Kuyucu Murad Pasha

Following the dispatch of Grand Vizier Dervish Pasha to the Safavid front, Murad Pasha was appointed grand vizier and oversaw the Peace of Zsitvatorok in Hungary in the summer of 1606.[8] By then, he had accumulated around seven decades of government and military service under five successive sultans.[4] According to the historian William Griswold, Murad Pasha "represented the traditional devsirme warrior class, a Serb with the fanaticism to lead his troops to the limits of their endurance for Islam and the sultan".[4]

Imperial alarm grew at the power of the rebel Kurdish chieftain and beylerbey of Aleppo, Ali Janbulad, who in 1606 had extended his control over the eyalets of Tripoli and Damascus and formed a secret alliance with the Duke of Tuscany. Ali's rise coincided with the failed Tuscan expedition against Chios in 1607 and the strengthening of the Celali revolts in Anatolia. Murad Pasha was appointed to sort the significant challenges to imperial power. He determined that a further year of revolt would cement the power of the Celali chiefs of Anatolia and of the Janbulads in Cilicia and northern Syria, with the possible direct support of the Safavids.[4]

Murad Pasha resolved first to suppress Janbulad's rebellion, though kept his plans secret to maintain the element of surprise. At the time, Janbulad was not officially considered a rebel despite his usurpation of power in Aleppo, expeditions throughout Syria and foreign ties. Murad Pasha framed the target of his campaign to be the Safavids and the Anatolian Celali rebels en route to Iran; such campaigns had been undertaken in the preceding years by his predecessors. Unlike his predecessor Ferhad Pasha, Murad Pasha had full control of the Ottoman armies, including the Rumelis whom he freed up by negotiating the Peace of Zsitvatorok, and was in the position to initiate military action and make direct call to arms throughout the Empire.[9] The most trusted core of his army consisted of the Balkan veterans of the Danubian front led by Tiryaki Hasan Pasha. His Anatolian troops nearly all had connections to varying degrees with the Celali rebels and were put under the command of the veteran Balkan general Maryol Huseyn Pasha and backed up by two ex-Celali leaders who had proven their loyalty to the Ottomans: Zulfiqar Pasha, the sanjakbey of Marash, and Karakas Ahmed Pasha. Before the march Murad Pasha called on the sanjak-beys and beylerbeys to provision men, munitions, transport animals, grain, road repairs and bridge preparations.[10]

In early July Murad Pasha disembarked from Üsküdar and marched through Maltepe, Tuzla and Gebze. Fear of his army compelled minor Celali chiefs to submit; the grand vizier treated those he considered less dangerously with favorable treatment to spread the message to others that submission would spare and reward them, while those who he considered threatening were executed. To the latter category belonged the well-known Celali Akmirza who was decapitated whilst pledging loyalty to Murad Pasha at Afyon. Upon arriving in Konya he revealed that Janbulad was the target of the campaign, not Iran, and the hasty and arduous march deep through Celali Anatolia was meant to avoid counter movements by Janbulad or his allies.[11] The last major obstacle on his way to Janbulad's sphere of influence was the most powerful Celali chief Kalenderoglu Mehmed Pasha. The latter and another major Celali chief, Kara Said, had offered to join Murad Pasha's army, but the grand vizier had no use for aggrandizing his army with Celali rebels who could defect to Janbulad mid-battle and threaten his rear. Instead, he neutralized Kalenderoglu, who long sought high government office, by appointing him beylerbey of Ankara.[12]

Before departing Konya the grand vizier sent orders to Janbulad and Cemsid, the Celali chief of Adana and Tarsus in Cilicia demanding their loyalty. He sought control of Adana and the mountain passes of the Taurus range, which guarded Janbulad's northern Syrian heartland. Murad Pasha's army stormed Cemsid's position at Tekir Beli, routing his 2,000 sekban. Murad Pasha proceeded through the Cilician Gates to Adana, where he confiscated a significant payment that had been sent to Cemsid probably by Janbulad.[13]

He led an army of well-paid, local non-Anatolians and Devshirme (forcibly recruited Balkan Christian converts to Islam) which defeated Ali Janbulad, a leader of the Celali revolts against the Ottomans in Aleppo, in 1607 near Lake Amik.[14][15] Janbulad and Fakhr al-Din allied and defeated the Ottoman governor of Damascus and looted the city two years prior, but Fakhr al-Din had dissociated from Janbulad by the time of Murad Pasha's expedition and sent the grand vizier 300,000 piasters and his young son Ali as a hostage to win his favor; Murad Pasha pardoned Fakhr al-Din.[16]

En route to Syria, Murad Pasha had appointed Kalenderoglu Mehmed, a Celali rebel chief, governor of Ankara Sanjak, but the people of Ankara denied him entry and he proceeded to raid Bursa.[14] After Kalenderoglu departed the vicinity of Bursa in the summer of 1608, Murad Pasha, departing from Syria, attempted to intercept him in west central Anatolia. With reinforcements from Constantinople Murad Pasha defeated Kalenderoglu in a deep Taurus mountain pass near Adana on 5 August.[17] His victory, despite logistical challenges, was attributed to "his skill and experience as a military commander and his ability to hold the loyalty of his army" by the historian Caroline Finkel.[18]

About 10,000 surviving Celali rebels, including Kalenderoglu and his band, fled into Safavid Iranian territory in eastern Anatolia. Rather than a full-scale assault into Iranian territory during peace between the Ottomans and Safavids, Murad Pasha sent detachments under his lieutenants against various Celali commanders. They were eventually killed with their fighters, including Kalenderoglu, by May 1610, after which surviving rebels were incorporated as an elite cavalry force of the Ottomans.[18] In stamping out the Celali revolts Murad Pasha "achieved a victory that had eluded the Ottomans for years" according to Finkel.[18] He received a ceremonious welcome on his return to Constantinople.[18] Murad Pasha's nickname Kuyucu (the Well-digger, i.e. the "grave-digger") derives from the mass graves he had dug to bury the condemned of the harsh methods he employed in order to suppress (and eventually put an end) to the Celali revolts.[19] Tens of thousands of Turks, Kurds and other Muslims were killed during Murad Pasha's office in his several campaigns against separate large rebel groups.[19]