Rüstem Pasha

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 19th/20th Century Ottoman diplomat, see Ahmet Rüstem Bey.

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Rüstem, the title is Pasha, and the family name is Opuković.
Hadım Süleyman Pasha
Succeeded byKara Ahmed Pasha
In office
29 September 1555 – 10 July 1561
MonarchSüleyman I
Preceded byKara Ahmed Pasha
Succeeded bySemiz Ali Pasha
Personal details
Bornc. 1505
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey)
Resting placeŞehzade Mosque
Spouse
​
(m. 1539)​
RelationsSinan Pasha (brother)
ChildrenAyşe Hümaşah Sultan
Sultanzade Osman Bey

Rüstem Pasha (Turkish pronunciation:

Grand Vizier to Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. Rüstem Pasha is also known as Damat Rüstem Pasha (the epithet damat meaning 'son-in-law' ) as a result of his marriage to the sultan's daughter, Mihrimah Sultan, in 1539. He is regarded as one of the most influential and successful grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire
.

Rustem Pasha was taken as a child to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), where he built a military and bureaucratic career under the protection of Hürrem Sultan, Süleyman's favorite and legal wife and Mihrimah's mother. His brother Sinan Pasha was an Ottoman grand admiral.

Early life

Rustem is referred to as a Bosniak by Tayib Osman-zade Ahmed, author of Hadikatul vuzara and the Turkish encyclopedia Kamus-ul-alam.

Mustafa Âlî, although other sources suggest different Croatian, Bosnian or Serbian birthplaces.[3] In a diplomatic contact with Antun Vrančić he called his maternal language as Croatian indicating his Croatian origin.[5][6]

Wherever he was born, Rustem Pasha was a man of very humble origins. He was forcibly recruited through the

Enderun, an institute for the education/indoctrination of talented boys. By the time they graduated, the boys were able to speak, read and write at least three languages, were able to understand the latest developments in science and finance and were able to excel in military leadership as well as in close combat skills. It was a perfect start for a career in the military
or officialdom.

An extremely ambitious man, Rüstem owed the success of his career to the support of

mirahur
accompanied the Sultan during his travels, so the Süleyman knew Rüstem for a long time before he appointed him - possibly inspired by Hürrem - to be tutor to his sons. In making this decision, he was surely influenced by Rüstem's character. Most historical sources describe Rüstem as a calm and reasonable man with a keen intellect, who always kept a cool head, and who was devoted to his ruler.

Political career

Rüstem Pasha was a

Diyarbakir. By the time he married Mihrimah Sultan, he was already a vizier. Süleyman the Magnificent appointed him grand vizier for the first time in 1544 but in 1553 he was dismissed, only to recover the position in 1555 and hold on to it until his death in 1561.[7]

As a diplomat, Rüstem initiated many trade agreements with European countries and India. His biggest success was the agreement, signed in 1547, with King

Safavids
, which, in 1544, ended the long-standing Ottoman-Safavid wars, and secured the eastern borders of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1536 Süleyman had his grand vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha executed for complicated reasons (for example, he used a seal saying 'Sultan Ibrahim' and retained most of the confiscated property of Süleyman's 'minister of finance' İskender Çelebi, whose execution he ordered, etc.). Ibrahim was replaced with Ayas Mehmed Pasha, followed in turn by Lütfi Pasha and Hadım Suleiman Pasha. Rüstem Pasha became Grand Vizier eight years after Ibrahim's death.

The death of Şehzade Mustafa

Later Hurrem and Rüstem conspired against the ambitious crown prince

Ottoman fleet during the Tripolis siege Rüstem's brother Sinan Pasha
faced much the same problem although he still won many victories before his death in 1553).

The intrigue continued. Mustafa's often-cited correspondence with the

Safavids signed 'Sultan Mustafa' (and kept today in the archives) may or may not have been relevant. It might have been authentic; it might have been a Safavid or a Hürrem-Rüstem deception, or it might have been Süleyman's attempt to calm down public opinion after Mustafa's death. Various reports describe Mustafa's death in the Ereğli
valley. According to one, Rüstem Pasha asked Mustafa to join his father's army and at the same time warned Süleyman that Mustafa was coming to kill him. According to another, it was Süleyman himself who summoned his son to Ereğli, and Mustafa came, "confident that the army would protect him".

Only Rüstem appears as the antagonist in all the versions. Even the report of the Austrian ambassador de Busbecq, who claims to have received an account from an eyewitness, had the same origin. Suspended and banished, Rüstem was fair game for taking the blame. No one dared to criticise the Sultan himself. Probably realising this, Süleyman recalled Rüstem to his post two years later.

Rüstem's scapegoating as the seemingly dominant figure in the 'conspiracy against Mustafa' radically changed public opinion. And so the Rüstem who had been extolled as the 'pillar of the Ottoman empire', as a brilliant economist and a sophisticated statesman was forgotten along with all his great projects and charitable foundations. Instead he became reviled as Rüstem the 'black heart, the murderer of the loved Prince Mustafa'. Rumours spread about his 'dirty' origin and about possible bribe-taking, and he was slurred as 'the louse of fortune'. Some foreign ambassadors like

Ghiselin de Busbecq or Bernardo Navagero
, repeated these slurs in their reports. However, Jean Chesneau, the secretary of the French ambassador, still wrote: 'The grand vizier is a man of humble origin, who, thanks to his talent and will, worked his way up from nothing. He is an agreeable companion, engaging your interest with his acute faculty of judgment, an insightful way of thinking and magnanimous manners. During the negotiations, he is calm and dispassionate, although in his views determined.'

Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey's elegy, the reports of ambassadors, administrative dossiers, foundation charters and some private documents like Hurrem's and Mihrimah's plea to Süleyman when Rüstem was expelled to Üsküdar, are the only contemporary sources reporting on Rüstem's life. They were also the basis of the oft-cited İbrāhīm Peçevī's work 'Tārīḫ-i Peçevī', published eighty years after Rüstem's death.

Marriage

Mihrimah Sultan was married to Rüstem, the governor of Diyarbakır, in 1539.[8] By then Rüstem was already a wealthy man and had, since 1538, a splendid career as Governor of Anatolia, one of the two most important administrative regions in the Ottoman Empire, and a post seen as a stepping-stone on the way to becoming Grand Vizier. Mihrimah already knew Rüstem for as the mentor of her brothers and the adviser of her father. After their marriage, he was nominated to the vizierate in November 1544.[9]

Rüstem supported Mihrimah's charitable foundations including the Mihrimah Sultan İskele Camii (

Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Üsküdar where her brother-in-law Sinan Pasha was buried in 1553). He was also Mihrimah's ally, particularly concerning political and financial decisions. His will offers evidence of his confidence in his wife. Rüstem and Mihrimah's had a daughter, Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan (1541-1598), was firstly married in 1557 to Semiz Ahmed Pasha
, and at least a son, Sultanzade Osman Bey (1546 - 1576).

Wealth and legacy

Rüstem Pasha Mosque

As Grand Vizier, Rüstem amassed vast wealth and he was the first Grand Vizier in the history of the

Hurrem Sultan's foundation and to Mihrimah's foundations, as well as what he left to his wife Mihrimah and to their daughter Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan
. In an act of faith in her abilities, he nominated his wife Mihrimah Sultan as executor of his will and his daughter as the executor and administrator of his foundations.

Most historians emphasise how hard Rüstem worked to consolidate and improve the troubled economy of the Ottoman Empire which had been impoverished by excessive spending on wars and the lavish lifestyle of the court. Contemporary documents say that he also financed this upswing from his own resources. Toll-free bridges, roads, covered bazaars, granaries, baths, hospices, caravanserais, convents, schools and various other establishments were built on his lands for the public benefit. Their funding was largely secured by the leasing of Rüstem's estates. He supported agriculture, founded new trading centres, like the bazaar in Sarajevo, and established silk factories in Bursa and Istanbul, and assorted social and educational institutions. He developed the domestic economy by encouraging major public works projects such as water distribution systems in Istanbul, Mecca and Jerusalem.

He also found enough money to finance the building of the

caftans
, 130 pieces of armours, 860 gold embroidered swords, 1500 silver tolga (helmets), 1000 silver balls, 33 precious jewels etc.

Death

Rüstem Pasha died of

Şehzade Mehmed) because his dream project, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque, had not yet been built. His tomb sits alongside that of Şehzade Mehmed.[10]

Rüstem Pasha Mosque

After her husband's death, Mihrimah completed his work including the construction of the eponymous Rüstem Pasha Mosque (Turkish: Rüstem Paşa Camii) which can be found in the Hasırcılar Çarşısı (Strawmat Weavers Market) in Tahtakale in the Fatih district of Istanbul. It was designed by the Ottoman imperial architect Mimar Sinan and built between 1561 and 1563. With its tiled interior and exterior, it is widely regarded as one of Sinan's most beautiful mosques.

Other buildings in Istanbul that bear the grand vizier's name are the Rüstem Paşa Medresesi (1550, another work of Mimar Sinan) in Çağaloğlu, and the Rüstem Paşa Han (1544-1550, also by Mimar Sinan) in Karaköy.[11]

Popular culture

In the acclaimed Turkish television series Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century), Rüstem Pasha is portrayed by actor Ozan Güven.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Lexicographical Institute Miroslav Krleža
    . 2020.
  2. ^ "RÜSTEM PAŞA - TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi". TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi.
  3. ^ a b Ahcil, Zahit (2015). "State and Government in the Mid-Sixteenth Century Ottoman Empire: The Grand Vizierates of Rustem Pasha (1544-1561)". University of Chicago / UMI Dissertation Publishing | ProQuest LLC. p. 16.
  4. ^ "Hamdija Kreševljaković, Veliki vezir Rustem-paša, Znakovi Vremena • Sarajevo • 2018" (PDF). www.ibn-sina.net. p. 47. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  5. ^ Tunjić, Andrija (21 November 2019). "Mario Grčević - Hrvatski studiji postat će fakultet već ove akademske godine". Vijenac (in Croatian). Zagreb: Matica hrvatska. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  6. ISBN 978-9752439061
    . On another occasion, Vrančić and Zay were able to talk with Rüstem Pasha more cordially because they started to talk in Croatian language. Croatian was Vrančić's mother tongue, while Zay had learned it. Croatian was Rüstem Pasha's mother tongue too, as it is believed that he was born in a Croatian family in the vicinity of the Croatian town of Skradin.29 29 Hammer-Purgstall, Historija, sv. 1, 465. Matković, „Putovanja po Balkanskom poluotoku", 3. Tardy, Beyond the Ottoman Empire, 174-175. ... So, while Vrančić during the conversation instructed the interpreter on what to respond to the Pasha, the Pasha turned around to Zay: "Do you speak Croatian?" he asked. "I do", he replied. "And your colleague?" He responded: "He does too." Then he asked where he and Vrančić are from. Zay replied that he was Hungarian, while Vrančić was Dalmatian. The Pasha was astonished by the fact that Zay speaks Croatian so well.
  7. ISBN 9780262140508
    .
  8. ^ "Notable life of Mihrimah Sultan". DailySabah. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  9. ISBN 9780199798797
    .
  10. ISBN 9789752307346
    .
  11. ISBN 9789752307346
    .

Bibliography

External links

Media related to Rüstem Pasha at Wikimedia Commons

Political offices
Preceded by
Hadım Süleyman Pasha
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire

28 November 1544 – 6 October 1553 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire

29 September 1555 – 10 July 1561 		Succeeded by
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