Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha was the last member of the Çandarlı family, which supplied the Ottoman state with viziers and grand viziers for more than a century, to rise to the grand vizierate. To distinguish him from his grandfather of the same name, who served as grand vizier in the early years of Murad II, the sources call him "the Younger" or "II"; in the records of Amasya he usually appears as "Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Çelebi" or "Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Paşa". When his father Çandarlı Halil Pasha was executed immediately after the conquest of Istanbul, the family's standing was shaken, and for many years İbrahim Çelebi had to content himself with judgeships and posts in the learned hierarchy. Amasya was an important stage on the road that carried him back to the highest ranks of the state.

İbrahim Pasha's connection with Amasya goes back to the years when Şehzade Bayezid (Prince Bayezid), son of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and the future Bayezid II, was sanjak governor of the city. The sources record him as Bayezid's lala (tutor-guardian) in Amasya: the man who guided the young prince with his experience of government and ran his council and the affairs of the sanjak. Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi gives his duties in the city in even greater detail: first the judgeship of Amasya, then the post of the prince's chancellor (nişancı), then the lala's office, and after Bayezid II's accession, for a time, the post of lala to Prince Ahmed.

The Çandarlı Family and His Birth

The Çandarlı family had produced statesmen of learned background since the founding period of the Ottoman state. The line of viziers that began with Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha continued with his sons Ali Pasha and İbrahim Pasha and his grandson Halil Pasha; members of the family generally trained in the madrasa and passed through the ranks of judge and military judge (kazasker) before moving on to administrative office. For this reason the family is regarded in the Ottoman tradition of government as the symbol of the bridge between the learned hierarchy and the vizierate. Hüsameddin also wrote an article challenging the common view that the vizierate had been reserved for the Çandarlıs until the time of Mehmed II; in his opinion that view arose from the chain of viziers stretching from Hayreddin Halil Pasha to Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Pasha.

İbrahim was the younger son of Çandarlı Halil Pasha. He was born in Edirne in 833 (1429) or 834 (1430). Halil Pasha had six sons, named Ahmed, Yûsuf, Mehmed, Süleyman, Mustafa and İbrahim, and two daughters; some of them died in their father's lifetime. It is not known with whom İbrahim studied or what his first posts were. His name first appears in the sources as judge of Edirne, which shows that, in keeping with family tradition, he trained in the madrasa and entered the learned hierarchy. Tursun Bey writes that his face closely resembled his father's.

His Father's Execution and the Judgeship of Edirne

In the last years of Murad II's reign Çandarlı Halil Pasha was the most powerful man in the state. The young Mehmed II held a deep grudge against the grand vizier, believing that Halil Pasha had been the cause of his removal from the throne during his first reign. Halil Pasha's cautious attitude during the siege of Istanbul, shaped by fear of a crusading alliance, deepened this hostility. Immediately after the city fell on 29 May 1453, rumours that he had taken bribes and slanders spread against him were used as a pretext: on 30 May he was dismissed and arrested together with his children. The children were later released, but Halil Pasha was executed forty days afterwards. According to Hüsameddin, his brother Süleyman Çelebi was removed from the post of military judge at this time and his son İbrahim Çelebi from the judgeship of Edirne, and the family's property was confiscated. The confiscated property would be returned to his children in the reign of Bayezid II.

In 857 (1453) Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi of Amasya, tutor of Mehmed II, was appointed judge of Edirne in place of İbrahim Çelebi. This shows that after his family's disaster İbrahim's career suffered a brief interruption. That interruption, however, did not last long. İbrahim Çelebi, who lived in the Gazi Hoca quarter of Edirne, was reappointed judge of Edirne after a short period out of office; it appears that he served as judge of Edirne in 1453, in 1460-61 and in 1465. During his judgeship he built a mosque in the city together with a madrasa, a soup kitchen, a primary school, a retreat for dervishes and a fountain. His endowment deeds dated 859 (1455), 862 (1457-58), 866 (1461-62), 869 (1464-65) and 870 (1465-66) suggest that even after his father's death he had kept, or regained, part of the family's wealth.

Judge of Amasya

According to Hüsameddin's records, İbrahim Çelebi's first link with Amasya was formed as a judge, before he entered the prince's service. Hüsameddin relates that in 867 (1462-63), as complaints against the judge of Amasya, Muslihzâde Şemseddin Mehmed Çelebi, followed one another, "Tâceddin İbrahim Çelebi, former judge of Edirne, son of the vizier Halil Pasha of the Çandarlı family" was sent from Istanbul as judge of Amasya. Two years later, in 869 (1464-65), the former judge Muslihzâde Şemseddin Mehmed Efendi was restored to the judgeship of Amasya. This record shows that İbrahim Çelebi served for a time in Amasya between his terms as judge of Edirne. Taken together with the records of his Edirne judgeship in 1460-61 and 1465, it appears that in these years he moved between posts in the two cities; information about his judgeship in Amasya is found only in Hüsameddin.

In those years Amasya was the sanjak of Mehmed II's younger son, Prince Bayezid. Born in 851 (1448), Bayezid had been sent to the governorship of Amasya at the age of seven, and his first lala had been Ali Pasha. Many of the scholars and notables of Amasya held posts in the prince's council. İbrahim Çelebi, who came to the city as judge, thus became closely acquainted for the first time with the circle of the princely court.

Chancellor and Lala of Prince Bayezid

İbrahim Çelebi's entry into the service of Prince Bayezid is described with different details in the sources. According to his biography in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, after his judgeship of Edirne he became a military judge and in 1468 was appointed lala to Prince Bayezid, sanjak governor of Amasya. The encyclopedia's article on Bayezid II likewise records that the prince studied with Muarrifzâde and took calligraphy lessons from Sheikh Hamdullah, and that experienced statesmen such as Çandarlı İbrahim and Yahyâ Pasha were appointed his lalas. Hüsameddin, however, gives the transition in two stages: in 873 (1468-69) "the former judge Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Çelebi" drew close to the prince as his chancellor; in 875 (1470-71), when the prince's vizier and lala Kemal Pasha died, "Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Pasha, the prince's chancellor" became lala. Given that the year 873 began in July 1468, the difference between the two accounts is largely a matter of title: the encyclopedia counts the year İbrahim joined the prince as the start of his tenure as lala, while Hüsameddin sees two separate offices, first chancellor and then lala.

The framework Hüsameddin describes also shows the circumstances in which İbrahim became lala. In 870 (1465-66), when Hızır Pasha was retired, Kemal Pasha had come to Amasya as lala and "manager of the affairs of the province". In 875 the Akkoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan deceived the sanjak governor of Tokat, attacked Tokat and had the country around Sivas and Tokat plundered. According to Hüsameddin, Kemal Pasha, shaken by these events, died in Amasya; when the news reached Mehmed II the sultan was furious. Thereupon İbrahim, the prince's chancellor, became lala, Yörgüç Paşazâde Süleyman Pasha came to Amasya as guardian of the province, and Tâcî Bey, one of the poets of Amasya, was made chancellor. The encyclopedia's article on Bayezid II places the Akkoyunlu sack of Tokat in 1472; there is a discrepancy between this date and Hüsameddin's 875.

İbrahim Pasha's years as lala coincided with one of the liveliest periods of the Amasya court, both politically and in literature. Hüsameddin records that Selim I (Selim the Grim) was born in Amasya in this very year, 875. Prince Korkud had been born there a year earlier, and Prince Ahmed in 870. In the prince's gatherings there were poets such as Tâcî Bey and Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi and boon companions such as Müeyyedzâde Ali Çelebi. Mevlânâ Halîmî Çelebi was also among the scholars of Amasya who had entered the prince's private circle and won esteem there. The flight of Alâüddevle of the Dulkadir dynasty to the Ottomans and the Akkoyunlu threat kept the eastern border of the sanjak constantly on the alert.

The office of lala was not considered a post limited to the prince's education. The lala ran the prince's council, bore real responsibility for the administration of the sanjak and answered to Istanbul for the prince's conduct. Hüsameddin's records show that the office also gave rise to personal friction. According to the biographical volumes of Hüsameddin's work, Şâh Melik Bey, son of Şâh Melik Paşazâde Erdoğdu Bey of Amasya, had come to the city in the prince's retinue when Bayezid was appointed to Amasya, but because he fell out with Çandarlızâde İbrahim Pasha he was sent to another post. After Bayezid II's accession Şâh Melik Bey became sanjak governor of Filibe (Plovdiv), and in 890 he would return to Amasya in the retinue of Prince Ahmed.

The Otlukbeli Campaign and His Dismissal

When Mehmed II campaigned against Uzun Hasan in 1473, Prince Mustafa, sanjak governor of Kastamonu, and Prince Bayezid, sanjak governor of Amasya, joined their father's army at Kazova with their own troops. At the Battle of Otlukbeli Bayezid stood on the right wing. According to his biography in the TDV encyclopedia, in March 1473, during this campaign, İbrahim Pasha was serving as Bayezid's lala. After defeating Uzun Hasan and scattering his army, Mehmed II came to Amasya in the middle of Cemaziyelevvel 878 (October 1473) and stayed in the city for a month. Among the captives he brought with him were mirzas of Timurid descent; they were put in the dungeon of Amasya citadel.

The sultan's month-long stay in Amasya also brought İbrahim Pasha's tenure as lala to an end. According to Hüsameddin, "on Sultan Mehmed's arrival in Amasya, Lala İbrahim Pasha was dismissed", Fenârîzâde Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi, treasurer of the army, became lala, and Hızır Paşazâde Mahmud Pasha became the prince's vizier and companion. In the biographical volumes of Hüsameddin's work the event is told a little differently: while in Amasya, Mehmed II removed the prince's lala Çandarlızâde İbrahim Pasha from the vizierate and appointed Hızır Paşazâde Mahmud Pasha lala, and sent Mevlânâ Halîmî Çelebi, who had won esteem in the prince's circle, to the judgeship of Sivas. This difference over who became the new lala lies between Hüsameddin's own volumes; in both accounts it is clear that İbrahim Pasha was removed from office on Mehmed II's arrival in Amasya.

The reason for the dismissal is not stated plainly in the sources. Events in Amasya in the following years, however, show the sultan's concern about the prince's entourage. It is known that Bayezid fell out with his father because he used opium, that Mehmed II ordered the execution of Hızır Paşazâde Mahmud and Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman as the men who had led his son into the habit, and that Bayezid protected his companions and begged his father's pardon. According to Hüsameddin, a commission of inquiry was sent to Amasya in 882, and by an order received in 883 Mahmud Pasha was executed, while Tâcî Bey fled to Baghdad and Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman to Iran. İbrahim Pasha's term as lala fell before this turbulent period, in years when the princely court ran in comparatively good order.

Lala of Prince Ahmed

İbrahim's relationship with Amasya did not end with his dismissal in 1473. When Mehmed II died on 4 Rebiülevvel 886 (May 1481), Bayezid, summoned to the throne, left Amasya on 12 Rebiülevvel and left his eldest son, Prince Ahmed, as governor of Amasya. According to Hüsameddin, Prince Ahmed, born in Amasya in 870 to Bülbül Hatun, was given at this time "Halil Paşazâde İbrahim Pasha" as lala, Süleyman Pasha as guardian of Amasya and Hatîb Kâsım Efendi as tutor. Most of Bayezid's old officials in Amasya went to Istanbul with the new sultan or after him.

According to Hüsameddin, İbrahim Pasha's second posting in Amasya did not last long: early in 887 (early 1482) "Lala İbrahim Pasha" was summoned to Istanbul, and el-Hâc Sinan Beyzâde Abdullah Pasha became Prince Ahmed's lala and manager of his affairs. In the same year Tâcî Bey returned from Baghdad and became the prince's chancellor. This second tenure as lala in 1481-82 does not appear in the TDV article, which records the Anatolian military judgeship of 1483 as his first post after Bayezid's accession. If Hüsameddin's record is correct, İbrahim Pasha served as lala in Amasya to two generations of princes, first to Bayezid and then to his son Ahmed.

From Military Judge to Grand Vizier

Under Bayezid II İbrahim's rise quickened. In 1483, while military judge of Anatolia, he took part in the campaign against Kilia and Akkerman in July 1484. In 1485 he became military judge of Rumelia. Then, like his father and grandfathers, he left the learned hierarchy for administrative office: in February 1486 he was promoted to third vizier, and in February 1487 to second vizier. He was appointed administrator of the mosque complex Bayezid II built in Edirne; the management of this complex, whose foundation was laid on 26 Rebiülevvel 889 (23 April 1484) and which was completed in 1488, was a sign of the sultan's trust in his former lala. İbrahim Pasha remained second vizier until September 1498, when he became grand vizier in place of Damad Hersekzâde Ahmed Pasha. Thus, forty-five years after his father's execution, the Çandarlı family once more reached the grand vizierate.

His grand vizierate lasted about a year. In 1499 he set out with Bayezid II on the campaign against Venice at İnebahtı (Lepanto). He died in August 1499 during the siege of the fortress of İnebahtı. According to his biography in the TDV encyclopedia, he was buried there; the uninscribed grave shown in his father's tomb at İznik is thought to be a cenotaph made later. Some sources, however, state that he was buried at İznik. His date of death is given as 905 of the Hijra.

Charitable Works and Endowments

Like his father, İbrahim Pasha is remembered as a rich, generous, charitable, prudent and far-sighted vizier, and a man of learning. Among the books he endowed in Edirne were very valuable works on Qur'anic exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence, theology, Sufism, lexicography and literature. He founded various charitable works in Edirne, Istanbul, Bursa, Kastamonu and İznik. Besides the complex he built in Edirne during his judgeship, the bathhouse known as the "Kazasker Hamamı" there was also his.

His work in Istanbul is the mosque, madrasa and primary school he built in the Mercan district, near his mansion at the head of Uzunçarşı. The endowment deed of the complex was drawn up in Receb 899 (April 1494); the same deed also covers the mosque in İznik and the madrasa in Kastamonu. The inscription over the mosque door gives the start of construction in a chronogram as 898 (1493) and its completion as 900 (1494-95). Ayvansarâyî, however, dates the mosque to 883 (1478), the numerical value of the phrase "hayr-ı celîl"; this date does not agree with the inscription or the endowment records. Also known as the "Atik İbrahim Paşa Camii", the building was left with only its four walls standing after the Mercan fire of 1911 and was reopened for worship after repairs in 1965. No visible trace of its madrasa survives today. The complex's double bathhouse in the Mimar Ayas quarter was demolished in the 1940s when Atatürk Boulevard was opened. In the biographies Hüsameddin devotes to the scholars of Amasya, a professor is also recorded as having been appointed, after Malkara, to "the madrasa of Çandarlızâde İbrahim Pasha in Istanbul".

He had a school in Bursa, built in 1488; the endowments of his works in Istanbul and Bursa were regulated by deeds dated April 1494 and 1498. The covered market (bedesten) in the centre of Serez (Serres) was built by him around 899 (1493-94); this six-domed building is counted among the most impressive covered markets for its exterior architecture. He also enlarged with new endowments those of the mosque of his great-grandfather Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha in Serez. At the landing stage of Tekirdağ he built a large inn with forty-two rooms on its upper floor and fifteen storerooms and seventeen shops below. He also had his father Halil Pasha's remains moved to the tomb on Yeniçarşı Street in İznik.

No building or endowment in Amasya is known with certainty to have belonged to İbrahim Pasha. His trace in the city lives on less in architecture than in the records of the administration of the princely court and of the city's judgeship.

Family

İbrahim Pasha had four sons and three daughters by three wives. One of his wives was Hundi Hatun, daughter of Dayı Karaca Pasha; another was Hundi Hatun, daughter of Hızır Bey; and the third was Hanzâde Hanım Sultan, daughter of Selçuk Sultan, herself a daughter of Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed). This last marriage also linked the Çandarlı family to the Ottoman dynasty by kinship. For Şah Hûban Hatice Hatun, his daughter by the daughter of Dayı Karaca Pasha, he built a small mosque in Edirne near the soup kitchen of Bayezid I. His other wife Hundi Hatun also had a small mosque in Edirne with endowments attached to it. Some sources state that his sons Hüseyin and İsa held various posts under Selim I and Süleyman the Magnificent.

His Place in the History of Amasya

Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha has his place in the history of Amasya as a prince's lala. His tenure as lala coincided with the years when Bayezid was entering his twenties, when the Akkoyunlu danger was growing on the eastern side of the sanjak, and when the princely court shone as a centre of literature and learning. That the son of a vizier executed the day after the conquest of Istanbul should serve at the side of Mehmed II's son also shows that the Ottoman tradition of government did not entirely shut out the old learned families. Having served in Amasya as judge, chancellor and lala, İbrahim won Bayezid II's trust through the ties he formed in the city, and years later became the grand vizier of his former prince.

The sources differ in detail. The TDV encyclopedia places his appointment as lala in 1468, while Hüsameddin records first his chancellorship and then his appointment as lala in 875. His judgeship of Amasya and his tenure as Prince Ahmed's lala in 1481-82 appear only in Hüsameddin. Both sources, however, link the end of his tenure as lala to Mehmed II's visit to Amasya in 1473. The common ground is clear: Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha was Prince Bayezid's lala while Bayezid was sanjak governor of Amasya, and he still held that office in March 1473, during the Otlukbeli campaign.

Chronology

1429-1430: Born in Edirne in 833 or 834.

1453: His father Çandarlı Halil Pasha is dismissed and arrested on 30 May and executed forty days later; İbrahim Çelebi is removed from the judgeship of Edirne and shortly afterwards reappointed judge of Edirne.

1455-1466: The endowment deeds of his mosque, madrasa and soup kitchen in Edirne are drawn up.

1460-1461 and 1465: Serves as judge of Edirne.

1462-1463: According to Hüsameddin, comes from Istanbul as judge of Amasya in 867.

1468: According to the TDV encyclopedia, is appointed lala to Prince Bayezid; according to Hüsameddin, becomes the prince's chancellor in 873.

1470-1471: According to Hüsameddin, becomes the prince's lala in 875 on the death of Kemal Pasha.

1473: Serves as Bayezid's lala in March during the campaign against Uzun Hasan; is removed from office when Mehmed II arrives in Amasya in October.

1481: According to Hüsameddin, becomes lala to Prince Ahmed, governor of Amasya, at Bayezid II's accession.

1482: According to Hüsameddin, is summoned to Istanbul early in 887.

1483: Serves as military judge of Anatolia.

1484: Takes part in the campaign against Kilia and Akkerman in July.

1485: Becomes military judge of Rumelia.

1486: Becomes third vizier in February.

1487: Becomes second vizier in February; is appointed administrator of Bayezid II's complex in Edirne.

1493-1495: His mosque in Mercan, Istanbul, is built; the covered market of Serez is built in these years.

1494: The endowment deed for his works in Istanbul, İznik and Kastamonu is drawn up in April.

1498: Becomes grand vizier in September in place of Hersekzâde Ahmed Pasha.

1499: Dies in August during the siege of the fortress on the İnebahtı campaign.

Bibliography

The following sources were used in this article:

  • M. Münir Aktepe, "Çandarlı İbrâhim Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 8, Istanbul 1993 (via its text on KÜRE Ansiklopedi). kureansiklopedi.com
  • M. Münir Aktepe, "Çandarlı Halil Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 8, Istanbul 1993, pp. 212-213. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Şerafettin Turan, "Bayezid II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, Istanbul 1992, pp. 234-238. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
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  • Semavi Eyice, "Bedesten", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, Istanbul 1992, pp. 302-311. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Tekirdağ", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 40, pp. 359-364.
  • Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 3 (in the vols. 1-4 edition) and vols. 9-12, Amasya Municipality edition.
  • İ. Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Çandarlı Vezir Ailesi, Ankara 1986, pp. 100-108 (via the TDV articles).
  • Tursun Bey, Târîh-i Ebü'l-Feth, ed. Mertol Tulum, Istanbul 1977 (via the TDV article).
  • "Çandarlı Ibrahim Pasha the Younger", English Wikipedia (auxiliary source). en.wikipedia.org