Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha

Political career

After his rival Hain Ahmed Pasha, the governor of Egypt, declared himself independent of the Ottoman Empire and was executed in 1524, Ibrahim Pasha traveled south to Egypt in 1525 and reformed the Egyptian provincial civil and military administration system. He promulgated an edict, the Kanunname, outlining his system.

In a lavish ceremony in 1523, Ibrahim Pasha was married to Muhsine Hatun, the granddaughter of the same Iskender Pasha who had captured him more than two decades previously. This marriage appears to have been politically motivated as a method of integrating Ibrahim, an outsider, into the Ottoman elite. While Muhsine was initially skeptical about her new husband, they eventually formed a loving relationship. Although historians once believed that the woman Ibrahim married was Hatice Sultan, the sister of Sultan Suleiman, this had been based on scanty evidence and conjecture. As a result of research carried out by the historian Ebru Turan, including the discovery of multiple references to Muhsine in Venetian and Ottoman texts as well as a signed letter from her to Ibrahim, it is now accepted that Ibrahim's wife was Muhsine and not Hatice. They had at least one child, a son named Mehmed Şah Bey (dead in 1539).

Ibrahim Pasha Palace in Sultanahmet, Fatih, now the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. His palace, which still stands on the west side of the Hippodrome in Istanbul, has been converted into the modern-day Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum.

Draft of the 1536 Treaty negotiated between French ambassador Jean de La Forêt and Ibrahim Pasha, a few days before his execution, expanding to the whole Ottoman Empire the privileges received by France in Egypt from the Mamluks before 1518.

On the diplomatic front, Ibrahim's work with Western Christendom was a complete success. Portraying himself as "the real power behind the Ottoman Empire", Ibrahim used a variety of tactics to negotiate favorable deals with the leaders of the Catholic powers. The Venetian diplomats even referred to him as "Ibrahim the Magnificent", a play on Suleiman's usual sobriquet. In 1533, he convinced Charles V to turn Hungary into an Ottoman vassal state. In 1535, he completed a monumental agreement with Francis I that gave France favorable trade rights within the Ottoman Empire in exchange for joint action against the Habsburgs. This agreement would set the stage for joint Franco-Ottoman naval maneuvers, including the basing of the Ottoman fleet in southern France (in Toulon) during the winter of 1543–1544.

Although Ibrahim Pasha had long since converted to Islam, he maintained some ties to his roots, even bringing his parents to live with him in the Ottoman capital, where they also converted to Islam. His father took the name Yusuf and joined the Ottoman elite, becoming a governor in Epirus.

As he attained increasing wealth and power, he also made enemies; such as the famous Hürrem. After a dinner with the Sultan on 15 March 1536, Ibrahim Pasha went to bed. Upon arrival to his room, he was seized, and killed. Thus, Hürrem became the chief political advisor to her husband, the Sultan. There are different theories as to why he was executed, one being that he was close to Şehzade Mustafa (son of Suleiman the Magnificent), and that this made him enemies with Hürrem (who wanted one of her own sons to be the next sultan). Other theories suggest he wanted to become sultan and drunk with power, especially after the capture of Baghdad.

In popular media

In the internationally popular Turkish television series Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha is portrayed by actor Okan Yalabık. He appears as a unique Ottoman governor in the video game Civilization 6 in the Gathering Storm expansion. He's a prominent character in Mika Waltari's novel, The Wanderer.