The Qazdağhs and Ottoman household politics

This study of the Qazdağlis' ascendancy has followed the household from its evident beginnings as a knot of soldiers in one of the Ottoman regiments to its apogee as Egypt's wealthiest and most influential elite conglomerate. The Qazdağli household's interests at different stages of its evolution linked regiment, beylicate, and imperial authority. Attaching himself to the entourage of an established grandee who was well connected to the imperial center and enjoyed the patronage of the Chief Black Eunuch, household founder Mustafa Kâhya built up his own following, consisting of both mamluks and free-born Anatolians, within the Janissary regiment. His successors, particularly ʿOsman Çavuş al-Qazdağli, led the household to complete dominance of the Janissary corps even as they began to seek outside the regiment for followers. As we have seen, moreover, evidence indicates that ʿOsman Çavuş maintained the Qazdağlis' link to the Chief Black Eunuch. Finally, under Ibrahim Kâhya, the Qazdağli household breached the beylicate. Even at this juncture, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest a continuing Qazdağli connection to the Chief Black Eunuch. In this fashion, the Qazdağli household cultivated regimental, beylical, and imperial connections; to its success in doing so, it may be argued, it owed its longevity.

The Qazdağli example demonstrates how the rough and tumble of Ottoman Egypt's politics were played out through households, especially during the years attending and following the demise of the Faqari and Qasimi factions.