The new system was to the detriment of the city, because the voivodes had an interest to maximize their gains in their short period of office, and because abuses were harder to redress: under the Kizlar Agha, the Athenians could address their concerns to a single person, close to the Sultan, but with the new system, there were several people who held authority, and the link to the Porte was more tenuous. Furthermore, during the decades before Haseki's arrival in Athens, the zabit was in constant conflict with the pashas of Negroponte, who constantly sought to interfere in Athenian affairs. First tenure as voivode of Athens The exact manner and date of Haseki's arrival in Athens is unclear. Skouzes writes that in 1772, Esma Sultan acquired the malikhane of Athens at a price of 750,000 piastres—later in his account Skouzes raised the figure to 1.5 million piastres—and gave it over to Haseki. Benizelos, however, indicates that Haseki bought the malikhane of Athens when the previous owner died in 1776, after he had arrived at Athens as its voivode in 1775. Indeed, Benizelos remarks on his appointment to Athens that in 1774, a delegation of Athenians visited Constantinople to request the dismissal of the incumbent voivode, and that thereupon Haseki, using bribery, secured the office for himself. It is not until 1782 that Haseki is securely attested as the malikhane sahib of Athens. Whatever the true background of his appointment, when Haseki came to Athens in 1775, he initially presented himself as a protector of the local Greeks, both against the transgressions of the local Turks, as well as against the excavations of the pasha of Negroponte: he forbade the entry of the latter's officials in the city, and managed to remove the Albanian garrison that Huseyn Pasha of Negroponte had installed in the city a few years earlier. He also made friends among the most important Athenian primates, so that when he began oppressing the lower classes, the primates refused to act against him. Thereupon the 24 burgher households and the lower classes, supported by the Metropolitan of Athens and the clergy, sent a petition (arz-i hal) denouncing Haseki to the Porte. He was recalled for a while, with a voivode from Chios appointed to govern the city in his stead. Second tenure as voivode – Albanian incursions and fortification of Athens In 1777, however, Haseki managed to use his