Dawud Pasha

DAWUD PASHA, Kodia, Darwish, d. 904/1498, Ottoman Grand Vizier. Of Albanian origin, he came through the dewshirme to the Palace School. In 876/ 1472, as beylerbeyi of Anadolu, he fought under Prince Mustafa, wall of Konya, against the Akkoyunlu Yusufca MIrza. In the battle against Uzun Hasan at Otluk-beli in 878/1473, he was in command of the vanguard. He served in the Boghdan campaign of 881/1476 and, as beylerbeyi of Rumeli, in the operations in Albania and the siege of Ishkodra (883/1478). After the accession of Bayezld II he was made vizier and shortly afterwards, in 888/1483, succeeded Ishak Pasha as Grand Vizier, remaining in this post for 15 years.

During this period he went on only two campaigns, the operations against the Mamluks in 892/1487, when he re-occupied Adana and Tarsus and reduced the Warsaks to obedience, and the Albanian campaign of 891/1492, when he took Tepedelen and defeated the Albanian forces (though according to one source he remained at Uskiib to guard against a possible Hungarian attack from the north). He was dismissed from the Grand Vizierate on 4 Radjab 902/8 March 1497 and ordered to live at DImetoka (with a yearly pension of 300,000 aktes). The reason for his dismissal was that the flight of the Ak-koyunlu Gode Ahmed Bey, a grandson of Mehemmed II, to Tabriz was attributed to Dawud Pasha's negligence. Two years later, in 4 Rabi CI 904/20 October 1498. he died and was buried in the tiirbe before the mihrdb of his mosque in Istanbul.

He is described as a capable and upright statesman and a patron of learning. In foreign policy he supported Venice. He was one of the richest statesmen of his time: the resm-i kismet due to the kddi'asker on his estate amounted to no less than 2,000,000 akfr.s. The mosque which he built in the quarter which bears his name exists today, together with an Hmdret, a feshme, a school and a medrese. There are also an iskele and a kasr named after him. The Dawud Pasha SahrasI, on which the Dawud Pasha Barracks now stands, was for centuries a famous camping-ground for the Ottoman army. His sons Mustafa Pasha and Mehemmed Bey are mentioned in the sources.

Bibliography: I A, s.v. (by I. H. Uzuncarsili); Hammer-Purgstall, GOR, ii, 309 ff. and index; Leunclavius, Hist., 644 ff.; Kantemir, Gesch. d. Osm. Reiches, 428; al-Shakd'ik al-Nucmdmya, Hadikat al-wuzard*, Hadikat al-djiawdmi^ (s.vv.); for his wakfs, T. Gokbilgin, Edirne ve Pasa Livasi, Istanbul 1952, index. (M. TAYYIB GOKBILGIN)