Mustapha Pacha

Mustapha Pacha or Mustapha ben Ibrahim Pacha was the 20th ruler and Dey of Algiers. He ruled for seven years after his predecessor Sidi Hassan.

Rule

Early career Mustapha was the grandson of Mohammed ben-Osman and nephew of his predecessor Sidi Hassan, He had the title of Khaznadar and shortly after Hasan's death he took the title of Dey. But at the same time about fifty of Janissaires raided and pillaged the Jenina, in reaction the Ouakhil al-Kharadj gathered troops and killed some of them, some were strangled and some beaten to death. Mustapha however, felt that he was not worthy of such title and even told to the agha of the spahis that he would maybe take the title instead.

Biography The French consuls described him as a fearful, ignorant, brutal, and often experiencing moments of pure madness. A trait which becomes common among his predecessors, When most of the French army arrived in Egypt and war was declared between the Ottoman Empire and France, the Algerian Diwan and Mustapha were neutral to these events, even though the Ottoman sultan had ordered all the Barbary states to join for the ottoman cause. However the Dey would be forced to declare war on the republic, even though Algiers wasn't fond of treating France as an enemy state as the empire wanted, the Sublime Porte sent a first firman who ordered Mustapha to declare war on France, but the Dey would finally agree to the Sultan's order as the British were more heard in Istanbul than in Algiers, the French consul M. of Moltedo would be imprisoned. This was another great reason for the Dey to improve his relations with the Republic, which transformed the armistice proposed by Dubois into a definitive treaty in September 30 and received a million francs after that, but this peace would not last as after the British forced the Sublime porte to end this treaty, which made Mustapha declare war on France for the second time on January 25, 1801.

Troubles with the British In the same year, the relations with the London were still unstable as affairs between England and Bakri-Busnach Company, this almost led to the bombardment of the city of Algiers by Admiral Nelson after the Dey refused to meet the English consul Falcon in 1802. The reason for this assassination is described that, everyone in Algiers raised against him, he was hated by the poorest and wealthiest of the city, he was blamed for making the country starve, because Mustapha was ruling in a time were famine was becoming more noticeable in Algiers, his major grain trade said that was one of the main reasons for the recent events. The French consul managed to make some escape, saving them from the chaos that was ruling in the city.

Mustapha managed to exile some of them to Tunis, but his coward behaviour towards the militia would not be enough to save him, as on August 31, 1805, the Janissaires would proclaim Ahmed bin Ali Khodja as Dey, the old Khodjet el Khil who removed from his title by Busnash before his death. The Dey would let the militia pillage the Jenina's treasures, hoping that they would let him exile to the Levant, but as they refused, him and his Khaznadar try to look for a way to escape, they would both be murdered at the door of a mosque. After being strangled, his body would be paraded by the population and then thrown outside Bab Azzoun and buried at Bab El Oued, before being moved to the Mausoleum of Sidi Abderrahmane Et-Thaalibi.