Ibrahim Pasha

IBRAHIM PASHA (?493-942/i536), Grand Vizier of Siileyman I, known to the chroniclers as 'Makbul' ("the favourite") and 'Maktul' ("the executed"), was probably born near Parga, on the coast of Epirus. Enslaved as a child, he was brought up in the "Palace School", and then attached to the service of Prince Siileyman while he was governor of Macmsa (according to other accounts he was taken in a raid by Iskender Pasha and presented to Prince Siileyman at Kefe; or was taken by pirates and sold to a widow near Macnisa, etc.); he gained the confidence and friendship of the Prince, and upon Siileyman's accession (926/1520) became his Khdssoda bashi [see GIIULAM, p. io88a]. The following year the Sultan was causing to be built for him the famous palace on the north-west side of the Hippodrome (see Z. Orgun, Ibrahim Pasasarayt, Istanbul 1939, and ISTANBUL). Already the influence of "Ibrahim Agha" was greater than that of the viziers, and on 13 vShacban 929/27 June 1523, in succession to Piri Mehmed Pasha [q.v.], he was appointed Grand Vizier and beglerbegi of Rumeli (see Pecewi, i, 20).

He was only about thirty years old; and this unprecedented promotion—direct from the Palace Service to the two highest offices of the state held in plurality— deeply offended Ahmed Pasha [see AHMAD PASHA KHA'IN], who could reasonably have expected the promotion, and who was allowed to withdraw from the capital as governor of Egypt. Ibrahim Pasha's marriage to Siileyman's sister Khadidje in Radjab 930/May 1524 was celebrated with spectacular pomp, but four months later he had to set out for Egypt in order to compose the difficulties provoked by Ahmad Pasha's revolt [see MISR]. He was absent for a year, and was then recalled hurriedly as the result of a Janissary disturbance, perhaps provoked by his rivals. He was appointed serddr [q.v.] on the great campaign into Hungary in 932/1526 [see MOHAC]. From Buda (T, Budin [q.v.]} Ibrahim Pasha brought back to stand before his Palace three bronze statues of Hercules, Diana and Apollo (this action provoked the famous epigram of Fighani [q.v.], which cost the poet his life). The next year Ibrahim put down the revolts which had broken out in Anatolia (see Danismend, Kronoloji, ii, 121-5; DJALALI [in Supple ment]; and KALENDER SHAH). In 935/1529 he was serddr (for his berdt see Feridun, Munsha^di2, i, 544-6;' his Mass was increased to the value of 3 million akces, see Pecewi, i, 129) on the campaign in which Budin was re-taken and Vienna (Bee [q.v.]) besieged. In 938/1532 the third Hungarian campaign resulted only in the surrender of the fortress of Guns (Hung.: Koszeg; T.: Kosek [q.v.]). The following year Ibrahim Pasha acted with quasi-plenipotentiary powers in the negotiations with Ferdinand's ambassador Cornelius Schepper, whose reports (A. von Ge~vay, Urkunden und Aktenstiicke, 2 vols., Vienna 1840-42, part 6; Missions diplomatiques de . . . Scepperus — Mem. de VAc. Roy. des Sciences de Belgique, xxx (1857)) give a vivid picture of Ibrahim's excessively—and dangerously—arrogant attitude. In the autumn of the same year, upon the outbreak of war with Persia, Ibrahim Pasha took command of the Ottoman army; after wintering at Aleppo, he occupied Tebriz on 25 Muharram 941/6 August I534, where next month the Sultan joined him; Baghdad was occupied on 24 Djumada I 941/1 December 1534. It was during this campaign that Ibrahim's authority and pretensions reached their height: in one firman sent him there figures among his alkdb: "ka^im-makdm-i saltanat" (Topkapi Sarayi archives, no. 2759) > and the army criers (delldl) ended their proclamations with the words: "Ser^askerSultdn emridur" (Pecewi, i, 189; when the very wealthy and influential Bash-Defterdar Iskender Celebi protested, Ibrahim Pasha procured first his dismissal and later his execution).

The Sultan and the Grand Vizier arrived back at Istanbul in Radjab 942/January 1536, and during the next month Ibrahim was conducting with the French ambassador the negotiations for the capitulations (Charriere, Negotiations . . ., i, 255 ff.). Then quite unexpectedly, after no hint that the Sultan had withdrawn his favour, Ibrahim was strangled, on the night of 22 Ramadan 942/14-15 March 1536, in his bedroom in the harem of Topkapi Sarayi (Pecewi, i, 191); his body was buried at the Djanfeda Zawiyesi behind the Arsenal (Hadlkat aldiawdmi*-, i, 28; ii, 39). Various explanations were advanced for his fall: his arrogation of the titles of sovereignty; his responsibility for the execution of Iskender Celebi; extravagance on the campaign of 941/1534; an irreligious attitude; the intrigues of Khurrem Sultan [q.v.] ("Roxelana"), given freer play after the death of Ibrahim's protector the Walide Hafsa Sultan; and possibly jealousy felt by his wife Khadidje Sultan, the sister of Siileyman I, for his other wife Muhsine. Ibrahim Pasha had a son by Khadldje, named Mehmed Shah. His parents embraced Islam, the father taking the name Yunus and being made a sandiak-begi, while two brothers of Ibrahim were admitted to the Palace (Albe"ri, Relazioni. . ., iii, 103). Numerous foundations were made by himself and by his wife Muhsine in Istanbul (Hadlkat aldiawdmi*, i, 28), Ghalata, Mecca, Hezarghrad, etc. Hi? palace on the At-Meydan was later used as a training school for *-adjami oghlans [see GHULAM. 10873]. His gardens at Siitludie on the Golden Horn long remained a popular place of resort (cAta, i, in). Bibliography: General histories: HammerPurgstall, iii, 32-163, ix, XXIX-XXXII; Zinkeisen, GOR, ii, iii, 70-81; I. H. Uzuncarsih, Osmanli tarihi, ii, Ankara 1949, 305-46. Ottoman chroniclers: Pecewi, i, 20, 79-91; Djalalzade Mustafa [q.v.], Tabakdt al-mamdlik (in MS, unpublished but IBRAHIM PASHA 999 important, since the author was Ibrahim's private secretary); CAU, Kunh al-akhbdr (in MS); idem, Mahdsin al-dddb (unpubl.), cited in Hadlkat al-d_iawdmic, i, 29; "Ferdi" [q.v.] (= Bostanzade), Silleymdnndme (in MS); Kemalpashazade, book x ( = Pavet de Courteille, Histoire de la campagne de Mohacz. . ., Paris 1859). Contemporary Western sources: Marino Sanuto, Diarii, xxxv, 258 ff.; Albe"ri, Relazioni . . ., 3rd ser., iii, 99 ff. (Bragadino), 113 ff. (Minio); P. Giovio, Cose dei Turchi, Venice 1541; A. Geuffroy, Briefve description de la mort du grand Turc, Paris 1546; G. Postel, La tierce partie des orientates histoires, Poitiers 1560, 48-61. For his wives, see: Qagatay Ulucay, Osmanh sultanlanna a$k mektuplan, Istanbul 1950; I. H. Uzuncarsili, Kanuni. . . Ibrahim Pa$a padisah damadi degildi, in Belleten, xxix/ii4 (1965), 355-61. The above is abridged from the article in I A, fasc. 50, 908-15, where will be found further bibliography and especially (gisa) references to archive documents. (M. TAYYIB GOKBILGIN)