Nişancı Nişancı was a high post in Ottoman Empire, Ottoman bureaucracy. The Turkish word ''nişancı'' literally means "court calligrapher" or "sealer," as the original duty of the nişancı was to seal royal precepts. History Although the post of the c ...

Ahmed

Pasha Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, gener ...

(died February 1753), also called Şehla Ahmed Pasha or Hacı Şehla Ahmed Pasha or Kör Vezir Ahmed Pasha ("Ahmed Pasha the Blind Vizier"), was an Ottoman

Grand Vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

during the reign of

Mahmud I Mahmud I ( ota, محمود اول, tr, I. Mahmud, 2 August 1696 13 December 1754), known as Mahmud the Hunchback, was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730 to 1754. He took over the throne after the Patrona Halil rebellion and he kept goo ...

.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish) He was also the

Ottoman governor of Egypt The Ottoman Empire's governors of Egypt from 1517 to 1805 were at various times known by different but synonymous titles, among them ''beylerbey'', viceroy, governor, governor-general, or, more generally, '' wāli''. Furthermore, the Ottoman sul ...

from 1748 to 1751.

Early life

His family was from Alaiye (now

Alanya Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population of ...

Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visit ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

), but Ahmed was born in

Söke Söke is a town and the largest district of Aydın Province in the Aegean region of western Turkey, 54 km (34 miles) south-west of the city of Aydın, near the Aegean coast. It had 121.940 population in 2020. It neighbours are Germencik fro ...

(in

Aydın Province Aydın Province ( tr, ) is a province of southwestern Turkey, located in the Aegean Region. The provincial capital is the city of Aydın which has a population of almost 200,000 (2012). Other towns in the province include the summer seaside re ...

, Turkey) to his father Cafer. One of his uncles was a

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

. He was appointed as the chief stableman ( tr, imrahor). In 1738, he was promoted to be the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Aydın Province. In 1742, he returned to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, the capital. He was appointed as the

nişancı Nişancı was a high post in Ottoman Empire, Ottoman bureaucracy. The Turkish word ''nişancı'' literally means "court calligrapher" or "sealer," as the original duty of the nişancı was to seal royal precepts. History Although the post of the c ...

(one of the highest bureaucratic posts). Soon afterwards, he was promoted to be the

grand vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

on 23 June 1740. He was sometimes called ''Kör Vezir'' ("blind

") because he was somewhat cross-eyed.

As Grand Vizier

His term in the office was one of the few periods of peace in the history of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, as the war against the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

had just ended and

Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian h ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

was occupied in

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

and Daghestan. Despite the favorable conditions, Ahmed Pasha was unable to take advantage of the political state of peace and failed to follow his intended program of recovery and reform. Meanwhile, he was accused of dishonesty and indifference to state affairs. He was dismissed from the post on 21 April 1742 and was replaced by the more experienced

Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha (1689 – 13 August 1758) was an Ottoman statesman and military leader who served as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire three times. Family His father, Nuh, was a Venetian convert to Islam who worked in Constantinople ...

, who had already once served a term as grand vizier 10 years ago.

Later years

He was exiled to the island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

. Soon thereafter, however, he returned to government services. In 1743, he became the governor of the Sanjak of İçel (modern Mersin Province, Turkey) and then the governor of

Sidon Eyalet ota, ایالت صیدا , common_name = Eyalet of Sidon , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1660 , year_end = 1864 , date_start = , date_end = , eve ...

. After the beginning of the new phase of the war against Persia, he was tasked with commanding ( tr, serdar) the northern portion of the front, where he successfully defended

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography ( Strabo), part of ...

(in modern Turkey). He then worked as the governor of Aleppo Eyalet (in modern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

) and Diyarbekir Eyalet. After the Treaty of Kerden, he was appointed the governor of

Baghdad Eyalet , common_name = Baghdad Eyalet , conventional_long_name =Eyalet of Baghdad , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman EmpireUnder Safavid Iran, Safavid occupation (1624–1638) , year_start = 1 ...

in 1747, the governor of

Egypt Eyalet The Eyalet of Egypt (, ) operated as an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1867. It originated as a result of the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17) and the a ...

in 1748, and the governor of Adana Eyalet in 1751. However, Ahmed Pasha refused this last position in Adana, and in 1752, he returned to his former governorship in Aleppo, where he died in February 1753.Ayhan Buz: ''Osmanlı Sadrazamları'', Neden Kitap, İstanbul, 2009, pp 227-231

Interests

Contemporaries in Ottoman Egypt described him as a man interested in the

sciences Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, but reported that he was disappointed when he discovered that Egypt's famed

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

had ceased to teach about sciences and focused on only religious education. Reportedly, he found even the most educated Egyptians and

ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

to be illiterate in basic mathematics, spending most of his time with the few he found that shared his interest in the sciences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed Pasha, Nisanci 1753 deaths 18th-century Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire 18th-century Ottoman governors of Egypt Pashas Nişancı Year of birth unknown Ottoman governors of Egypt Ottoman governors of Aleppo

Early life

As Grand Vizier

Later years

Interests

See also

References