Tayyar Mehmed Pasha (died 24 December 1638) was an
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
Ottoman grand vizier
Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
. His epithet ''Tayyar'' means "flying", referring to his speed in military operations.
Early years
Mehmet was born to Uçar Mustafa Pasha in
Ladik, near the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
. He worked under
Nasuh Pasha
Nasuh Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of Albanian origin. He was grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 5 August 1611 until 17 October 1614.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish) He was fr ...
as his ''
kethüda
( ota, كدخدا), often corrupted to or in daily speech, was an Ottoman Turkish title meaning "steward, deputy, lieutenant". It derives from the Persian word ("master of a household", later "chieftain, headman").
The term originated in med ...
'' (chamberlain). After the death of
Osman II, he joined the
rebellious forces of
Abaza Mehmet
Abaza Mehmed Pasha ( tr, Abaza Mehmed Paşa, ab, Меҳмеҭ Росҭом-иԥа Лакырба, ма Кыржәаа); 1576 – August 23, 1634) was a statesman and military commander of the Ottoman Empire, the namesake of the Abaza rebellion. ...
, but during the battle of Kayseri in 1624, he changed sides
[ Joseph von Hammer: Geschichte der osmanischen Dichtkunst Vol II (translation: Mehmet Ata) Milliyet yayınları, p 184 and 221.] and 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 ...
(high governor) of
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
(in modern southeast
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
).
As grand vizier
During the campaign of sultan
Murat IV for
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 ...
(see
Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639)), he was tasked with guarding
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...
. But when
Bayram Pasha, then grand vizier, died on the way to Baghdad, the sultan appointed Tayyar Mehmed Pasha as the new grand vizier.
The siege of Baghdad took more than 40 days. The impatient sultan reprehended the Pasha, who was directing the siege cautiously to minimize losses. After this incident, Tayyar Mehmet Pasha decided for a general attack and personally took part in the fighting on 24 December 1638 in the
capture of Baghdad. Although the attack was successful, Tayyar Mehmet Pasha was killed during the fighting. The sultan expressed his sorrow, saying ''"O Tayyar, You are worth one hundred castles
itieslike Baghdad." '' Following
Hadım Ali Pasha
Hadım Ali Pasha (Turkish: ''Hadım Ali Paşa''; died July 1511), also known as Atik Ali Pasha (Turkish: ''Atik Ali Paşa''), was an Ottoman statesman and eunuch (''hadım'' means "eunuch" in Turkish) of Bosnian origin. He served as governor of ...
in 1511 and
Hadım Sinan Pasha in 1517, Tayyar Mehmet Pasha was the third Ottoman grand vizier to be killed in battle.
His father had also been killed during a siege of Baghdad in 1625.
Historian İlber Ortaylı's essay on Milliyet newspaper
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehmed Pasha, Tayyar
People from Lâdik
Pashas
17th-century Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire
1638 deaths
Ottoman military personnel killed in action
Year of birth unknown
Ottoman people of the Ottoman–Persian Wars