He could read Persian as well as Turkish, also Greek (his native tongue) and Italian. He was a wide reader, delighting in geography and history, especially the lives of Alexander the Great and Hannibal. Of his musical training we have already spoken.[18] When their schooling was completed, the pages were taken into the Serai,[19] passing through two lower chambers before completing their education in the first chamber. The pages usually lodged near the sultan’s apartments in handsome dormitories having their own mosque and baths. But Ibrahim, as the favorite of Suleiman, used to sleep in the apartments of his lord and master, and generally took his meals with him.[20] Bragadino says that when they were not together in the morning they wrote notes to each other, which they sent by mutes. Pietro Zen records seeing them together often in a little boat with but one oarsman, and says they would land at Seraglio Point and wander through the gardens together.[21] Zen declares that the Grand Signor loved Ibrahim greatly, and that the two were inseparable from childhood up, continuing so after Suleiman became sultan. This intimacy, so often noted by the Venetian Baillies, is never commented on by the Turkish writers. It scandalized the Ottomans, and seemed to them utterly unsuitable that the Lord of the Age should show such favor to his slave. The partiality of Suleiman for Ibrahim is important, for it is the explanation of Ibrahim’s phenomenal rise. From a page, Ibrahim became Head Falconer, a post which requires no explanation. The last two chambers of the sultan’s personal attendants were the black and white eunuchs. The black eunuchs, several hundred in number, guarded the imperial harem, and were thence called aghas of the harem. Their chief was called _Kizlar agha_, or _agha_ of the maidens, and his office included some further duties beside those connected with the “maidens.” There were also in the palace a number of white eunuchs, whose chief was called _Capon agha_, or captain of the gate. Next to him the chief officer was the Khass‐oda‐bashi. The Turkish historians[22] call Ibrahim, at the time of his being called to the vizirate, “khass‐oda‐bashi.” Cantimir calls him “Captain of the Inner Palace” which is a very good translation of the Turkish term. This official, as we have seen, was second in rank among the white eunuchs. To him was confided one of the three imperial seals set in rings, used for the precious objects which were kept in the apartment of the sultan.[23]