Üveys Pasha (1512–1547) was an Ottoman Prince, son of

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...

(also known as ''the Grim'' or ''the Inflexible'').

Background

According to the 15th century Ottoman historian Âlî Mustafa Efendi, that Selim had a son born from an unnamed concubine during his early years, who was Üveys Pasha, and that his son Suleiman I was also aware of this. Üveys' mother was a

harem Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...

girl whose name is not known, but because of her undisciplined manners she was expelled from the harem. In Ottoman tradition, such girls were matched to a

bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

or to a well-to-do man. However, in her case she was already pregnant and Selim's son was born to a stepfather.

Professional life

Selim looked after his son and Üveys soon became a high-ranking bureaucrat of the empire. However, when Selim died in 1520, Üveys laid no claim to throne because of Ottoman tradition which states that princes born to a stepfather have no right to ascend to throne. (This principle was similar to

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

tradition of

Porphyrogenitos Traditionally, born in the purple (sometimes "born to the purple") was a category of members of royal families born during the reign of their parent. This notion was later loosely expanded to include all children born of prominent or high-ranking ...

) Milliyet newspaper 20 November 2011
/ref> Suleyman I (Later nicknamed ''the Magnificent'') ascended to throne and he was careful to keep Üveys at the far reaches of his vast empire. In 1535, soon after the capture of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

(now capital of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

), Üveys was appointed as the

beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' ( ota, بكلربكی, beylerbeyi, lit=bey of beys, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords') was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks ...

of Baghdad. In 1545, he was assigned to capture

Ta'izz Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...

( a city in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

) in which he was successful.

Death

In 1547, a marine soldier named Pehlivan Hasan started a rebellion in Yemen. While trying to suppress the rebellion, Üveys was killed by the rebels. (The rebellion was later suppressed by

Özdemir Pasha Özdemir Pasha (died 1561, Sana, Yemen Eyalet) was a Mamluk general for the Ottoman Empire, of Kumyk descent.''Mustafa Müftüoğlu.'' Yalan söyleyen tarih utansın!--. — Çile Yayınevi, 1981. — 384 с. He joined Hadım Süleyman Pasha's c ...

.)Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali Sevim: ''Türkiye tarihi Cilt II'', AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, İstanbul, 1991 p 295 According to Ottoman historian Ali Efendi, upon learning the death of his half brother Suleyman I wept and said "He was my brother"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uveys Pasha Ottoman dynasty 1512 births 1547 deaths Pashas 16th-century people of the Ottoman Empire Civil servants of the Ottoman Empire Sons of Ottoman sultans Illegitimate children of monarchs Year of birth unknown