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2
IBRAHIM PASHA
Studies in History, Economics and Public Law
Edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University
Volume XLVI] [Number 2
Whole Number 115
IBRAHIM PASHA
Grand Vizir of Suleiman the Magnificent
by
HESTER DONALDSON JENKINS, Ph.D.,
Former Professor of History in the American
College for Girls, Constantinople
[Illustration]
New York
Columbia University
Longmans, Green & Co., Agents,
London: P. S. King & Son
1911
Copyright, 1911
BY
Hester Donaldson Jenkins
PREFACE
The teaching of history in Constantinople naturally leads to an
interest in the history of Turkey, and also to the recognition that
little has been written on that subject except on the side of political
relations with Europe. One who desires to present to western readers a
brief study of Turkish civilization might reasonably turn to the reign
of Suleiman the Magnificent, as being typical of the course of Turkish
history, and also as exhibiting Turkey at the height of her powers. For
the purpose of this dissertation, the study has been confined to the
career of Ibrahim Pasha, grand vizir between 1522 and 1536.
The writer’s acknowledgments are due to Professors Sloane and Gottheil
for valuable criticism, and for their aid in the obtaining of rare
books, and to Professor and Mrs. Robinson for the careful reading of
proof.
HESTER DONALDSON JENKINS.
NOVEMBER 23, 1911.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
Origin of the Turks—their advance from Central Asia to Europe 11
Dominating qualities of the Turk 12
Early political ideals 12
Rise and fall of the Seljouk kingdom 14
Rise of the Ottoman power 14
National characteristics 15
CHAPTER I
IBRAHIM’S RISE
Ibrahim’s origin, birth and childhood 18
He becomes the property of Prince Suleiman 18
His care for his parents and brothers 19
His rapid promotion 20
His protests against such speedy honors 20
The personal servants of the Sultan 21
Ibrahim’s education and early training 22
Ibrahim a eunuch—some account of the institution and duties of
black and white eunuchs 23
This was no bar to advancement or marriage 24
Slavery in Turkey different from that in the Occident 25
The advice of the Prophet and the laws of the Koran on the
treatment of slaves 26
Loyalty and obedience the two great virtues in the eyes of the
Turks 32
Ibrahim a slave, which was of advantage in opening a career for
him 33
Ibrahim’s love of magnificence 33
Ibrahim becomes Grand Vizir—his power and greatness 34
The history of the vizirate 35
The marriage of Ibrahim Pasha 37
Ibrahim’s relations to the Sultan 42
CHAPTER II
IBRAHIM THE ADMINISTRATOR
Revolt of Ahmed Pasha 43
Ibrahim goes to Egypt 44
Revolt is quieted and order restored 45
Appointed head of the army 47
The Cabyz affair 49
Ibrahim zealous in cause of commerce 50
Receives envoys in great state 51
Characterization of Ibrahim as an administrator 52
CHAPTER III
IBRAHIM THE DIPLOMAT
Turkish foreign relations 54
Ragusa—Venice—Russia 55
The Holy Roman Empire 56
France—the Popes 57
Embassies to the Porte 59
The Hungarian campaign—siege of Vienna 61
Contest of Ferdinand and Zapolya 61
Commercial treaty with France 64
Second Hungarian campaign 65
Treaty with Ferdinand 67
War with Persia—conquest of the Mediterranean 68
The Protectorate of France in the Levant 69
Diplomatic relations between the Porte and Europe 70
Ibrahim’s preparation as diplomat 71
Ibrahim’s reception of ambassadors 72
Ibrahim’s importance and influence 82
Object and accomplishments of Turkish diplomacy 87
First entrance of Turkey into European diplomacy 87
Ibrahim’s influence over Suleiman 88
Characterization of Ibrahim as diplomat 89
CHAPTER IV
IBRAHIM THE GENERAL
Campaign against Belgrad 90
Siege of Rhodes 90
Ceremonial of preparation for war 90
Organization of the Turkish army 91
Capture of Peterwardein 95
Battle of Mohacz 96
Capture of Buda and end of campaign 97
Campaign of Vienna 100
Suleiman’s first defeat 102
Siege of Güns—practical defeat 103
War with Persia 105
Advance to Bagdad and end of campaign 106
Characterization of Ibrahim as general 107
CHAPTER V
IBRAHIM’S FALL
Death of Ibrahim 108
Charges against Ibrahim 110
Said to favor the Christians 110
Quarrel with Iskender Chelebi 112
Suleiman evades his oath 113
Uncertainty of life near the Ottoman throne 114
Was Ibrahim a traitor? 115
Ibrahim’s importance in Turkish history 118
INTRODUCTION
The life of Ibrahim Pasha, as full of strange events as the most
highly‐colored romance, paradoxical, and to western students of society
almost incomprehensible in its rapid changes, is very difficult to
place soberly before Occidental readers; yet its very strangeness
is typical of the Orient, and if we could understand this romantic
life we might find we held a key to much in Turkish life and thought.
But our only chance of understanding it is to banish from our minds
western conceptions and accept as facts what seem like wild imaginings.
Ibrahim Pasha was not of the Turkish race, a fact which accounts for
some of the paradoxes of his career, but his life was passed in a
Turkish environment, one of whose notable characteristics is that it
has always at once included and modified so many alien elements. In
any consideration of the Turkish people, the most important thing to
hold in mind is that the Turks are neither Aryan nor Semitic, being
unrelated to Persians, Arabs, Greeks, or Hebrews. When ethnologists
dare not speak definitely of race distinctions, the layman cannot
venture to place the Turk in the “Touranian” or other group, but he
can accept the fact that the Turks came into Europe from Central Asia
and are in some way related to the Tatars and Mongols in the East, and
probably to the Magyars and Finns in the West. The Turks of Central
Asia during the period from the eighth to the eleventh centuries seem
to have possessed qualities which characterize Turks of the period we
are studying, and even mark the Turk of the present day.
Monsieur Léon Cahun, in his monograph on the Turks and the Mongols,[1]
has made a careful study of these early Turks, a portion of which I
will briefly summarize here.
The dominating quality of the Turks of Central Asia was their love of
war. According to a Persian verse: “They came and pillaged and burned
and killed and charged and vanished.” The one virtue required of them
was obedience, the only crime was treason. Activity to them meant war:
one word expressed the idea contained in our two words _to run_ and _to
kill with the sword_. The ideal death was in war; as their proverb ran,
“Man is born in the house but dies in the field.” In their earliest
cults the worship of steel and the sword are prominent.
Their second marked characteristic was their hierarchical spirit, and
their strong feeling for discipline. Insubordination and conspiracy
they always punished by death. Their ideal government is illustrated by
the inscription on a funeral stone recently found in Mongolia. It was
erected in 733 A. D. by a Turkish prince to his brother Kul Khan, the
substance being as follows: “I and my brother Kul Khan Tikine together
have agreed that the name and renown acquired by the Turkish people
through our father and uncle shall not be blotted out. For the sake of
the Turkish people I have not slept by night nor rested by day.... I
have given garments to the naked, I have enriched the poor, I have made
the few numerous, I have honored the virtuous.... By the aid of Heaven,
as I have gained much, the Turkish people also have gained much.”
Another bit of evidence as to their early political ideals is taken
from _The Art of Government_, a didactic poem describing Turkish
society in the eleventh century.[2] It says “Speak to the people with
kindness, but do not let them become familiar. Give them to eat and
drink;” and it urges the ruler to strive for the blessing of the poor
by such actions.
_The Art of Government_ brings out a third side of the medieval Turk,
his love of learning. The civil mandarins are placed in rank above
the beys.[3] “Honor always keeps company with knowledge.” “Mark well,
there are two kinds of noble persons; the one is the bey, the other the
scholar, in this world below ... the former with his glove or his fist
commands the people, the latter with his knowledge shows the path.”
Despite the development of the Turkish people from barbarous tribes
into a civilized state, the Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth century
was built on the lines indicated, and Sultan Suleiman showed similar
qualities and ideals to those possessed by Kul Khan and his brother.
Towards the end of the tenth century, a branch of the Turks, henceforth
known as the Turcomans, accepted Islam at the hands of the conquering
Arabs, and in course of time all of the Turkish peoples became Moslem.
Naturally through their religion the Arabs came to exert a strong
influence on the rude Turks, so strong that Turkish thought has
never since been wholly free from Arabic dominance. The Turks are an
exceedingly loyal people, accepting the religion imposed upon them with
whole‐heartedness. They are not by nature fanatical; on the contrary
they are temperamentally tolerant, fanaticism where it has existed
being an outgrowth of political conditions, or a foreign trait taken
over with Islam.[4] Rather oddly, and perhaps unfortunately, when
the Turks became literate they fell under Persian rather than Arabic
influence, and for centuries, indeed up to our own century, Turkish
literature has been little more than an imitation of the Persian, very
formal and rhetorical. Thus the two great forces engaged in moulding
the Turkish mind were Arabic theology and Persian poetry, the large
Arabic and Persian element in the Turkish language being a good
illustration of this.
In the twelfth century the Asiatic hordes pressing into Asia Minor came
into contact with the Greeks. But there was no intellectual reaction
between Greek and Turk.
The Seljouk kingdom rose and fell in Asia Minor; then the chieftain
Othman[5] stepped on its ruins and climbed to power. He and his
descendants gradually conquered the Greeks until Byzantium was theirs.
Ottoman conquests still continued, until a century, after the fall of
Constantinople Suleiman pushed his armies to the gates of Vienna and
marked the farthest point of the Turkish invasion of Europe. During
Suleiman’s reign Turkey not only dominated the Balkan Peninsula from
the Adriatic to the Black Sea and north to the Danube, but it also
greatly influenced the rest of Europe. There was not a court in Europe
that was not forced to reckon with Sultan Suleiman. So the career of
Ibrahim, his distinguished grand vizir, is not a mere romance; it is a
career which intimately affected the hopes and fears of Ferdinand of
Austria, Charles V of Spain, Francis I of France, and even Henry VIII
of England, as well as the Pope and the Venetian Signory.
At the height of their power the Turks were nevertheless still a simple
people. While western society has moved from complexity to greater
complexity, their society has preserved an unembarrassed simplicity.
They are loyal to state, religion, race, family, habit. Their religion
is rigidly monotheistic; their government (up to July 24, 1908) has
been the simplest possible monarchy, a personal despotism; they are
probably the most unaffectedly democratic people in the world; a man
is what his merit or his fortune has made him, with no regard to his
ancestry; they are unitarian in religion, government and society. In
morals the same simplicity prevails, with no torturing doubts and
few sophistries. Much that seems like a fairy tale to us is simple
unquestioning reality to them.
In this simplicity, this single‐mindedness, they are totally different
from the Arabs of the Khalifate, with whom they have been so much
associated in Western minds, but with whom they have no relationship
beyond that of a common religion. The Turks, I repeat, are a much
simpler as well as a more warlike people than any other Oriental nation.
The sources for the life of Ibrahim are classified naturally in three
groups: (1st) The Turkish histories and biographies, first and second
hand; (2nd) the accounts of European travelers and residents in
Constantinople, such as Mouradjia D’Ohsson, Busbequius, and the Venetian
baillies; and (3rd) the diplomatic correspondence and documents of
the time as found in such collections as Charrière’s _Négociations_,
Gévay’s _Urkunden und Actenstücke_, and Noradunghian’s and de Testa’s
_Recueils_. A student would also wish to consult the histories written
by foreigners, such as von Hammer, Zinkheisen and Jorga, whose sources
are found in the three classes of evidence cited above.
It is impossible to confine ourselves to the Turkish sources,
because of the notable omission of accounts of institutions, and
the total absence of description. Abdurrahman Sheref, the present
historiographer of Turkey, is the first Turkish writer of whom I
know, who devotes some chapters to general subjects such as “The
Provinces”, “Literature”, etc., in imitation of European histories. The
historians of Suleiman’s time were rather chroniclers, the Comines and
Froissarts of their day though with much less of petty and personal
detail. Therefore we must turn to Occidental observers for accounts
of the Turkish manner of life, their warfare and their government,
except where we can learn from Turkish law or poetry. But practically
all that the Ottomans have told us of themselves and of their rulers,
we may trust in a way we cannot trust Western evidence. Every one who
knows the East is aware how a report will pass through the bazaars
and into the interior of the country, or up the Nile for hundreds of
miles, with marvelous rapidity and more marvelous accuracy. Just as
the story‐teller repeats a tale as his remote ancestor first told it,
so do men hand down a tradition unembellished and unchanged. Turkish
tradition is an expression of the sincerity and simplemindedness of
the Turkish character. The Turks are neither sceptics, nor desirous of
deceiving, therefore they transmit an account as they have received it.
There are of course exceptions to this: Suleiman’s _Letters of Victory_
are overdrawn at times, and a legendary history of him has been
found,[6] written a century after his reign, in which the events of
his life are hard to discover amidst a mass of legend. But this last
case seems to have been a direct attempt to write an epic piece, and
is quite different from the clear, straight narrative of the ordinary
chronicler. The court chronicler’s embellishments consist mainly in
flowery phrases, such as “Sultan Suleiman Khan, whose glory reaches the
heavens, and who is the Sun of Valor and Heroism, and the Shadow of
God on Earth, may Allah keep his soul.” In other words, the style is
embellished but not the facts, the latter being related as uncritically
and directly as a child relates an event.
Sometimes the perspective seems to us very odd, since the emphasis
seems to be placed on the unimportant part of the narrative, but in
such cases we must seek in the Turkish mind for an explanation of why
that phase, unimportant to us, is to the Turkish writer and reader, of
importance. As an illustration of this, take the Turkish accounts of
Ibrahim’s Egyptian expedition. The _Sulimannameh_ and later histories
all give more space to the hardships of Ibrahim’s voyage to Egypt, and
to the honor paid him by the Sultan than to the organization of Egypt,
which occupied seven months. This seems, and doubtless is naïve, but we
can see from it what a great effort a sea expedition was to this inland
people, and also how above everything else in importance loomed the
favor of the monarch, by whom all subjects rose to power or fell into
disgrace. It further shows the stress laid on the lives of courtiers
and officials rather than on the ordering of a province, in which, of
course, it resembles all early histories.
For details in regard to the sources used for this study, the reader is
referred to the Bibliography.
CHAPTER I
IBRAHIM’S RISE
Ibrahim was a Christian of base extraction, the son of a Greek sailor
of Parga.[7] He was born in 1494.[8] In his childhood he was captured
by Turkish corsairs.[9] It would seem that he was first sold to a
widow of Magnesia, who clothed him well and had him well educated, and
especially trained to perform upon a musical instrument resembling the
violin, which he learned to play beautifully.[10]
Whether it was on one of his expeditions to Asia Minor that Suleiman,
son of the reigning monarch Selim I, met Ibrahim and was won by
his charm and his musical ability, or whether Ibrahim was taken to
Constantinople and there sold to the prince, cannot be determined from
conflicting reports, but the fact that Ibrahim became Suleiman’s
property is incontestable.[11]
Ibrahim never forgot his origin or his family. In 1527 his father
came to Constantinople to visit him, and later he had his mother and
his two brothers at the Palace.[12] He was able to help his father
substantially, giving him a _sandjak_ or governorship.[13] Of course
Ibrahim adopted Islam, else there were no story to tell, for a
Christian could have had no career in Turkey in that day.
Baudier says that the boy Ibrahim was carried to Constantinople by
“them which exact the tribute of Christian Children.” This tribute
of Christian children had been levied since the reign of Orkhan
(1326–1361) and was the material of which the redoubtable army of
janissaries was formed. These children, separated from their own
countries and their families, and practically always converted to
Islam, were for the most part trained in military camps and forbidden
to marry. Therefore they had no interest except in war, and no loyalty
except to the sultan. Thus they developed into the finest military
machine the world had known, the most perfect instrument for a
conqueror’s use, but a dangerous force in time of peace.
Sometimes the tribute children were bred for civil careers and not
placed in the corps of the janissaries. Prince Cantimir of Moldavia[14]
states that Ibrahim was a simple janissary of the 9th company. I have
been unable to find a source for this statement, but Ibrahim’s later
career as general of the Imperial forces would seem to imply a military
training. Von Hammer,[15] however, ascribes Cantimir’s statement to an
error, and gives Ibrahim a civil training.
Ibrahim’s first office was page to the heir apparent Suleiman. When
the latter came to the throne in 1520, he made Ibrahim Head Falconer,
and then raised him in rapid succession to the respective posts of
Khass‐oda‐Bashi, or Master of the Household, of Beylerbey of Roumelie,
Vizir, Grand Vizir, and finally Serasker, or general‐in‐chief of the
Imperial forces—a dazzlingly rapid promotion. Baudier tells a story in
this connection which might easily be true, being quite in character,
although it can not be verified. The story runs thus: “Ibrahim’s rapid
rise began to alarm him. The inconstancy of fortune, as exampled by
the fate of many of the great men of the Ottoman court, created in him
an apprehension of the great peril which attached to those favorites
who enjoyed the high dignities of the court, and served as a bridle
to restrain his desires. He besought Suleiman not to advance him so
high that his fall would be his ruin. He showed him that a modest
prosperity was safer than the greatness wherewith he would honor him;
that his services would be rewarded sufficiently if he received enough
to enable him to pass his days in rest and comfort. Suleiman commended
his modesty, but meaning to advance him to the chief dignities of the
empire, he swore that Ibrahim should not be put to death as long as
he reigned, no matter what other changes might be made in the court.”
“But” moralizes Baudier, “the condition of kings, which is human and
subject to change, and that of favorites, who are proud and unthankful,
shall cause Suleiman to fail of his promise and Ibrahim to lose his
faith and loyalty as we shall see”.[16]
A knowledge of the duties of these offices held by Ibrahim is essential
to an understanding of the Turkish court at which his life was
spent.[17] The personal servants of the sultan were divided into six
classes or “chambers”; the Body guard, the Guard of the treasury, the
Guard of the office, the Guard of the campaign, the Black eunuchs and
the White eunuchs. The Body guard, or personal attendants, included the
Master of the stirrup, the Master of the keys, the Chief water‐pourer,
the Chief coffee‐server, etcetera, to the number of thirty‐nine. The
first of these chambers was well furnished with attendants, mutes,
dwarfs, musicians, and pages; some of these pages were attached to the
personal service of high officials, whose pipes, coffee, or perfumes
they tended; they might also be attached to the service of the sultan.
Ibrahim seems to have been a page in the service of the _shahzadeh_ or
heir, Suleiman.
The heir to the throne after his thirteenth or fourteenth year had his
own palace separate from his father’s harem, in which he had thus far
been brought up. As soon as he showed sufficient promise he was sent
to some province, that he might have experience in governing. Thus
Suleiman, during the reign of his father Selim, was made governor of
Magnesia in Asia Minor, north of Smyrna, where he probably met Ibrahim,
a youth of his own age. The court of the _shahzadeh_ had the same
officials, with the same titles, as the Imperial court.
It was then in Suleiman’s court in Magnesia that Ibrahim held his
position as page. The pages in the sultan’s palace at Constantinople
attended schools especially designed to train them, and Ibrahim,
when he became grand vizir, founded one of the best of these schools
in Stamboul. Probably there were no such schools in the provinces,
but either in the palace, or earlier in the household of the widow of
Magnesia, Ibrahim obtained an excellent education.
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]
He also garbed in _caftans_[24] in the Imperial presence those whom
the sultan would thus honor. Another curious duty was the following:
whenever the sultan had his head shaved, and the personal attendants
stood in order before him; their hands crossed respectfully over
their girdles, the khass‐oda‐bashi placed himself several steps from
the sofa, on which the sultan sat, his right hand resting on a baton
chased with gold and silver. The white eunuchs lodged behind the third
gate of the palace, the Bab‐el‐saadet, or Gate of Felicity. D’Ohsson
states:[25] “The seraglio is their prison and their tomb; they are
never permitted to absent themselves. The white eunuchs have no other
prospect than the post of Commandant of the school of pages at Galata.”
It would seem that Ibrahim must have been a eunuch. Daniele Barbarigo
states it flatly[26] and the office of khass‐oda‐bashi, according to
D’Ohsson, was held only by eunuchs. Furthermore Solakzadeh speaks of
Ibrahim’s being called from the Imperial harem to the grand vizirate,
and all the officials of the harem were necessarily eunuchs. But to
Ibrahim the seraglio was neither a prison nor a tomb. He went freely
about the city, and his rise was not at all impeded by what generally
proved a fatal limitation. Other eunuchs have also overcome their
limitations, for D’Ohsson mentions four eunuchs, kizlar aghas, who
became grand vizirs. Another very distinguished eunuch, Ghazanber
Agha, a Hungarian prisoner‐of‐war, in childhood was educated as a page
in the serai, became a Mahommedan and, because Selim II, the son and
successor of Suleiman the Magnificent, wanted him about his person, he
voluntarily submitted to castration, in order to enter the corps of
white eunuchs. His office was capou agha (captain of the gate) which he
held for thirty years, and raised to a very great importance.
That Ibrahim married need not astonish us, for marriages arranged with
eunuchs by fathers of many daughters were not uncommon. Sometimes a
sultana was married to a eunuch for his fortune, in which case he
generally died soon after his marriage; sometimes no other suitable
husband being found for her, she was given to a eunuch of high rank.
In stories we occasionally read of a father who marries his daughter
to a eunuch as a punishment. Ibrahim probably married a sultana, which
curiously enough would be a more natural marriage than with a woman of
lower rank, for it has never been deemed advisable that the daughters
of sultans should have male children, and if such were born, they were
condemned to immediate death by the omission to knot the umbilical
cord. This measure became a law in the reign of Ahmed I,[27] with the
idea of saving the country from the civil war of rival princes of
the blood, but was probably a custom long before it was legalized.
Therefore Suleiman may have thought that the marriage of his relative
to a man of Ibrahim’s position, fortune, and charm, was a happy fate
for a princess who might not hope to be a mother.
We have seen that the fact that Ibrahim was a Greek, and a Christian
by birth, was no barrier to his rise, so long as he adopted Islam.
Many of the great officials of Turkey were of Christian extraction; as
for instance, the two men who succeeded Ibrahim Pasha as Grand Vizirs,
Rustem Pasha and Mehmet Sokolli, considered the greatest of Turkish
vizirs and both Croats by birth. Furthermore his humble family was no
obstacle, for in Turkey it has always been possible for a bootblack or
a grocer to rise to the highest position, if good fortune or marked
ability led him thither.
Ibrahim suffered from still another disability, as we in the Occident
would consider it: he was a slave. How did that affect his advancement?
To understand the position of a slave in Turkey in the fifteenth
century we must recognize at the outset the fact that Turkish slavery
was quite different from that of the Occident, and so approach the
subject free from our natural prejudice.
The only slavery sanctioned by Islam is that imposed on infidels as a
result of supposed inferiority of race and religion,[28] and has never
in fact included the _rayahs_ (Christian subjects) but only prisoners
of war. The _rayah_ might not be enslaved but neither might he hold
slaves, except in very rare instances before 1759, and not at all after
that date.[29]
There were two kinds of legal slaves, those made by capture in war, and
those by birth. Slaves by purchase, taken from Africa and the Caucasus,
were not recognized by law, but nevertheless such slavery existed.[30]
Brigands also seized foreigners from time to time and sold them as
slaves. Prisoners of war lost their civil liberty according to Islamic
law. The Prophet repeatedly enjoins their destruction.[31] According
to the Turkish code, the sovereign might perpetuate their captivity,
or free them to pay tribute, or cause them to be slaughtered, if more
expedient. The exceptions to this law were the cases of any orthodox
Moslems who might fall into Turkish power, and the case of the Tatars
of the Crimea, who were Shiites, or heretic Moslems, and who were
enslaved.[32]
Prisoners of war formed two classes of slaves, prisoners of the
state, and private slaves. To the first class belonged all soldiers
and officers, and a fifth of the rest of the slaves, or their value.
Of these some were exchanged or resold after the peace, others were
employed in the Serai or given away. Some were handed over to public
works, especially to the admiralty, where they were confounded with
criminals and condemned to hard labor. To the second class belonged
all the prisoners not given to the sultan, including those captured by
the soldiers. These were generally sold. Merchants would purchase them
in the camps, and sell them all over the Empire. These slaves taken
in war were far the greater number of slaves in the Empire; many were
enfranchised before they had children, and children of one free and one
slave parent were themselves born free. The adoption of Islam after
captivity did not free the slave.
The power of the master was absolute over the person, children and
property of his slaves. He might sell, give, or bequeath them, but he
might not kill them without some reason. As a corollary of this power,
the master had full responsibility for his slave; he must support him,
pay his debts, stand behind him in any civil affair, and give consent
to his holding of property. A slave might not act as a witness nor as a
guardian. He was entirely dependent on his master.
Thus far the theory is not unlike that of the West, but there were two
facts which changed the entire situation. The first was the brevity
of time of enslavement in most cases; the second was the absence of
odium attached to the position of a slave. In regard to the first fact,
it was not considered humane to keep persons long in slavery, and it
was a general rule to enfranchise them either before their marriage
or on their coming of age, or when they had served sufficiently long.
Enfranchisement is a voluntary and private act by which the patron
frees his slave from the bonds of servitude and puts him into the free
class.[33] It is also considered by the Turk to be a noble action,
one especially befitting a dying man, who often frees his slaves in
his testament. The enfranchisement of slaves was regarded by the
Moslem as the highest act of virtue.[34] A less disinterested form
of enfranchisement has a pecuniary inducement, the slave buying his
freedom from his master.[35]
Thus the slave never thought of himself as by nature servile, nor
always to be a slave, but could look forward to his freedom in a few
years more or less. This fact induced self‐respect and hope. The
slave’s dress did not in any way distinguish him from the free man; he
was in no way branded.
Sir Henry Bulwer said of white slavery in Turkey in 1850, “It greatly
resembles adoption, and the children often become the first dignitaries
of the Empire.”[36] This statement is confirmed by Fatma Alieh Hannum,
a living Turkish lady, who gives a most attractive picture of the home
care and affection given to slaves,[37] and my own observation of
slavery in Constantinople would bear her out. The condition described
by Bulwer would seem also to have obtained in the sixteenth century.
George Young in his _Corps de Droit Ottoman_[38] speaks of two systems
of slavery in Turkey, the Turkish system and the Circassian system,
which have been fused in our day, but of which only the former existed
in Ibrahim’s day, and in contrasting them he says: “The Turkish system
by its moderation scarcely went beyond the limits of apprenticeship,
and could be classed with the voluntary servitude that for a determined
time was permitted in some of the European colonies. While the
Circassian system fixed the slave forever in the servile class, the
Turkish system has always permitted and in some cases prescribed his
enfranchisement. Furthermore the social situation of a slave under the
Old Regime of the Empire favored his advancement even to the highest
office.... The Turkish system made a career of slavery.... Many slaves
by birth have played leading roles in the history of the Empire.”
The last statement admits of no argument, but the question how far
the Turkish system made a career of slavery, and how far slavery was
beneficent, demands further consideration.
Let us return to the classes of slaves spoken of above. Some, we saw,
were put into public works; these could have found no career in their
forced labor, although they might have bought or otherwise earned
their freedom, and then have made a career for themselves. Some were
owned by private individuals where they were given no opportunity to
rise, although life in a private house, as in the case of the widow of
Magnesia, might prepare a slave for a career. But the only slaves who
would naturally have an opportunity for a career were those who served
in the royal palace or in the house of some important officer. To them
slavery truly opened a career. We cannot perhaps agree with Mr. Young
that the Turkish system “made a career of slavery”, but it certainly
was no barrier to a career, and it even opened up such opportunities
as could not come otherwise to a Christian youth, nor indeed to most
Moslem youths.
The mild and even beneficent quality of Oriental slavery has been
maintained by many writers. Busbequius, writing from Constantinople in
Suleiman’s reign, commends Turkish slavery on economic grounds, and
then, moved by the contemplation of this fatherly system, bursts into a
defence of slavery in general.[39]
Robert Roberts in his monograph says that the condition of slaves in
modern Moslem lands is “not so bad”, and that the slavery he himself
saw in Morocco “is only formally to be distinguished from Christian
service”.[40] The Baron de Tott speaks of seeing Moslem slaves in 1785
“well fed, well clothed, and well treated,” and adds, “I am inclined
to doubt if those even who are homesick have in general much reason
to be satisfied with their ransom. It is possible in truth that the
slaves sold into the interior parts of the country, or to individuals
who purchase them on speculation, are not as happy as those who fall to
the lot of the sovereign or the grandee. We may presume, however, that
even the avarice of the master militates in their favor, for it must be
confessed that the Europeans are the only people who ill‐treat their
slaves, which arises no doubt from this cause,—that they constitute the
wealth of the Orientals, and that with us they are means of amassing
wealth. In the East they are the delight of the miser; with us they
are only the instrument of avarice.”[41] In interesting support of de
Tott’s idea that Oriental slaves might not care to be ransomed is the
fact that after the treaty of Carlowitz, when the Porte engaged to set
European prisoners at liberty for a ransom, and did attempt to do so,
there were a large number of captives who rejected their liberty and
their fatherland.[42]
Perhaps the chief explanation of the lack of distinction between
freeman and slave lay in the fact that the Turks had very little
conception of freedom, and the man legally free was practically almost
as bound as the slave. As we have seen in the introduction to this
study, loyalty and obedience were the two great virtues in the eyes of
the Turks, so that in the idea of service there was no degradation. All
who served the Crown were called _Kol_, or slaves of the Sultan, even
the grand vizir receiving this title, which was much more honorable
than that of _subject_, the kol being able to insult the subject with
impunity, while the latter could not injure a royal slave in the
slightest degree without subjecting himself to punishment.[43] Turkey
was a land of slaves with but one master, the sultan, even the brothers
and sons of the monarch being kept in durance for the greater part of
their lives. In the case of women, no practical distinction that we
should recognize existed between slave and free. The mother of the
sultan was always a slave, one of the sultan’s titles being “Son of a
Slave”. Most of the pashas were born of slave mothers, as the Turks had
more children by their slaves than by their wives.[44] Such conditions
rendered obviously impossible the sharp line which is drawn in the
West between the freeman and the despised slave, and placed the slave
potentially with the highest of the land. Slavery was certainly the
Greek Ibrahim’s opportunity. Slavery brought him into the court, placed
him before the sultan, educated him, gave him ambition, and finally
gratified it. When Ibrahim was freed, no one thinks it worth while
to record; certainly before his marriage, perhaps much before. But
evidently the moment when Suleiman said to him: “Thou art enfranchised,
thou art free”[45] was a moment not worth recording, so natural and
inevitable was his enfranchisement the moment that slavery ceased to be
the ladder of his advancement.
It is evident, then, that Ibrahim’s lowly birth, his Christian origin,
his experience as a slave, and his being a eunuch were none of them
barriers to a great career. What was there, on the other hand, to give
him such a career? His extraordinary ambition, his marked ability, and
above all his immense good‐fortune in falling into the hands of the
sultan and winning his affection, so that Suleiman was dominated by his
love for Ibrahim, and unable to resist any of his caprices;[46] these
were the prime factors in his extraordinary rise.
While still master of the household (khass‐oda‐bashi) he was often
spoken of as “Ibrahim the Magnificent” by the Venetian baillies.
Barbarigo relates that the serai was never so splendid as in the days
when the magnificent Ibrahim was oda‐bashi of the Grand Seigneur, and
also when he was grand chamberlain. As the title of “the Magnificent”
is that which Europe has accorded to Sultan Suleiman, a love of pomp
and display must have been one of the interests that he and his
ennobled slave had in common. But such showy qualities are hardly
suitable to a mere master of the household. Ibrahim had to be raised to
the rank of pasha.
A pasha was a sort of military governor, although the title might be
given as a mere title of nobility, and in any case was indefinite,
being determined by the particular office the pasha held. The pashas
were generally very proud and stately persons, with grave, leisurely
manners, and were always surrounded by a large number of pages and
other richly‐garbed domestics when they went abroad mounted on superb
steeds, banners and horse‐tails waving before them, and the people
paying homage. But their power was often very small, and their
income frequently quite inadequate to the state they were obliged to
maintain.[47]
The famous horse‐tail banner which distinguished a high official
originated in the following way: the banner of one of the old Turkish
princes having been lost in battle and with it the courage of his
soldiers, he severed with one blow a horse’s tail from its body and
fastening it to his lance cried, “Behold my banner! who loves me will
follow me!” The Turks rallied and saved the day.[48] The banner was
called the _Tugh_. Each sandjak bey was entitled to one horse‐tail,
being, as Europeans say “a pasha of one tail”; a beylerbey (literally
prince of princes or colonel of colonels) was entitled to two or three
tails; the grand vizir sported five horse‐tails, and before the Sultan
seven of these banners were carried.
In 1522 Ibrahim became Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizir, and Beylerbey of
Roumelie. Turkey has always been divided into Turkey in Europe, or
Roumelie or Roum,[49] and Turkey in Asia, or Anatolia. These two
divisions of the empire during Suleiman’s reign were each ruled by a
governor, or beylerbey, who had general charge of the sandjakbeys over
each sandjak[50] or province. The beylerbeys of Roumelie generally
resided at Monastir or Sofia, but here again Ibrahim seems to have been
an exception to the general rule and to have resided at Constantinople.
The office of vizir was a venerable one, its institution being
ascribed by some to the Prophet, who appointed as first vizir Ali, his
son‐in‐law and successor, and by others to the first Abasside, who
bestowed the title on his first minister. The duties of vizir in the
sixteenth century have been defined as follows:[51] “The vizir commands
all the armies, is the only one except the Grand Seigneur who has the
power of life and death throughout the whole extent of the Empire over
criminals, and can nominate, degrade, and execute all ministers and
agents of the sovereign authority. He promulgates all the new laws, and
causes them to be put in effect. He is the supreme head of the justice
that he administers, although with the aid and according to the opinion
of the Ulema, the legal body. In short, he represents his master to the
full extent of his dignity and temporal power, not only in the Empire,
but also with the Foreign States. But to the same degree that this
power is splendid and extensive, it is dangerous and precarious.”
Mourad I (1359–1389) was the first sultan of Turkey to name a vizir.
Mohammed the Conqueror thought the office concentrated too much power
in one person, and planned to abolish it, but instead left it vacant
for eight months.[52] Selim I, as strong a monarch as the Conqueror,
left vacant for nine months this office which almost rendered a sultan
unnecessary. But his son Suleiman soon after his accession put his
favorite Ibrahim into the highest office in a sultan’s gift, and kept
him there thirteen years. Probably with the idea of dividing the
immense power of this office, he increased the number of vizirs to
three and later to four. Of these one was known as the grand vizir
(Vizir Azam) and to him alone applies the description given above.
Ibrahim Pasha was at first the third vizir, the other two being Piri
Mustafa Pasha and Ahmed Pasha. There was always great jealousy among
the vizirs. Ahmed Pasha, anxious to rise to the first rank, accused
Piri Pasha of sedition and procured the latter’s downfall; but to his
inexpressible chagrin was himself passed over in favor of Ibrahim, who
was “told the good news of his appointment as grand vizir and brought
gladness and brilliance into the divan.”[53] Ahmed’s feeling was so
great and the consequent dissensions in the divan were so considerable,
that Suleiman sent Ahmed to Egypt as governor, leaving the field clear
for Ibrahim, who in his palace received at the hands of a noble of the
sultan’s service the imperial ring as a symbol of his new power.
The grand vizir lived in a palace modeled after the Sultan’s, having
under him the same class of officials and servants even to ministers of
state, and his household was conducted with great ceremony. Ibrahim’s
salary was increased over that of the preceding grand vizir from 16,000
to 25,000 piastres[54] but he obtained much more from the disposal of
public offices, and he also received enormous presents from those under
him, although this was balanced by the large gifts he had to make to
others. The property of a grand vizir was always confiscated at his
death, which was doubtless one reason why a sultan could afford to
lavish so much on a favorite minister, knowing that eventually it would
all return to the imperial coffers. Dress and style were very carefully
regulated in Turkey in the XVI century. The turban of the grand vizir,
his barge with twelve pairs of oars and a green awning, the five
horse‐tails that might be carried before him, all distinguished him
from lower officials. He had eight guards of honor, and twelve led
horses. When he appeared in public his hussars would cry aloud, “Peace
unto you and divine clemence”, while the other soldiers responded
in chorus, “May your fortunes be propitious; may Allah be your aid;
may the Almighty protect the days of our sovereign and the pasha,
our master; may they live long and happily.”[55] All of the public
officials except the sheik‐ul‐Islam received their offices from the
grand vizir, and were garbed in his presence with a caftan, or robe of
state. The grand vizir and the sheik‐ul‐Islam were the only officials
invested by the sultan himself and appointed for life.
The divan was the imperial council, consisting of the vizirs, the
defterdar, or secretary of finance, the nishanji who made out royal
firmans and berats, and the sheik‐ul‐Islam or head of Islam. It was a
council for discussion and wholly without power.
On the 22d day of May, 1524, the Sultan celebrated with great pomp the
marriage of Ibrahim Pasha. Who the bride was we cannot be certain, but
this is in accord with Turkish etiquette which strictly forbids all
mention of the harem,[56] and considers any public knowledge of woman
as an insult to her, thus depriving historians of desirable information
concerning such important political figures as Roxelana, who greatly
influenced Suleiman the Magnificent, Baffa the Venetian sultana, and
others. Von Hammer says that Ibrahim married a sister of Suleiman, but
I can find no proof of it.[57] A wedding in Turkey always includes
two distinct feasts, the one for the bride and her women friends, the
other for the groom and his men friends. Now‐a‐days the woman’s part
is ordinarily more important, but in Ibrahim’s time a wedding or a
circumcision was the occasion of a great public feast for the men.
Ibrahim Pasha, as we have seen, was always spoken of by the Venetians
as “Il Magnifico Ibrahim.” Perhaps since so much stress has been laid
by historians on the splendor of the court and the grand vizir, a
description of this great public marriage will not be out of order.[58]
The feast or series of feasts was held in the Hippodrome, a great
piazza being erected near Agia Sophia from which the sultan might view
all the proceedings. Here was set up the Blessed Throne of Felicity,
adorned with precious gold embroidery and rich velvets, while in the
Hippodrome below, artistic, vari‐colored tents were set up, and carpets
of gold thread were spread over the ground. Terraces and canopies and
pavilions for the nobles were raised above the ground, but below the
sultan’s terrace. Hangings of velvet and satin covered the grey walls
of the buildings surrounding the Hippodrome.[59] The second vizir, Ayas
Pasha, and the agha of the janissaries went to the palace to invite
the sultan to honor the feast by his presence. Suleiman received them
graciously, delivered a pompous eulogy upon Ibrahim, and made them rich
presents.
To the first banquet “all the world” was invited;[60] the seven that
followed were given to various branches of the army, there being very
splendid feasts to the janissaries, vizirs, beylerbeys and sandjakbeys.
To the first feast came Ayas Pasha and the agha of the janissaries,
escorted by a troop of slaves. When they reached Bab‐el‐Saadet, that
gate of the city leading from the Seraglio grounds to the space before
the Agia Sophia, they met the glorious sultan “whose throne is in the
heavens.” His escort bore scarlet banners and carried robes of honor
with which they garbed those who had come to meet them, and they led
also richly caparisoned steeds to present to Ayas Pasha and his two
followers, for which, says Solakzadeh, “there was limitless thanks.”
On the ninth day, the eve of that on which the bride would be brought
from the palace, Ayas Pasha and the other vizirs, and the defterdar,
and the agha of the janissaries sought the bridegroom and led him
through the streets of Stamboul in gorgeous procession. From the
Bab‐i‐Humayoun (The Sublime Porte) to the Hippodrome the streets “were
full of pleasure from end to end,” all hung with silks of Broussa and
velvets of Damascus, through which passed the ranks of the janissaries
and the vizir who thus honored Ibrahim Pasha.
Ibrahim was a lean, dark man, slight in stature and bearing himself
gracefully in his cloth‐of‐gold robes.[61] He was escorted by brilliant
officers on prancing steeds. There is no finer setting for a procession
than the grey streets of Stamboul under the vivid Southern sky. When
the procession approached the sultan’s throne, the dignitaries of the
state and the nobles of the Empire, approaching on foot over the richly
carpeted street, fell on their faces before his Majesty.
“This day they enjoyed riches and booty and sumptuousness without
end”. “Especially were the people charmed with the sounds of rejoicing
flutes and trumpets, whose music rose from earth to the first heaven”.
The wise ulema and sheiks were present on this occasion, the sultan
seating on his right the venerated Mufti Ali Djemali and on his left
the great hodja (teacher) of the princes, while other learned doctors
were arranged confronting the Imperial Majesty. The sultan presided
over a learned discussion of the verse from the Koran, “O David, I
will make thee Caliph in the world”, a sufficiently courtly text. The
meaning was discussed and questions were propounded and answered. After
this literary episode, knights‐at‐arms, wrestlers and other athletes
displayed their skill. Then a rich feast was served and Mehmet Chelebi
had the honor of presenting to the sultan sherbet in a priceless cup
cut from a single turquoise, a souvenir of Persian victories, and the
pride of the nation. Others drank their sherbet from goblets of china,
then a rare and valuable ware. Food was served to the sultan and the
ulema on silver trays,[62] and each of the guests took away with him a
tray of sweetmeats. From evening to morning fireworks and illuminations
lit up the city, and were reflected in the Bosphorus and Marmora. On
his return to the palace Suleiman was informed of the birth of a son,
who afterwards became Selim II.
The wedding was followed by several days of dancing, races, contests
of wrestlers and archers, as well as poetic contests in honor of the
newly‐wedded couple. Such was a public festival in the city of the
sultan in the days of the magnificent Suleiman. It reminds us of the
Field of the Cloth of Gold, whose splendor delighted the French and
the English in this same quarter century, the most striking difference
being the literary side which the Turkish festival possessed and the
European lacked.
Solakzadeh tells an interesting anecdote in connection with another
great feast, that of the circumcision of Suleiman’s three sons.[63]
This was also a very splendid function and Suleiman is said to have
asked Ibrahim in pride, whose feast had been the finer, Ibrahim’s or
that of his sons. Ibrahim replied: “There has never been a feast equal
to my wedding.” Suleiman, somewhat disconcerted, enquired how that was,
to which Ibrahim gave the following courtly answer: “O my Padisha, my
wedding was honored by the presence of Suleiman, Lord of the Age, firm
Rampart of Islam, Possessor of Mecca and Medina, Lord of Damascus and
Egypt, Caliph of the Lofty Threshold, and Lord of the Residence of the
Pleiades: but to your festival, who was there of equally exalted rank
who might come?” The padisha, greatly delighted, said, “A thousand
bravas to thee, Ibrahim, who hast explained it so satisfactorily.”
Of Ibrahim’s relations to the sultan a good deal has been said. He
was brought up in close contact with his master, eating and sleeping
with him. They often changed garments and Ibrahim told an Austrian
ambassador that the sultan never ordered garments for himself without
ordering the same for his favorite. The Venetians spoke of seeing the
two friends taking pleasure rides together in a cäique, and visiting
what shores they pleased.
Ibrahim was said to exert such an influence on the sultan that the
latter could deny him nothing, and from the time that he became grand
vizir, he almost took over the sovereignty of the land: as von Hammer
says, “from this time he divided the absolute power with Suleiman”. In
becoming grand vizir and presiding over the divan, Ibrahim occupied the
highest position open to any except a member of the imperial Ottoman
family. Here the romantic story of his rise merges into the account of
his public career, and this in its turn is a part of Turkish and South
European history.