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34 Evrim Türkçelik

office of kapudan pasha was short, it was intense and complex in
terms of its domestic and international dynamics. Halil Pasha’s career
before admiralty was shaped by the transformation in Ottoman do-
mestic politics, whereas his career as the admiral was determined by
the convergence of both domestic and international politics. Although
the appointment of Halil Pasha does seem to be the simple result of
the power struggles that followed the enthronement of a new ruler,
there also was a certain reflection, though not a clear program, behind
this decision. In the face of an uncertain Mediterranean policy, Halil
Pasha was perceived as a suitable and loyal dynastic element to serve
as admiral whose ambitions could be kept in check and whose policy
in the Mediterranean would be harmonious with the dynasty’s inter-
ests 129 . Indeed, although Halil Pasha started rather ambitiously by
setting for himself the example of Piyale Pasha, he ended up being one
of the most “reluctant admirals” of the sixteenth century Ottoman
Mediterranean. In his admiralty, the family relationship with the dyn-
asty was more decisive than the politics in the Mediterranean. In this
sense, Halil Pasha’s sedentary practice of the admiralty seems to echo
the transition of the sultanate from a mobile warrior gazi sultan to an
increasingly sedentarized palace sultan. As a matter of fact, it is very
symbolic that Halil Pasha broke this practice and sailed with the fleet
when Mehmed III took up the ghaza in person in 1596 130 . Neverthe-
less, the complex and important tasks that Halil Pasha had to confront
revealed his incompetence compared to his predecessor, Cigalazade.
Ultimately, Halil Pasha’s dismissal came as a reaction to the negative
repercussion of his passive admiralty in Mediterranean politics. An
interesting albeit unanswerable question would be how the Ottoman
Mediterranean policy would have evolved if Halil Pasha had continued
in the admiralty.

129 For a similar case of dynastic appointment in the Spanish Monarchy, see L.
Geevers, Dynasty and State Building in the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy: The Career of
Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (1588-1624), «Journal of Early Modern History», 20:3 (2016),
pp. 267-292.
130 L.P. Peirce, The Imperial Harem cit., pp. 168-177. The participation of Mehmed
III was significant because since Süleyman I’s death, neither Selim II nor Murad III had
personally participated in any war, giving rise to interpretations such as the “sedentari-
zation of the sultans”.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XX - Aprile 2023
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)