Hadji Mustafa Pasha
Hadji Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman commander and politician of Greek Muslim origin who lived in Sanjak of Smederevo. He fought in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) and the Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791). From 1793 to 1801, he was Vizier of the Sanjak of Smederevo. He was murdered on 15 December 1801 by Kučuk-Alija, one of four rebel Janissary leaders who had taken control of the sanjak.
Biography
Born in 1733, of Greek Muslim origin, he was surnamed Şinikoğlu. As hajji, he completed his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and was also a member of the Bektashi Order. He was among the notable Ottomans who had fought in the Battle of Patras (1772).Mustafa Pasha was the main government architect in the Belgrade Pashaluk, and became Vizier of the pashaluk in July 1793. He collaborated closely with Petar Ičko. According to some sources, both were members of a masonic lodge. Due to his friendly stance towards the Serbs, he was nicknamed the "Serbian mother".
In 1793 and 1796, Selim III proclaimed two separate firmans which granted Serbs certain new rights. Under the new regime, taxes were to be collected by local Serbian community leaders titled obor-knez; freedom of trade and religion were granted; and ordinary Serbs began to live in peace. Selim III also ordered some unpopular Janissaries to leave the Belgrade Pashaluk, as he saw them as a threat to the central authority of Mustafa Pasha. Many of those Janissaries were then employed by or found refuge with Osman Pazvantoğlu, a renegade opponent of Sultan Selim III in the Sanjak of Vidin. Fearing the dissolution of the Janissary command in the Sanjak of Smederevo, Osman Pazvantoğlu launched a series of raids against the Serbs without the express permission of Sultan Selim III, which intensified volatility and fear in the region.
Mustafa Pasha engaged mercenary forces to fight against Pazvantoğlu, but had to raise taxes to finance these forces. In order to prevent a rebellion over increased taxes, he accepted the proposal of local knezes, allowing them to establish their own forces consisting of 16,000 Serbs led by Serb officers, commanded by Stanko Arambašić from Veliko Selo.
In the summer of 1797, the sultan appointed Mustafa Pasha as beylerbey of Rumelia Eyalet and he left Serbia for Plovdiv to fight against the troops of Pazvantoğlu. During the absence of Mustafa Pasha, Pazvantoğlu's forces, together with Janissaries, captured Požarevac and besieged the Belgrade fortress. At the end of November 1797, the ober-knezes from Valjevo, Aleksa Nenadović, Ilija Birčanin and Nikola Grbović, brought their forces to Belgrade and forced the besieging Janissary forces to retreat to Smederevo.
In January 1798, Mustafa Pasha sent his troops, together with the Serbian militia commanded by Ilija Birčanin, to attack the Janissaries in Smederevo. However, a year later, on 30 January 1799, the court of Sultan Selim III allowed the Janissaries to return, referring to them plainly as local Muslims from the Sanjak of Smederevo. Initially, the Janissaries accepted the authority of Mustafa Pasha. However, later that year, two Janissaries who had settled in Šabac, Bego Novljanin and Ćurt-oglija, demanded some Serbs to pay a special tribute to them and murdered one of the Serbs after he had refused to pay. Fearing the worst, Mustafa Pasha marched on Šabac with a force of 600 soldiers, hoping to bring the Janissaries to justice and restore order. On 27 December 1801, three Janissaries managed to sneak into Mustafa Pasha's private quarters and after a short exchange one of the three, Kučuk-Alija, shot Mustafa. The body of the Pasha was then paraded through the streets of Belgrade. Before his death, Mustafa Pasha allegedly instructed his son, Dervish Bey, to unite his forces with Serb forces and capture Belgrade from the Dahije.