Ebubekir Pasha

Ebubekir Pasha (; ; 1670 – 1759 ), also referred to as Koca Bekir Pasha and Abu Bakr Pasha or Abubakr Pasha (; ), was an Ottoman statesman. He served as Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral of the Navy; 1732–33, 1750–51); as governor (beylerbey) of the provinces of Egypt, Jeddah, Habesh, Anatolia, Rumelia, the Morea, Cyprus, Euboea, and Bosnia; as head of the Imperial Mint; and as Şeyhü'l-harem (Guardian of the Sacred Precincts) of Mecca, a title conferred on him in 1724. He was of Turkish origin.

Early career Ebubekir Pasha was a relative of Alâiyeli Kel Yusuf Efendi, a prominent finance official who rose from the imperial treasury to head the Mint and the Imperial Arsenal. After entering the palace service, Ebubekir served as a silahdar (armourer), then as a customs officer and kapıcıbaşı (chief gatekeeper). He was appointed çavuşbaşı (chief of couriers) in April 1718. An eye illness forced his temporary reassignment as superintendent of the Imperial Mint, but he was reinstated as çavuşbaşı in May 1723. In December 1724 he was elevated to vizier, reportedly after Sultan Ahmed III personally visited the paşa kapısı to interview him before confirming the appointment, and was given the governorships of Jeddah and Habesh together with the title of Şeyhü'l-harem of Mecca.

The aqueduct was completed in 1750 and consists of three spans of cut stone arches, of which 75 survive today: a first span near the Arpera River with 50 arches, a second with 12, and a third over the valley at Çiftlik Paşa village near Larnaca with 31 arches. It was restored in 1854 and 1876, and remained in active use until 1939. A five-year conservation project on the Çiftlik Paşa span began in 1987. The British traveller Sir Samuel Baker, visiting Cyprus in 1878, noted that the system's line wells (sıra kuyuları) were dug at successively decreasing elevations, so that water flowed from the source to Larnaca entirely by gravity.

Ebubekir Pasha was appointed to Cyprus in 1747, shortly after the island had been reconstituted as an independent eyalet with three-horsetail pasha status in 1745. During his tenure he financed extensive public works on the island from his personal funds, placing them under the administration of the Ebubekir Paşa Vakfı, the foundation he established for their upkeep. In Nicosia, he founded the Sarayönü madrasa in 1748 and restored the primary school in the courtyard of the Sarayönü Mosque, and had 23 shops built to generate waqf income for its upkeep. In Larnaca and the adjoining Tuzla district, he funded seven public fountains, water wells, and a flour mill, and established a farm at Arpera together with mulberry gardens and a vineyard as endowment. The French physician François Pouqueville, detained in Tripolitsa in 1798, recorded the topography of the city and noted that its mosques were built with ancient marble columns and inscriptions reused as spolia.

Following the fall of Ottoman Tripolitsa during the Greek War of Independence, the complex was dismantled. The church of Agios Vasilios was built on the same site between 1855 and 1884, its foundation stone laid on 6 November 1855 and its consecration held on 3 June 1884. The church reuses the mosque's foundations and retains its orientation toward the qibla. Over the course of his career he established pious foundations in Istanbul, İzmir, Mecca, Jeddah, Egypt, the Morea, and Cyprus, supporting schools, mosques, fountains, and water systems across the empire.