[1][3][4][5][6] In 1604, three years before he assumed office, the Governor of Ottoman Egypt Maktul Hacı Ibrahim Pasha was murdered by mutinying sipahi soldiers of his own troops.

When Mehmed Pasha came into office, his strong-handed methods and personality allowed him to suppress the sipahis and abolish the illegal tulba protection tax they had been imposing on the Egyptian countryside.

[3] After first landing at Alexandria, he gathered public support by visiting the tombs of local saints and treating the Mamluks well, ordering repairs on Mamluk-built buildings and structures.

He went on to promote public works and attempted to reform the fiscal and military organization of the Egypt eyalet, reducing the number of local beys to 12,[14] although this measure was later abandoned.

While in office, he was usually called Kara Mehmed Pasha, the nickname "ox" having been invented behind his back (although he almost certainly must have overheard it) by virtue of his heavy build and his father having been a blacksmith for cattle in the Karagümrük quarter of Constantinople.

One episode during his time as grand vizier involved an attack on Vienna accompanied with only 47 raiders, and without having informed the sultan or any other authority in the Ottoman capital; it ended in complete failure and nearly cost him his head.