ALEMDAR MUSTAFA PAÅžA'NIN MUHALLEFATI
THE INHERITANCE OF ALEMDAR MUSTAFA PASHA

Alemdar Mustafa Pahsa, who has been promoted from a post of ayan (provincialgovernorship) to the rank of Grand Vizier, on the fourth month of his arrival toIstanbul was surrounded by the rebells as part of a yenissary revolt and had to commitsuicide. Upon his death, the Ottoman state decided to confiscate all of his inheritancewhich was believed to have constituted the basis of his political influence and appointedcourt criers empowered to determine the value of his movable and unmovable propertyin İstanbul and Rumelia. His debts and loans, similarly, were also determined andrecorded by the state. Seemingly of a huge debt and loan amount left behind, the debts ofAlemdar were seen to have been usually owed to his period he spent in İstanbul, whilethe better part of his loans he was expected to be paid back were rather associated withhis economic activities and his pre-vizirate period. First of all his property from İstanbulwere put up for sale and the money obtained was transferred to lenders, but the incomefrom the sales did not suffice to pay off his debts. In this case new plans of payment wereset up so as to comprise his effects left behind and his loans to be paid to him by thosewho presumably owed money to him and by the farms taxed by him as he was knownto have been the farmer of some public revenue. But nevertheless, the debts could not bepaid off in a short time. The most part of the effects, except for the tax-farm revenuefrom Tırnovo, which was partially used to meet certain state expenditures, could not beutilized by the treasury for a great part of them was assigned to the payment of the debts.