Patrona Halil

Who was Patrona Halil?

Patrona Halil, was the instigator of a mob uprising in 1730 which replaced Sultan Ahmed III with Mahmud I and ended the Tulip period.

Halil was born to an Albanian family in Hurpisht, a village near Bitola. He became a Janissary and after joining a Janissary rebellion in Niš and leading one in 1720 in Vidin, he moved to the capital. He was known to have engaged in petty trade and crafts like working as a hammam attendant. Halil was also a former sailor. He spent much of his time at meyhanes of Galata. Halil was known as Horpeşteli Arnavut Halil after his place of birth and nationality but his Albanian compatriots called him Patrona.

His followers were 12,000 janissaries, mostly Albanians. For weeks after the revolt, the empire was in the hands of the insurgents. Patrona Halil rode with the new sultan to the Mosque of Eyub where the ceremony of girding Mahmud I with the Sword of Osman was performed; many of the chief officers were deposed and successors to them appointed at the dictation of the bold rebel who had served in the ranks of the Janissaries and who appeared before the sultan bare-legged and in his old uniform of a common soldier.