Üveys Pasha (1512–1547) was an Ottoman governor, and an illegitimate son of

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

Background

According to the 16th century Ottoman historian Ali 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 the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...

was also aware of this. Üveys' mother was a

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

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

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 known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

tradition of Porphyrogenitos) Milliyet newspaper 20 November 2011
/ref> Suleiman I 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 (now capital of

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

), Üveys was appointed as the

beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' (, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords’, sometimes rendered governor-general) was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks and the I ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. In 1545, he was assigned to capture

Ta'izz Taiz () 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. As of 2023, the city has an estimated p ...

(a city in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

), in which he was successful.

Death

In 1547, a Marine named Pehlivan Hasan started a rebellion in Yemen. While trying to suppress the rebellion, Üveys was killed by the rebels.Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali Sevim: ''Türkiye tarihi Cilt II'', AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, İstanbul, 1991 p 295 According to Ali Mustafa Efendi, upon learning the death of his half brother Suleiman wept and said "he was my brother".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uveys Pasha 1512 births 1547 deaths Pashas 16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century governors of the Ottoman Empire Ottoman princes Illegitimate children of monarchs Year of birth unknown Sons of sultans Sons of caliphs