ed and studious habits, who had the
philosophy to decline the onerous dignity.[D] However this may have
been, (for the story appears to rest on somewhat doubtful authority,)
within seven days of the death of Ahmed, the vizirat had been conferred
on Kara-Mustapha Pasha, who then held the office of kaimakam, and had
for several years been distinguished by the special favour and
confidence of the sultan. The new minister was connected by the ties
both of marriage and adoption with the house of Kiuprili. His father
Oroudj, a spahi, holding land at Merzifoun, (a town and district in
Anatolia contiguous to Kiupri,) had fallen at the siege of Bagdad, under
Sultan Mourad-Ghazi in 1638: and the orphan had been educated in the
household of Mohammed-Kiuprili as the companion and adopted brother of
his son Ahmed, one of whose sisters he in due time received in marriage.
The elevation of his patron to the highest dignity of the empire, of
course opened to Kara-Mustapha the road to fortune and preferment--from
his first post of deputy to the _meer-akhor_, or master of the horse, he
was promoted to the rank of pasha of two tails--and after holding the
governments successively of Silistria and Diarbekr was nominated
capitan-pasha in 1662 by his brother-in-law Ahmed; but exchanged that
appointment in the following year for the office of kaimakam, in which
capacity he was left in charge of the capital on the departure of the
vizir to the army in Hungary. His duties in this situation, as
lieutenant of the grand-vizir during his absence, gave him constant
access to the presence of the sultan: and being (as he is described by
the contemporary writer above quoted) "a wise and experienced person, of
a smooth behaviour, and a great courtier," he so well improved the
opportunities thus afforded him, as to obtain a place in the monarch's
favour second only to that of Kiuprili himself. This excessive
partiality was, however, scarcely justified by the good qualities of the
favourite; for though the abilities of Kara-Mustapha were above
mediocrity, his avarice was so extreme as to lay him open to the
suspicion of corruption: and his sanguinary cruelty, when holding a
command in Poland in the campaign of 1674, drew down on him the severe
reprobation of his illustrious brother in-law. The predilection of the
sultan for his society continued, however, unabated:--and during the
visit of the court to Constantinople in 1675, he was still further
exalted b