Editing Kara Mustafa Pasha (section)

==Early life and career==
[[File:OttomanNorth.png|thumb|left|250px|The Ottoman northern frontier in the seventeenth century, where Kara Mustafa Pasha led his early campaigns.]]
Kara Mustafa Pasha was of [[Turkish people|Turkish]] origin.<ref name="Bérenger">{{cite book|author=[[Jean Bérenger|Bérenger, Jean]]|editor=Tollet, Daniel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FkQUWZEqppoC|title=Guerres et paix en Europe centrale aux époques moderne et contemporaine mélanges d'histoire des relations internationales offerts à Jean Bérenger|page=103|publisher=[[Paris-Sorbonne University|Paris-Sorbonne University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=9782840502586|quote=[[French language|French]]: Il [Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pacha] était d'origine turque et fut élevé dans la famille des Köprülü. ([[English language|English]]: He [Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha] was of Turkish descent and was brought up in the Köprülü family.}}</ref><ref name="veiga">{{cite book|author=[[Francisco Veiga|Veiga, Francisco]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3Vb5IKY7ecC|title=El turco diez siglos a las puertas de Europa|page=262|publisher=Debate|year=2006|isbn=9788483066706|quote=[[Spanish language|Spanish]]: A él le sucedería Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasa, de origen turco. ([[English language|English]]: He would be succeeded by Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasa, of Turkish origin.}}</ref><ref name="simsir">{{cite book|last=Şimşir|first=Nahide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yV3aAAAAMAAJ|title=Osmanlı araştırmaları makaleler · Volume 1|page=111|publisher=IQ Kültürsanat|year=2004|isbn=9789752550056|quote=Kara Mustafa Pasha, who was of Turkish origin and was brought up in the Köprülü family, was a passionate, ambitious and authoritarian person}}</ref><ref name="wheatcroft">{{cite book|last=Wheatcroft|first=Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84c4DgAAQBAJ|title=The Enemy at the Gate Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe|page=|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|year=2009|isbn=9780786744541|quote=While the other Köprülü were all of Albanian origin, the first of them brought to Istanbul in the youth levy, Kara Mustafa was a pure Anatolian.}}</ref><ref name="sevinc">{{cite book|last=Sevinç|first=Necdet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmBRAQAAIAAJ|title=Osmanlının yükselişi ve çöküşü sosyal ve ekonomik inceleme|page=111|publisher=Burak Yayınevi|year=1992|isbn=9789757645009|quote=Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha - Ethnicity: Turkish}}</ref><ref name="arslan">{{cite book|author=Emir Şekip Arslan, Selda Meydan, Ahmet Meydan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TSGDwAAQBAJ|title=Bir Arap aydının gözüyle Osmanlı Tarihi ve I. Dünya Savaşı Aruları|page=111|publisher=Çatı Kitapları|year=2005|isbn=9789758845163|quote=Kara Mustafa Pasha from Merzifon was Turkish, and those from Köprülü were Albanians}}</ref><ref name="dilek">{{cite book|last=Dilek|first=Zeki|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zDNpAAAAMAAJ|title=Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa Uluslararası Sempozyumu 08-11 Haziran 2000, Merzifon|page=4|publisher=Merzifon Vakfı|year=2000|isbn=9789759744700|quote=Even later, Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, one of the Grand Viziers of Turkish origin in the Ottoman Empire [...]}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=November 2023}} However, he was brought up in the [[Köprülü family]], of [[Albanians|Albanian]] origin.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdTriSqIW3AC|title=Friends and Rivals in the East: Studies in Anglo-Dutch Relations in the Levant from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth Century|last1=Hamilton|first1=Alastair|last2=Groot|first2=Alexander Hendrik de|last3=Boogert|first3=Maurits H. Van Den|date=2000-01-01|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9004118543|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl0PAQAAMAAJ|author=Evliya Çelebi (ed. by von Hammer-Purgstall)|title=The Travels of Evliya Efendi|language=en|page=156|date=1834-01-01}}</ref><ref name="arslan"/> He was born in the village of Mirince/Marınca near [[Merzifon]] (now called [[Karamustafapaşa, Merzifon|Karamustafapaşa]] after him), the son of a ''[[sipahi]]'', cavalry man.<ref name="kiel"/> His father is said to have served under [[Köprülü Mehmed Pasha]]. Possibly as a way to increase his possibilities to start an administrative career, he was introduced into the Köprülü household, where he was educated by Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, and married into the Köprülü family.<ref name=Stoye>''The Siege of Vienna'', John Stoye, p. 18.</ref> How he entered the family and the details of his marriage are unclear. Within the household's inner service (''enderun''), he held the positions of letter-carrier (''telhisci'', or assistant to the grand vizier)<ref name="brill1"/><ref name="kiel"/> to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, and of ''silahdar'' (armourer). He then entered the household of the Sultan as ''mirahor-i-sani'' ([[master of the horse]]). It is said that while growing up, differently from his adoptive Köprülü brothers, he disliked alcohol, as well as Europeans and other non-Muslims.<ref name="wheatcroft"/> A contemporary French account says he had two children with the little Köprülü princess, who both died young, and that his wife died shortly after their death, at 31. He had four [[concubine|concubines]] (Fatma, Emine, Ayşe, Zeynep), and by them at least two sons, Yusuf and Mehmed. According to another contemporary report by Giovanni Benaglia, secretary of the Austrian ambassador in Istanbul, he divorced his "beloved Köprülü princess" after their engagement and after they had many children, and gave her to a French renegade, one of his favorites. An account by a contemporary who visited his household, Claudio Angelo di Martelli, reports of three sons who survived his death: Yusuf, Mehmed, and the youngest Ali.<ref name="kiel"/>

He conformed to the Islamic custom of not wearing silk, and never wore silver or gold, which was a largely unenforced requirement. Europeans who met him (with few exceptions, such as Colyer, who initially described him as a man of "most agreeable nature") variously described him as greedy, humorous but terse, avid, intransigent, perfidious, covetous, unwilling to accept bribes yet concerned with improving his own well-being, and completely devoted to the Ottoman state. Later accounts by Giovanni Morosini di Alvise, Venetian bailo of Istanbul from 1675 to 1680, speak of a man "born in an obscure place of Asia, in [[Trabzon|Trebisonda]], to castigate the nations," and describe him as "wholly venal, cruel and unfair." The English ambassador to Istanbul John Finch also describes him as greedy, and a "grievous oppressor of Christendom."<ref name="kiel">{{cite journal|title=The Must-Haves of a Grand Vizier. Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha's Luxury Assets|last=Reindl-Kiel|first=Hedda|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26449345|journal= Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes|year=2016 |volume=106 |pages=179–221 |jstor=26449345 |access-date=28 August 2021|archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref><ref name="brill1">{{cite journal|title=«A Most Agreeable and Pleasant Creature»? Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa in the Correspondence of Justinus Colyer (1668-1682)|last=Merlijn|first=Orlon|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ormo/83/3/article-p649_6.xml?ebody=previewPdf-46504|journal=Oriente Moderno |year=2003 |volume=83 |issue=3 |pages=649–669 |doi=10.1163/22138617-08303006 |access-date=28 August 2021|archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref> He was particularly "unbearable to Europeans", especially for the heavy taxes he imposed (a "stream of ''avanias'' in the years 1676-1683"). Even though his adoptive siblings also imposed notable ''avanias'', their reputation with Europeans was not as bad.<ref name="kiel"/><ref name="brill1"/> Merlijn Orlon noted that his bad reputation doesn't do him justice. Orlon explains that he worked to maintain the House of Osman's supremacy in their own territories, clashing with ambitious foreign ministers. This resulted in his bad reputation. He dealt differently with the Dutchmen for political reasons, and this resulted in Colyer's more positive account of him. As the Franco-allied wars ended, a preferential treatment of the Dutch became useless, and, as a result, Mustafa's relationship with Colyer grew troubled.<ref name="brill1"/>

In 1659 he had become a governor of [[Silistria]] and subsequently held a number of important posts. Within ten years, he was acting as deputy for his brother-in-law, the [[Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire|grand vizier]] [[Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha]] when absent from the Sultan's court.<ref name=Stoye />

He served as a commander of ground troops in a war against [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]], negotiating a settlement with [[John Sobieski]] in 1676 that added the province of [[Podolia]] to the empire. The victory enabled the Ottomans to transform the Cossack regions of the southern [[Cossack Hetmanate|Russian Empire]] into a [[protectorate]]. When his brother-in-law [[Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha]] died that same year, Mustafa succeeded him as [[Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire|grand vizier]].<ref name=Stoye />

Kara Mustafa led several successful campaigns into Russian Empire, attempting to shore up the position of the Cossack state, then an Ottoman vassal. He established Ottoman garrisons in many of Ukraine's cities, and conquered the traditional Cossack capital of [[Chyhyryn]], which had been under Russian Empire occupation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kołodziejczyk |first=Dariusz |title=The Ottoman Survey Register of Podolia (ca. 1681) Part I: Text, Translation, and Commentary |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2004 |chapter=Introduction |pages=3–10}}</ref>