Maktul Hacı Ibrahim Pasha

Ibrahim Pasha (died 24 September 1604 ) was an Ottoman statesman who served shortly as the governor of Egypt in 1604 before he was murdered by mutinying sepahi soldiers of the Ottoman Army. He also served as defterdar (finance minister) of the Ottoman Empire four times (1582–83, 1587–88, 1593–94, 1596).

Background Ibrahim Pasha appears to have lived in Konya in his early life and been a dervish and a follower of the ascetic Muslim mystic Rumi. As such, he was sometimes known by the epithet "Sufi" by historians.

Tenure as the governor of Egypt In 1604, sultan Ahmed I appointed Ibrahim Pasha as the governor of Egypt, Egypt then being the seat of the Egypt Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. His office's title was beylerbey, while governors of a province in general was referred to as a wāli.

Since the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and their subjugation in 1517, Mamluks in Egypt had been silently pushing for more influence in Egypt; they often attempted this by trying to influence the garrisoned Ottoman soldiers over the Ottoman governor. Allegedly, Ibrahim Pasha had one such soldier from the fellah (Arabic-speaking) class of the local Mamluk populace put to death by hanging and had his body draped in a sirwal (Arabic baggy trousers), which was something both the local sepahis and the Mamluks wore, in order to send a message of his distaste for both groups; furthermore, the body was then allegedly placed in a jar to symbolize the slave class the two groups belonged to. Sipahis, in further corruption, self-enacted an illegal tax known as the tulba on the people of the Egyptian countryside, claiming that the tax was for "facilitating police duties." When Ibrahim Pasha cracked down on this practice and refused to buy into the system, tensions between Ibrahim Pasha, the sipahis, the Mamluks, and the general army grew to enormous levels.

Murder Tensions came to a head on 24 September 1604, only a few months after Ibrahim Pasha had assumed office. Ibrahim Pasha thus became the first governor of the Ottoman Empire to be killed by his own troops, earning the posthumous epithet Maktul, meaning "the Slain".

After murdering the pasha, the rebel soldiers displayed his and some of his men's heads publicly, parading them through the streets and then placing them on the gate of Bab Zuweila, where criminals' remains were normally displayed, allegedly crying, "This is due to [deserved by] those who cause strife in the Sultan's army." The chief kadı (judge) in the eyalet became acting governor until the sultan could appoint a new one.

Legacy Ibrahim Pasha's death caused a period of instability and distress in Egypt, and stability was only restored around 7 or 8 years later when the governor Kara Mehmed Pasha finally crushed the rebellion, earning his epithet Kul Kıran ("the Slavebreaker").