Ibrahim Pasha (died 24 September 1604) was an Ottoman statesman who served shortly as the governor of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in 1604 before he was murdered by mutinying sepahi soldiers of the

Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

. He also served as defterdar (finance minister) of the Ottoman Empire four times (1582–83, 1587–88, 1593–94, 1596).

Background

Ibrahim Pasha appears to have lived in

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

in his early life and been a

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

and a follower of the ascetic Muslim mystic

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

. As such, he was sometimes known by the epithet "

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

" by historians. He was also a

kadı A kadi (, ) was an official in the Ottoman Empire. In Arabic, the term () typically refers to judges who preside over matters in accordance with sharia Islamic law; under Ottoman rule, however, the kadi also became a crucial part of the imperi ...

(judge) at some point in his life prior to becoming the four-time defterdar of the empire and governor of Egypt.

Tenure as the governor of Egypt

In 1604, sultan

Ahmed I Ahmed I ( '; ; 18 April 1590 – 22 November 1617) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. Ahmed's reign is noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no ...

appointed Ibrahim Pasha as the governor of Egypt, Egypt then being the seat of the

Egypt Eyalet Ottoman Egypt was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517. The Ottomans administered Egypt as a Eyalet, province (''eyalet'') of their empir ...

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. His office's title was beylerbey, while governors of a province in general was referred to as a wāli. Since the

Ottoman conquest of Egypt Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire 1299–1922 ** Ottoman dynasty, ruling family of the Ottoman Em ...

and their subjugation in 1517,

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

s in Egypt had been silently pushing for more influence in Egypt; they often attempted this by trying to influence the garrisoned Ottoman soldiers over the Ottoman governor. After Ibrahim Pasha was appointed governor in 1604, he began to enforce more stringent rules for the soldiers, especially those from the

sipahi The ''sipahi'' ( , ) were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Ottoman Empire. ''Sipahi'' units included the land grant–holding ('' timar'') provincial ''timarli sipahi'', which constituted most of the arm ...

corps (an elite cavalry corps of the

), putting some of them to death. Allegedly, Ibrahim Pasha had one such soldier from the

fellah A fellah ( ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a local peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller". Due to a con ...

(Arabic-speaking) class of the local Mamluk populace put to death by hanging and had his body draped in a sirwal (Arabic baggy trousers), which was something both the local sepahis and the Mamluks wore, in order to send a message of his distaste for both groups; furthermore, the body was then allegedly placed in a jar to symbolize the slave class the two groups belonged to. Another source states that tensions rose when Ibrahim Pasha refused to pay a briberous "accession tax" to the local sepahis for coming into the office of the governor of Egypt. Sipahis, in further corruption, self-enacted an illegal tax known as the ''tulba'' on the people of the Egyptian countryside, claiming that the tax was for "facilitating police duties." When Ibrahim Pasha cracked down on this practice and refused to buy into the system, tensions between Ibrahim Pasha, the sipahis, the Mamluks, and the general army grew to enormous levels.

Murder

Tensions came to a head on 24 September 1604, only a few months after Ibrahim Pasha had assumed office. The pasha, along with many armed companions, left the governor's citadel in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

in order to open a dyke or a waterwheel in either the

Shubra Shubra (, ; also written Shoubra or Shobra) is a district of Cairo, Egypt and it is one of eight districts that make up the Northern Area. Administratively it used to cover the entire area of the three districts of Shubra, Rod El Farag, and El Sa ...

or the

Bulaq Boulaq ( from "guard, customs post"), is a district of Cairo, in Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile. History The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land available on its eastern si ...

district of the city. Around this time, a number of soldiers in his army gathered at the City of the Dead necropolis and took an oath on the saints' tombs to assassinate the pasha. Although warned of the rebels' intentions, Ibrahim Pasha refused to move away or escape from the project to which he was attending. In the presence of several beys and military officials standing by, 15 rebel cavalry soldiers approached Ibrahim Pasha and killed him with their swords. Ibrahim Pasha thus became the first governor of the Ottoman Empire to be killed by his own troops, earning the posthumous epithet ''Maktul'', meaning "the Slain". After murdering the pasha, the rebel soldiers displayed his and some of his men's heads publicly, parading them through the streets and then placing them on the gate of Bab Zuweila, where criminals' remains were normally displayed, allegedly crying, "This is due to eserved bythose who cause strife in the Sultan's army." The chief ''

'' (judge) in the eyalet became acting governor until the sultan could appoint a new one.

Legacy

Ibrahim Pasha's death caused a period of instability and distress in Egypt, and stability was only restored around 7 or 8 years later when the governor Kara Mehmed Pasha finally crushed the rebellion, earning his epithet ''Kul Kıran'' ("the Slavebreaker").

Notes

References