Husayn Pasha also served intermittent terms as governor of Nablus and Jerusalem and as amir al-hajj (commander of the Hajj caravan).
Gaza prospered under Husayn Pasha and its political importance rose so much so that the French consul considered it to be the virtual capital of Palestine.
[1] From 1524, his family, the Ridwan dynasty, had administered much of Palestine and parts of the Lebanon and Syria on behalf of their Ottoman superiors based in Constantinople and Damascus.
According to contemporary testimonies, a group of village headmen from Jabaliya apparently harmed by the Nablus deal went to Damascus to lodge a complaint to the authorities against Ismail Pasha.
[3] To restore Gaza's failing commerce sector, Husayn Pasha obtained a large loan from the French consul in Jerusalem, Chevalier d'Arvieux.
[4] When pressed to pay in 1659, Husayn made strenuous efforts to produce the funds and promptly paid back d'Arvieux in a meeting in the town of Ramla.
[5] Husayn Pasha maintained a positive reputation among the Bedouin tribes who largely dominated the desert areas surrounding Gaza.
This relationship resulted in a drastic fall in the previously routine armed conflict between the nomadic Bedouin and the settled population of Gaza and the nearby towns.
According to historian Martin Abraham Meyer, Husayn's influence over the Bedouin was "marked" and they ended their plundering campaigns against the city, allowing its economy to grow unhindered.
Husayn Pasha restored himself as governor of Gaza in 1661 when Ibrahim was killed in an Ottoman-ordered punitive expedition against Druze rebels in Mount Lebanon.
[8] Mourning Husayn Pasha's death, the Damascene poet Abd as-Samman al-Dimashqi wrote: "He committed no crime, but these are days of envy's rule.
[1] According to historian Dror Ze'evi, "the Ottomans must have assumed that by killing Husayn Pasha, they ... would eventually be able to destroy the remnants of the extended dynasty.