Chapter 15: Ashes of Greed
Istanbul, October 1614. An extraordinary bustle had overtaken the palace and its surroundings. Sultan Ahmed had not attended the Friday procession, and the Kapikulu soldiers lined up around the palace like a wall. Osman understood very well the reason behind this tension. Nasuh Pasha's era was coming to an end. The anger that had built up within him was now giving way to a quiet satisfaction. Seeing the end of this dark figure, who had drained the blood of the people for years, meant getting one step closer to the clean, just governance Osman dreamed of.
Osman was not even slightly uneasy, as he knew Nasuh Pasha's end was near. Events that had unfolded up to this point replayed vividly in his mind. Following Kuyucu Murat Pasha's death in Diyarbakir, Nasuh Pasha had ascended to the rank of grand vizier and had signed the treaty with Shah Abbas I, establishing a ceasefire between the Ottoman Empire and Persia, which appeared to be a great victory. He returned to Istanbul with a Persian delegation and 200 loads of silk sent as indemnity by the Shah, organizing a grand procession as soon as he arrived. Osman thought this scene, seen as splendor and power by the people, was only a facade, a curtain designed to mask Nasuh Pasha's hypocrisy. Few could perceive the games of interest and poisonous ambition lurking behind the treaty.
Nasuh Pasha's fierce, arrogant, and abrasive character led to increasing conflicts with the state officials. In particular, his disagreements with Sheikh-ul-Islam Hocazade Mehmed Efendi had reached Osman's ears. Osman knew how the state was crumbling under Nasuh Pasha's rule and how positions were granted based on loyalty to the Pasha rather than talent. Appointing inexperienced men to state positions was not just incompetence in Osman's eyes—it was treachery rotting the state from within.
Osman remembered a tense conversation his father, Ahmed, had with Nasuh Pasha. Nasuh Pasha had dared to say, "Either you do as I say or take this seal from me; I would even poison myself." Osman recalled Ahmed's fury upon inferring that the Pasha had poisoned his predecessor, Kuyucu Murat Pasha. That event was one of the sparks leading to Nasuh Pasha's downfall. The more Osman thought about this audacity, the more disturbed he felt by the Pasha's arrogance.
These thoughts echoing in his mind, another event in Sinop came to mind. At the start of 1614, news reached Osman of Kazakh pirates crossing the Black Sea and raiding Sinop, deeply affecting him. Many people in Sinop were massacred, and survivors were taken captive. The people's cries for help reached Istanbul, but Nasuh Pasha presented this atrocity as a minor issue to Sultan Ahmed. The one who exposed this vile lie was Sheikh-ul-Islam Hocazade Mehmed Efendi, already in conflict with the Pasha. The day Hocazade exposed the Pasha's lies to the Sultan, it became only a matter of time before Nasuh Pasha would be sentenced to death.
An incident in Edirne became the final straw leading to Nasuh Pasha's end. A servant named Cebrail broke into the home of a Sayyid and violated his wife. During the Friday procession, the Sayyid, in the mosque, loosened his turban and called out loudly, "Whom shall I complain to before Allah?" This public outcry was one of the events that strained Sultan Ahmed's patience. No tolerance remained for Nasuh Pasha's indulgence of injustice.
At last, the day of Nasuh Pasha's end arrived. Surrounded by armed men at Pasha's Mansion, he was strangled. Osman took a deep breath; in his eyes, this death was not just the end of one man but the closure of a corrupt era. The wealth Nasuh Pasha had amassed was so immense that when his assets were confiscated, millions of ducats filled the treasury. To Osman, this fortune was a dark legacy accumulated by draining the people's blood. Every bribe taken, every dirty deal made, had placed a burden on the people and contributed to the decay of the state.
Staring out at the gardens beyond the palace, he murmured to himself, "Nasuh Pasha's rope has been cut. Every law we build with justice for the state will be another brick to bury men like him." The anger within him gave way to a calm, deep determination. Osman swore that in his reign, he would not permit such greed for fortune or the bribery that corroded the essence of the state. In his vision, the Ottoman Empire would rise with fair, clean governance, inspiring confidence in the people. Though he kept his satisfaction at the Pasha's death concealed, the desire to rebuild the state grew stronger within him.
This event sharpened Osman's resolve. The plans he had envisioned for a new Ottoman Empire would no longer remain mere dreams but would take shape as reality.
The millions of ducats confiscated for the Ottoman treasury represented an enormous fortune. Such a vast sum could buy large tracts of land around Istanbul, or even supply the capital with food and provisions for several years. For example, a single ducat could purchase enough flour to feed a family for a week, while a few ducats would pay the monthly wage of an ordinary laborer. Nasuh Pasha's wealth was a swollen legacy extracted from the people's backs, amassed at the cost of justice, morality, and the welfare of the public.