THE RENAISSANCE & EARLY MODERN ERA
Ibrahim Pasa
•
IBRAHIM PA~A
Grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire (1523-1536)
As grand vizier and trusted associate of Sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent, ibrahim played leading
political, military, and diplomatic roles in domestic
and international events. ibrahim's death by
strangulation and beating at the sultan's order marked
a turning point for the Ottoman Empire.
BORN: 1493 or 1494; Parga, Republic of Venice (now
in Greece)
DIED: March 15, 1536; Constantinople, Ottoman
Empire (now in Turkey)
AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Government and politics,
warfare and conquest
EARLY LIFE
Ibrahim Pasa (ihb-rah-HIM pah-SHAH) was born near
the Greek town of Parga on the coast of the Ionian Sea.
His parents were Christian and of common stock: His fa-
ther labored as a sailor. As a young boy, Ibrahim was kid-
napped by corsairs, who commonly plied the coastal wa-
ters of the region. Following his capture, Ibrahim
apparently was sold to a wealthy Ottoman widow who,
impressed by the young man's intellect, provided him
with an education. He learned Italian, Persian, and Turk-
ish, in addition to his native Greek, and became an excel-
lent musician. At some point during his first years of
slavery, he also embraced Islam.
Contemporary accounts disagree significantly on the
genesis of Ibrahim's relationship with Suleyman, son of
Sultan Selim I and heir to the throne. Some accounts sug-
gest Siileyman met Ibrahim during his service as governor
of Manisa, in eastern Anatolia, prior to acceding to the
throne, and that because of Ibrahim's intellect and cha-
risma, and their similarity in age, they established an en-
during relationship. Others suggest that Ibrahim at some
point was sent to Istanbul, where he was attached as a slave
to the Imperial Serail and perhaps even attended the famed
Palace School. According to this version, Ibrahim accom-
panied Stileyman to Manisa. What is certain is that the
close relationship between the heir to the throne and his
slave flourished during the period in the provinces before
Stileyman achieved the throne. The two became insepa-
rable, and this set the stage for Ibrahim's unprecedented
ascent to the heights of power in the Ottoman Empire.
LIFE'S WORK
Ibrahim Pasa accompanied his now close friend Siiley-
man to Istanbul on the death of Selim I in 1520. In very
480
short order, the sultan made lbrahim his chief falconer,
and then the master of his bedchamber, both desirable
positions because they ensured close access to the ruler.
Indeed, as master of the bedchamber, Ibrahim slept next
to the sultan in the private quarters of the palace to en-
sure his safety. Many contemporaries considered it scan-
dalous that the ruler of the greatest Muslim empire
should have such intimate ties with a slave and former
Christian.
Less than three years later, in 1523, when Ibrahim was
barely thirty years old, Siileyman raised him to the high-
est position in the Ottoman hierarchy, the office of grand
vizier, over a number of more experienced and senior of-
ficials. Ibrahim would hold this position until his death in
1536. During this time, by all accounts, Ibrahim ruled the
day-to-day affairs of the empire effectively. Siileyman
seems to have been content to give Ibrahim nearly unlim-
ited power and autonomy in running the Ottoman state,
and all matters of any significance passed directly
through his hands.
During his thirteen years as grand vizier, Ibrahim en-
joyed the complete confidence of Siileyman. Indeed,
the sultan, perhaps to buttress the power and reputation
of his young companion, granted him extraordinary titles
and privileges. He was permitted to display six horse-
tails on his standard, one less than the sultan, and more
than any other grand vizier had been granted previously.
In 1524, Ibrahim's relationship with the sultan was
sealed through his marriage to Stileyman's sister, Hadice
Hanim, with the sultan himself attending the opulent fes-
tivities.
If Ibrahim's initial ascent was due to his personal ties
to Siileyman, in his years as grand vizier, he proved him-
self a capable diplomat and an effective political and mil-
itary leader. In 1524, Stileyman sent Ibrahim to Egypt to
restore order following an uprising led by a rebellious
Ottoman official sent to rule the earlier conquered prov-
ince. Ibrahim reorganized legal and fiscal institutions,
punished mutinous officials and subjects with severity,
established schools, restored mosques, and, by all ac-
counts, restored peace and order to the region.
Two years later, he joined Siileyman in leading the
first Ottoman campaign in Hungary, which saw the Hun-
garians routed at the Battle of Mohacs, and their young
king, Louis II, killed on the battlefield. Because of his
reliability and success in this first campaign, lbrahim was
also charged with leading two subsequent military cam-
 THE RENAISSANCE & EARLY MODERN ERA
paigns in Hungary: one in 1529, when he guided the
unsuccessful Siege of Vienna, and another in 1532. A
year later, Ibrahim was supreme commander of an expe-
dition against the shah of Persia, which culminated in the
conquest of Baghdad in December, 1534. Contempo-
raries and subsequent writers have viewed Stileyman's
reign as a golden era in Ottoman history, and while much
credit goes to the sultan, ibrahim clearly played a central
role.
If Ibrahim's rise was unexpected and unprecedented,
so too was his demise. Indeed, from the outset of his ca-
reer, Ibrahim had been unpopular among the Ottoman
elite because of his unorthodox path to power, his fa-
vored position with the sultan, his wealth, and his reputa-
tion for arrogance. At the pinnacle of his power, with ap-
parently no indication that he had fallen out of favor,
Ibrahim was strangled at the sultan's orders, during the
season of Ramadan in March, 1536, and in the vizier's
bedroom in the harem of Topkapi Palace. His body was
buried in an unmarked grave that made no mention of the
person who had gone from poor slave to nearly the sul-
tan's equal.
The dramatic demise of Ibrahim produced many theo-
ries attempting to explain his fall from grace. Some
pointed to what was perceived as his questionable reli-
gious commitment, others to mismanagement of the Per-
sian campaign, still other voices suggested he had be-
trayed his master to the Habsburgs. Certainly, important
factors were palace intrigues. Siileyman's favorite con-
sort, Roxelana, in her machinations to secure the throne
for one of her sons, saw ibrahim as a potential threat. She
gradually usurped his position with the sultan and played
a central role in undermining the vizier's position. Fol-
lowing the death of Ibrahim's primary defender in the
harem, Stileyman's mother Hafsa, Ibrahim was fatally
exposed.
In the end, these intrigues alone were certainly not
sufficient to force the sultan's hand. Rather, the best ex-
planation for Ibrahim's demise is that Siileyman per-
ceived that his servant had become overly powerful and
ambitious. Ibrahim was reported to have stated publicly,
"I can make a sultan of a stableboy .... And when [my
master] orders me to do something I don't like, nothing is
carried out. It is my will which is accomplished, not his."
This imperiousness fed rumors that he aspired to
Stileyman's throne, and it made him a liability to the ruler
and to the empire.
That Ibrahim was executed rather than simply dis-
missed or exiled testifies to the extent of his power and
influence, and the possibility that even out of office he
Ibrahim Pasa
might remain a destabilizing threat to Siileyman's rule.
The stains of Ibrahim's blood, spilled as he tried to ward
off his assassins' blows, were left on the walls for years as
a reminder to all of the destiny of vainglorious and overly
ambitious servants.
SIGNIFICANCE
In assessing Ibrahim's brieflife, it is difficult not to resort
to superlatives. Born in poverty in an insignificant corner
of the Mediterranean, his opportunities were quite lim-
ited. A stroke of misfortune opened opportunities for ed-
ucation and advancement, and in a relatively short time,
Ibrahim became the second most powerful man in the Ot-
toman Empire.
The tragic tale of Ibrahim's life and death ensured his
story's endurance. It provided great fodder for European
novelists and playwrights, and was told in three seven-
teenth century dramas and a four-volume work by
Madelaine de Scudery called Ibrahim ou l'illustre bassa
(1641; Ibrahim: Or, The Illustrious Bassa, 1652).
Among Ottoman writers, Ibrahim's life provided a cau-
tionary tale, and indeed it came to be seen by some ob-
servers as a turning point in Ottoman history. One adviser
to Sultan Murad IV, writing in 1630, maintained that Ot-
toman decline began when grand viziers ceased to be se-
lected for their competence and experience. This led to
the denigration of the office and to the rise of a destruc-
tive era of influential palace favorites, particularly
women and eunuchs, who weakened the sultanate se-
verely. While it may be too much to attribute the eventual
decline of the empire to one man, Ibrahim's rise to the
summit of Ottoman power, his long, effective rule, and
his dramatic end, seems the stuff of fiction.
- Eric R. Dursteler
FURTHER READING
Clot, Andre. Suleiman the Magnificent: The Man, His
Life, His Epoch. London: Saqi Books, 1992. While
devoted predominantly to the life of Siileyman the
Magnificent, the work contains significant informa-
tion on Ibrahim, particularly his relationship with the
sultan he served.
Gokbilgin, M. Tayyib. "Ibrahim Pasa," The Encyclope-
dia of Islam. Vol. 3. Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J.
Brill, 1971. A brief but useful overview that situates
Ibrahim Pasa more solidly in a Turkish documentary
context.
Jenkins, Hester Donaldson. Ibrahim Pasha: Grand W-
zier of Suleiman the Magnificent. New York: Colum-
bia University Press, 1911. This is still the only mono-
graph dedicated to Ibrahim Pasa's life and career.
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Ignatius of Loyola. Saint
While somewhat dated in its historical and historio-
graphical context, it is nonetheless still important.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and
Modern Turkey: Empire of till' Gazis. Cambridge, En-
gland: Cambridge University Press, 1976. A general
history of the Ottoman Empire in the premodern era
that contains important contextual and biographical
details on Ibrahim Pasa's life.
Q
THE RENAISSANCE & EARLY MODERN ERA
SEE ALSO: Barbarossa; Pierre Belon; Mary of Hungary;
Matthias I Corvinus; Mehmed II; Mehmed III;
SUleyman the Magnificent; Vladislav II.
RELATED AlnlCLES in Great Events from History: The
Renaissance & Early Modern Era, 1454-1600: 1534-
1535: Ottomans Claim Sovereignty Over Mesopota-
mia; 1536: Turkish Capitulations Begin.