[3][4] Upon arriving at the port of Sidon to take up his Damascus office he was received by the Druze chieftain of the Chouf, Fakhr al-Din, who furnished him with numerous gifts.

[6] Murad Pasha and Fakhr al-Din eliminated the latter's rival Mansur ibn Furaykh, the leader of a local Sunni Muslim Bedouin clan and onetime sanjak-bey of Safad.

[4] According to the historian William Griswold, Murad Pasha "represented the traditional devsirme warrior class, a Serb with the fanaticism to lead his troops to the limits of their endurance for Islam and the sultan".

[4] Imperial alarm grew at the power of the rebel Kurdish chieftain and beylerbey of Aleppo, Ali Janbulad, who in 1606 had extended his control over the eyalets of Tripoli and Damascus and formed a secret alliance with the Duke of Tuscany.

He determined that a further year of revolt would cement the power of the Celali chiefs of Anatolia and of the Janbulads in Cilicia and northern Syria, with the possible direct support of the Safavids.

Before March, Murad Pasha called on the sanjak-beys and beylerbeys to provision men, munitions, transport animals, grain, road repairs and bridge preparations.

[12] Before departing Konya the grand vizier sent orders to Janbulad and Cemsid, the Celali chief of Adana and Tarsus in Cilicia demanding their loyalty.

[13] He led an army of well-paid, local non-Anatolians and Devshirme (forcibly recruited Balkan Christian converts to Islam) which defeated Ali Janbulad, a leader of the Celali revolts against the Ottomans in Aleppo, in 1607 near Lake Amik.

[17] His victory, despite logistical challenges, was attributed to "his skill and experience as a military commander and his ability to hold the loyalty of his army" by the historian Caroline Finkel.

[18] Murad Pasha's nickname Kuyucu (the Well-digger, i.e. the "grave-digger") derives from the mass graves he had dug to bury the condemned of the harsh methods he employed in order to suppress (and eventually put an end) to the Celali revolts.

[21] Some have suggested that the mausoleum be made into a museum for the massacres and called the government's intention to conduct repairs on the building "shameful" in light of Murad Pasha's legacy.

[21] However, Karen Barkey suggests that Murad Pasha's methods were standard for the time and were often equalled or exceeded by many predatory rebel leaders (bandits and bureaucrats).