Piri Mehmed | |
|---|---|
 Aminiature depicting Piri Mehmed Pasha in theSüleymannâme, c. 1558 | |
| 27thGrand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire | |
| In office 25 January 1518 – 27 June 1523 | |
| Monarchs | Selim I Suleiman I |
| Preceded by | Yunus Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1465 Manastir, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 1532 (aged 66–67) Silivri, Ottoman Empire |
Piri Mehmed Pasha (1465 – 1532Silivri) was anOttoman statesman,[1][2] andgrand vizier of theOttoman Empire from 1518 to 1523.[3]
Piri Mehmed Pasha was a grandchild of Cemaleddin Manastirli, one of the professors of ZinciriyeMedrese inManastir. He was born to Sheikh Cemâl-i Halvetî, also known as the Çelebi Khalifa. His father was thesheikh of Halvetiyye inAmasya and the founder of the Cemâliyya branch of the sect.[4][5] Matrilineally, he descended from Mevlana Hamazatuddin, buried in Larende (Karaman). Piri was educated in themadrasa of Amasya. He completed his studies inConstantinople. In 1491 he was employed as a clerk at the Amasya Court.[4] He was then promoted chief clerk due to his superior abilities. Upon Bayezid II's accession to the throne, he entered the state service and served as a judge inSofia,Silivri,Galata, and, in 1499,Seres. Then he became the trustee of IstanbulFatih Sultan Mehmed Imareti. In 1508, he became the Anatolian treasurer during the Beyazıt period.
Piri Mehmed Çelebi participated in the Çaldıran campaign as the chief treasurer. He made a name for himself fulfilling the food and range works. He won the appreciation ofSultan Selim with his words about attacking immediately without waiting in a war council. After the victory againstShah Ismail, he was tasked with the capture and protection ofTabriz. He was tasked with seizing Shah Ismail's treasury and property in the city. On October 15, 1514, he was appointed vizier. The post was vacated as a result of Mustafa Pasha's dismissal. His house was looted during the Janissary revolt in Amasya.[4]
Piri was dismissed from the viziership, however, he was reinstated on 22 August 1515. A few months later, however, he was dismissed again, along with the grand vizier. He was briefly imprisoned, but released the same day by the new grand vizier. He was thereupon appointed as the Istanbul guard and governor of thesedaret after Yavuz Sultan Selim's departure to Egypt with the Ottoman army in 1516. As guard of Istanbul, he solved the problems relating to the salary of the army in Egypt. Soon, he was also appointed Arab and Persiankazasker.[4]
After the conquest of Egypt, Yavuz Sultan Selim requested a navy fleet to bring food and ammunition from Istanbul to the Ottoman army in Egypt and to transport the booty from Egypt to Istanbul.[6] Piri Mehmed Pasha, who was the guard of Istanbul, equipped the fleet to be sent to Alexandria with great care. Even more ships than the number requested by the sultan were prepared inGalata andGallipoli. They were arranged as six cannon and five horse ships. But due to the severe winter at the beginning of 1517, this fleet left Istanbul only on March 26, 1517. Treasures and booty were loaded onto ships arriving in Alexandria, and this fleet arrived in Istanbul on July 15, 1517. All these works and efforts of Piri Mehmed Pasha were preparing him for the position of grand vizier in the eyes of Yavuz Sultan Selim.
Upon his return from the Egypt Campaign, Yavuz Sultan Selim hadYunus Pasha, who was the grand vizier, executed on September 13, 1517, with a sudden decision. Meanwhile, Piri Mehmed Pasha, who was in Istanbul, was urgently summoned toSyria. Piri Mehmed Pasha reached the camp inDamascus on January 24, 1518, and was appointed to the position of grand vizier the next day.
Upon the execution of the grand vizier Yunus Pasha on his return from Egypt, Piri was brought from Istanbul to meet the sultan in Damascus and appointed as thegrand vizier (January 1518). He kept his duty as grand vizier until the death of Yavuz Sultan Selim, and also served as grand vizier toSuleiman the Magnificent for nearly three years.[4]
While he was returning to the capital, Selim left Piri and a few soldiers inDiyarbekir region. While there, Piri tried to suppress the Iranian influence in the southern Anatolian area. He conquered regions in NorthernIraq, and made atahrir of the regions he conquered.[4]
With his personality and courage, he was favored by Yavuz Sultan Selim.[4] In thesiege of Belgrade, he gave an important contribution in the capture of the castle in August 1521.[4] He constantly persuaded the new sultan thatBelgrade should be conquered, and he advocated the view that its conquest should be given priority.[4]Ahmed Pasha (Hain, "Traitor"), his rival who would later have a role in Piri's dismissal, suggested taking firstŠabac, then cross theSava and strike Buda. Piri, on the other hand, argued that if they didn't capture Belgrade before attacking the Hungarian capitalBuda, the Hungarians could cut them off in their return to Belgrade. The sultan preferred Ahmed's plan, but at the same time permitted Piri to besiege Belgrade.[7] It was only thanks to his desperate attempt to convince the sultan to attack the closest valuable target that the Ottomans attacked Belgrade.[8][4] He was given about 1000janissaries, soon joined by a contingent from Anatolia.[9] The sultan conquered Šabac while Piri conquered theZemun Fortress and laid siege on Belgrade.[9] The sultan then ordered Piri to lift the siege in Belgrade and join the bulk of the army as he started to build a bridge to cross the Sava. However: Piri, who had taken Zemun and was besieging Belgrade with a smaller portion of the army, refused to lift the siege in Belgrade.Mustafa Ali complained that the sultan failed to congratulate Piri for Zemun, and sees Ahmed behind this decision; however, it is more likely that the sultan actually needed all forces for the attack on Buda.[9] Next, the attempt to cross the Sava was unsuccessful. The Sava flooded, so much as to make it impossible to cross the bridge to the other side. Fortunately, Piri had not given up on Belgrade, and the sultan informed him that they would soon join him. Together, they captured the city, which was definitely taken on 24 August. Whereas in Šabac the Turks slaughtered all the defenders, in Belgrade about 70 out of 700 defenders survived. Suleiman spared their lives. However, most of the Serbian inhabitants were deported to Constantinople.[7]
The next year, Piri insisted thatRhodes must be taken in the council convened about the conquest of Rhodes.[4][10] Piri,Çoban andKurtoğlu participated in the divan meetings,[11] and Piri urged the sultan to hurry to Rhodes.[12] He then joined the siege of the city with the sultan in theRhodes campaign.[4][13][additional citation(s) needed] He played an important role in the capture of Rhodes, but Ahmed Pasha put pressure on the sultan, and upon his return from the expedition an investigation started against him for allegedly receiving bribery.[4][additional citation(s) needed] He was found guilty by the Rumelian and Anatoliankazaskers, and it is said that Ahmed Pasha had to do with the verdict as well. One of thekazaskers, Fenarizade Muhyiddin Çelebi, is said to have supported Ahmed Pasha.[4][additional citation(s) needed]
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In order to become grand vizier, the Second Vizier Ahmet Pasha tried to persuade Suleiman to dismiss him, using the old age of Piri Mehmed Pasha as an excuse, and ultimately succeeded.
While the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was supposed to bring the second vizier, Ahmed Pasha, to the grand viziership, he appointedPargalı İbrahim Pasha as the grand vizier. After arriving in Egypt as thebeylerbeyi, Ahmet Pasha rebelled by gathering the Mameluke statesmen around him. He delivered a sermon declaring his independence and started printing money to establish a new state. However, two emirs attempted to kill him in his own bath, and shortly after he was captured and killed by Ottoman authorities. Ibrahim Pasha traveled south to Egypt in 1525 and reformed the Egyptian provincial civil and military administration system. He promulgated an edict, theKanunname, outlining his system.[14][15] Ibrahim Pasha then returned to Istanbul after a major administrative and financial reforms in the Egyptian province.
It is rumored that Piri Mehmed Pasha, who retreated to his farm inSilivri after retiring from the Grand Viziership, visited the palace very often and even had a good relationship with Suleiman. From this point of view, it is rumored that Pargalı İbrahim Pasha feared that his grand viziership would be taken back, and in 1532 he made an agreement with Mehmed Pasha's son, Mehmed Efendi, who poisoned his father.[4] He was buried in the tomb next to the mosque he had built in Silivri.
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Piri Mehmed Pasha is generally described as a good statesman. The fact that he was appointed grand vizier and served as such for a long time is witness to his abilities. He was educated in theilmiye, and yet displayed military skills, playing an important role in the Ottoman successes of the day. Further, he developed the navy, also building a shipyard of large dimensions. As a person interested inSufism, he helped the Sufists, especially in their struggle against theSafavid order. He was especially fond ofMevlevi andHalvetîs. Because he was a poet and a scholar, he helped in the development of those fields, protecting scholars and poets. Among those who benefited from his protection are:Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi,Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi and Sucudî Çelebi from Tetovo.[4]
Piri Mehmed Pasha had many charitable works built. There is a district bearing his name between Halıcıoğlu andHasköy on theGolden Horn inIstanbul. There are amasjid and a bath built by him in this district. Also in Istanbul areHalvetiTekke, Soğukkuyu Mosque andMadrasa inZeyrek, Terlikçiler Masjid in Mercan, Halvetî Zaviye, known as Körüklü Lodge, around Molla Gürânî Mosque, and a sibyan school in Camcı Ali district.
In Silivri, where he retired and died, he has acomplex consisting of amosque, soup kitchen (Imaret), school and madrasah, and his tomb is located here. There are also charitable works in many parts of the former Ottoman Empire. Among them a soup kitchen inBelgrade, a mosque, imaret and lodge inKonya, a school in Aksaray,zawiya andribat nearGülek Castle, a mosque and its complex inKosovo (Piri Nazir Mosque). He also financed many land and real estate foundations inAnatolia andRumelia.[16]
He was portrayed byAyberk Atilla in the 2003 seriesHürrem Sultan and byArif Erkin Güzelbeyoğlu in the 2011 seriesMuhteşem Yüzyıl.
During the reign of Yavuz and Kanuni, Piri Mehmet Pasha, who defended the need for the capture of Rhodes
Piri Mehmet Pasha, who was appointed as the vizier during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim, was found and participated in the Çaldıran campaign, the Belgrade campaign and the Rhodes campaign
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 25 January 1518 – 27 June 1523 | Succeeded by |
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