Koprulu Mehmed Pasha

Koprulu Fazil Ahmed Pasha (1635-1676) served fifteen years as Ottoman grand vizier, the longest tenure of the era. Trained as a scholar, he took Candia in 1669 after a 24-year war, won Podolia from Poland, and secured favourable terms from the Habsburgs after losing a battle.

Koprulu Mehmed Pasha (c. 1575-1661) became Ottoman grand vizier in 1656 on the condition of unrestricted authority. He broke the factions of the capital by mass execution, cleared the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles, and founded a family that supplied five grand viziers.

Mehmed IV (1642-1693) reigned thirty-nine years from the age of six. His reign spanned the near-collapse of the 1650s, the Kopruluu recovery, the capture of Candia, the failure before Vienna in 1683, and the losses that led to his deposition in 1687.