amount to what was anticipated.