Contents

Bekri Mustafa Pasha

Bekri Mustafa Pasha ("Mustafa Pasha the Drunkard"; known by the epithet Tekirdağlı, meaning "from Tekirdağ"; died January 1690) was an Ottoman grand vizier during the Great Turkish War.

He was a member of the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army. In 1679, he was promoted to be the commander of the Janissaries (Agha of the Janissaries). Two years later, he was given the title of vizier. Beginning in 1683, the Ottoman Empire entered a long and disastrous war called the Great Turkish War. After the execution of Kara Mustafa Pasha in 1683 because of his failure, other pashas were appointed to that post in rapid sequence.^[1]

Bekri Mustafa was the fourth grandvizier after Mustafa Pasha. He succeeded Ayaşlı Ismail Pasha on 30 May 1688 during the reign of Süleyman II (reigned 1687–91). The first problem he had to solve was a rebellion, which was aimed to reenthrone the former sultan Mehmet IV (1648–1687). With the support of the Janissaries, he defeated the rebels. According to historian Nicolae Iorga, 6,000 people died during the clashes between the grand vizier's army and the rebels.^[1]

However, Bekri Mustafa Pasha was not successful against the advancing army of the Holy Roman Empire, and he was heavily criticized for being inattentive to state affairs. Although Süleyman II initially supported his grand vizier after a series of defeats in the fall of 1689,^[2] he was dismissed on 7 November 1689 and was exiled to Malkara (near Tekirdağ). He died there in January 1690.

• List of Ottoman grand viziers