Koca Sinan Pasha

Koca Sinan Pasha
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office 1 December 1595 – 3 April 1596
Monarch	Mehmed III
Preceded by	Lala Mehmed Pasha
Succeeded by	Damat Ibrahim Pasha
In office 7 July 1595 – 19 November 1595
Monarch	Mehmed III
Preceded by	Ferhad Pasha
Succeeded by	Lala Mehmed Pasha
In office 28 January 1593 – 16 February 1595
Monarch	Murad III
Preceded by	Kanijeli Siyavuş Pasha
Succeeded by	Ferhad Pasha
In office 14 April 1589 – 1 August 1591
Monarch	Murad III
Preceded by	Kanijeli Siyavuş Pasha
Succeeded by	Ferhad Pasha
In office 7 August 1580 – 6 December 1582
Monarch	Murad III
Preceded by	Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha
Succeeded by	Kanijeli Siyavuş Pasha
Ottoman Governor of Egypt
In office 1571–1573
Preceded by	Çerkes Iskender Pasha
Succeeded by	Hüseyin Pasha Boljanić
In office 1567–1569
Preceded by	Mahmud Pasha
Succeeded by	Çerkes Iskender Pasha
Personal details
Born	1520 Topojan, Ottoman Empire (Modern Albania)
Died	3 April 1596 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (Modern Turkey)
Nationality	Ottoman
Ethnicity	Albanian

Koca Sinan Pasha (Turkish: Koca Sinan Paşa, "Sinan the Great"; 1506–3 April 1596) was an Ottoman grand vizier, Ottoman military figure, and statesman. From 1580 till his death he served five times as Grand Vizier.^[1]

Origin

Born in Topojan in the Luma region of the Sanjak of Prizren, Sinan was most likely of Albanian ethnicity.^[2] The villages around Topojan were ethnically mixed, probably with Slavic predominance (leading some Serb historians to claim a Serb origin), although Topojan had an Albanian majority.^[2] In a Ragusan document of 1571 listing members of the Ottoman Sultan's governing council, Sinan is described as having been a "Catholic Albanian" by origin.^[2] Documents from the late part of his life call his father Ali Bey, suggesting that Sinan was born a Muslim, however, it is more likely he came from a Catholic family, strongly suggested by the fact that the family had ties to the Giubizzas.^[2] After Sinan and his brothers rose in Ottoman ranks, they might have persuaded their father to convert.^[2] It should also be noted that Mustafa Ali of Gallipoli repeatedly criticized Sinan to have promoted an Albanian clique in the administration.^[3]

Career

Sinan Pasha was appointed governor of Ottoman Egypt in 1569, and was subsequently involved until 1571 in the conquest of Yemen, becoming known as Fātiḥ-i Yemen ("Victor of Yemen").^[4]

In 1580, Sinan commanded the army against the Safavids in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590), and was appointed grand vizier by Sultan Murad III. He was, however, disgraced and exiled in the following year, owing to the defeat of his lieutenant Mehmed Pasha, at Gori (during an attempt to provision the Ottoman garrison of Tbilisi).

He subsequently became governor of Damascus and, in 1589, after the great revolt of the Janissaries, was appointed grand vizier for the second time. He was involved in the competition for the throne in Wallachia between Mihnea Turcitul and Petru Cercel, and ultimately sided with the former (overseeing Petru's execution in March 1590). Another revolt of Janissaries led to his dismissal in 1591, but in 1593 he was again recalled to become grand vizier for the third time, and in the same year he commanded the Ottoman army in the Long War against the Habsburgs, he was faced with massive casualties on the northern front, which was weakened by the death of Bosnian commander Telli Hasan Pasha during the Battle of Sisak. In 1594 during the Uprising in Banat, he ordered for the relics (remains) of Saint Sava to be brought from Mileševa to Belgrade, where he then had them set on fire, in order to discourage the Serbs.

Sinan Pasha commanded the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Călugăreni (1595).

In spite of his victories he was again deposed in February 1595, shortly after the accession of Mehmed III, and banished to Malkara. In August, Sinan was in power again, called on to lead the expedition against Prince Michael the Brave of Wallachia. His defeat in the Battle of Călugăreni, the Battle of Giurgiu, and the series of unsuccessful confrontations with the Habsburgs (culminating in the devastating siege and fall of Ottoman-held Esztergom), brought him once more into disfavour, and he was deprived of the seal of office (19 November).

The death of his successor Lala Mehmed Pasha three days later caused Sinan to become grand vizier for the fifth time. He died suddenly in the spring of 1596, leaving behind a large fortune. Sinan Pasha is buried in Istanbul near the Grand Bazaar.^[4]

Legacy

Sinan Pasha became grand vizier five times between 1580 and his death in 1596. He had many rivals but he was also a very wealthy man.^[5] During his lifetime Sinan Pasha was criticized by Ottoman bureaucrats such as Mustafa Âlî who wrote that Sinan promoted Albanians into the Ottoman government and military.^[3] Contemporary Turkish historians also note that he remained close to his heritage and would give those of Albanian stock preference for high-level positions within the empire.^[4] In 1586, at his request, Sultan Murad III issued a decree exempting five villages in Luma from all taxes. Sinan Pasha constructed the fortress of Kaçanik in the Kosovo Vilayet with an imaret (soup kitchen), two hans (Inn), a hamam (Turkish bath) and a mosque that still bears his name.

In 1590, he had the Pearl Kiosk built above the seaward walls on the sea of Marmara.^[6] It served as Murad III's final residence before his death. One of his final projects in Constantinople was a külliye completed in from 1593 to 1594 by Davut Aga, the chief imperial architect of the time. It is distinguished by the complex masonry and decorations of its türbe and sebil.^[7]

He was a major builder of caravanserais, bridges, baths and mosques. These included the town of Kaçanik in Kosovo, important buildings in Thessalonika and Belgrade, as well as in Istanbul and other countries in the Arab world.^[8]

See also

• Sinan Pasha Mosque (Damascus)
• Sinan Pasha Mosque (Kačanik)
• List of Ottoman Grand Viziers
• List of Ottoman governors of Egypt

References

1. Andreas Tietze (1975), Mustafa Ali's Description of Cairo of 1599: text, transliteration, translation, notes, Forschungen zur islamischen Philologie und Kulturgeschichte (5), Verl. d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss., p. 75, ISBN 9783700101192, OCLC 2523612
2. Malcolm 2015, pp. 264–265.
3. Malcolm 2015, pp. 267–268.
4. Elsie 2012.
5. Fetvacı, Emine (2013). Picturing History at the Ottoman Court. 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978 0 253 00678 3. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
6. Freely 2011, p. 148
7. Freely 2011, p. 325
8. Miranda Vickers (28 January 2011). The Albanians: A Modern History. I.B.Tauris. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-0-85773-655-0.

Sources

• Elsie, Robert (2012). A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. I.B.Tauris. pp. 416–. ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3.
• Malcolm, Noel (2015). Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-century Mediterranean World. Oxford University Press. pp. 264–268. ISBN 978-0-19-026278-5.
• Freely, John (2011-03-15). History of Ottoman Architecture. WIT Press. ISBN 9781845645069. Retrieved 5 March 2013.

External links