Ibrahim Pasha: Grand Vizir of Suleiman the MagnificentJenkins, Hester Donaldson
History
Ibrahim Pasha: Grand Vizir of Suleiman the Magnificent
Jenkins, Hester Donaldson
Ibrahim Pasa, 1493?-1536
This revolt of Ahmed Pasha has all the features of the typical
revolt against Turkish authority: the sudden disgrace of an official
high in power, his banishment under the name of change of office, a
tampering with the loyalty of the troops of the province (in this
case the Mamelukes), a conflict with the loyal janissaries, sudden
success, betrayal, a rapid fall and a sudden punishment, ending in the
triumph of absolutism. The same story with change of names is told a
hundred times in Turkish chronicles. The only way in which Suleiman
differed from most of the sultans under such circumstances was that he
recognized the need of a reorganization of the revolted province and
sent the grand vizir to effect it.
Four months after his marriage Ibrahim Pasha was sent to Egypt with
a fleet and an army to settle the new governor in Cairo and to
reëstablish the former legislation of the country.[65] The Turkish
historians[66] give much space to the splendid state in which Ibrahim
left the Porte and the unparalleled honor paid him by the company
of Sultan Suleiman as far as the Princes Isles, and also to the
difficulties of the voyage, interrupted several times by storms. The
last part of the journey was made overland, Ibrahim visiting Aleppo and
Damascus, where he put the terror of the sultan into the beylerbeys,
who had been forgetting all but their own interests. Throughout the
journey, the grand vizir received complaints and rendered justice,
earning the blessings of the people whom he visited.[67]
The arrival of the imperial mission in Cairo was marked by great
ceremony, the Mamelukes showing themselves as splendid in all their
appointments as were the Ottomans. “All the people of Egypt came to
meet Ibrahim Pasha,” declares Solakzadeh, “each one according to his
rank being garbed in a robe of honor, and from the forts guns sounded,
and fêtes and rejoicings were held.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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