Gazi Hüseyin Pasha Gazi Hüseyin Pasha ( " Hüseyin Pasha the Warrior " ) or Deli Hüseyin Pasha ( " Hüseyin Pasha the Mad " ) or Sarı Hüseyin Pasha ( " Hüseyin Pasha the Blond " ) or Baltaoğlu Hüseyin Paşa ( died 1659 ) was an Ottoman military officer and statesman . He was governor of Egypt ( 1635 – 1637 ) , Kapudan Pasha in the 1630s , and briefly Grand Vizier in 1656 . Background . Hüseyin was of Turkish origin and was born in Yenişehir near Bursa in northwest Anatolia . Other than that , little is known about his early days in Constantinople , the Ottoman capital . During the reign of Murat IV , he was a member of palace staff . The shah of Iran had sent Murat IV a prestigious gift , a bow which was reputed as being undrawable . Hüseyin attracted attention when he easily drew the bow . After winning sultan ' s appreciation , he was promoted to various posts : chief stable man , governor of Silistria in ( now in modern Bulgaria ) , beylerbey ( high governor ) of Egypt , beylerbey of Anatolia , Kapudan Pasha , etc . He participated in campaigns around Baghdad in modern Iraq and Yerevan ( now in modern Armenia ) . During the reign of Ibrahim I , he served in various European provinces as a governor , and in 1646 , he became the governor of Chania , Crete ( now in Greece ) . Governor of Egypt . Hüseyin Pasha was appointed the governor of Egypt Eyalet in 1635 , succeeding Bakırcı Ahmed Pasha and serving until 1637 . He was reportedly a cruel and violent governor who murdered for sport . From the very first day of his arrival in Egypt , when he confiscated his finance minister and advisors ' temporary tents for his own , Hüseyin Pasha began a series of actions that made him widely disliked by the local populace . He brought with him to Egypt a large number of Druzes , who committed robberies in Cairo , the capital , and his men extorted money from the locals for an upcoming feast celebrating his arrival . Hüseyin Pasha was also involved in stealing wealthy locals ' inheritances , so much so that it became a reliable way to exact revenge on an enemy by reporting to the Pasha that he or she had received an inheritance from a relative . He also often reportedly rode a horse through crowds of people and animals , swinging a sword , for recreation . Each month , he forced locals to trade in their bullion coin for adulterated metal and sent bureaucrats and officials to remote locations for sport . During his rule , he had over 1 , 200 people executed , not including those that he killed by his own hand . Despite his cruelty , Hüseyin Pasha was an able commander and leader of the local troops , which was a particularly difficult task in Egypt . He was attentive to government details in the divan and successfully decreased robbery and burglary in Egypt . After his dismissal from office in 1637 , sultan Murad IV demanded of him an audit of the Egyptian provincial treasury and public revenues , and for him to pay what he owed to the treasury . When he refused , the kaymakam ( acting governor ) who replaced him until the arrival of his successor jailed Hüseyin , and he was freed only when he paid a large sum . Cretan War . Conquest of the Aegean island Crete from Venice was uncharacteristically trying for Ottoman Empire . While the Ottoman Empire was in stagnation , the military and naval technology of the Europeans was on the rise . Although Chania , a major Cretan city , had been captured in 1645 , the rest of the island , especially Heraklion , was able to resist the Ottomans . The Ottoman Empire was unable to send reinforcements to Crete because the strait of Dardanelles ( Çanakkale ) was blocked by the Venetian navy . ( " see Cretan War ( 1645 – 1669 ) " ) Thus , the Ottoman army in Crete was deadlocked . Even under these circumstances , Hüseyin captured several forts including Rethymno and laid a siege to Heraklion . He also reconstructed many buildings and the fort of Chania . Sultan Mehmet IV promoted him to be the grand vizier on 28 February 1656 . However he never exercised the post . Long before Huseyin ' s return to Constantinople , the sultan changed his mind and appointed Hüseyin ' s rival Zurnazen Mustafa Pasha as grand vizier on 6 March 1656 ( although Zurnazen ' s term was even shorter than that of Hüseyin ) . Later years . Hüseyin was assigned to be the beylerbey ( governor ) of Rumeli , a post inferior to that of grand vizier , but superior to those of the beylerbeys of other provinces . Nevertheless , the new grand vizier Köprülü Mehmet Pasha was afraid of Hüseyin ' s prestige . He called Hüseyin to Constantinople and persuaded the sultan to jail and later to execute Hüseyin in 1659 .