Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha

Hain Ahmed Pasha, appointed as the Ottoman governor of Egypt in 1523, and disappointed that he had not been made grand vizier and his rival Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha had been made in his place, declares himself the Sultan of Egypt and Egypt independent from the Ottoman Empire.

He strikes coins with his own face and name in January 1524 in order to legitimize his power and captures Cairo Citadel and the local Ottoman garrisons.

After surviving an assassination attempt in his bath by two emirs that he had previously sacked, however, he flees Cairo and is finally captured by the Ottoman Empire and executed by decapitation.

His rebellion created a short period of instability in the nascent Egypt Eyalet.

Ibrahim Pasha, a Greek born to Greek Orthodox Christian parents, in Parga, Epirus, northern Greece, at that time part of the Republic of Venice, is the son of a sailor in Parga, and as a child, had been carried off by pirates and sold as a slave to the Manisa Palace in western Anatolia, where Ottoman crown princes (şehzade) were being educated.

He had been befriended there by crown prince Suleiman, who was of the same age.

Ibrahim had received his education at the Ottoman court and become a polyglot and polymath.

Upon Suleiman's accession to the Ottoman throne in 1520, Ibrahim had been awarded various posts, the first being the Falconer of the Sultan.

Ibrahim had proved his skills in numerous diplomatic encounters and military campaigns, and had been so rapidly promoted that at one point he had begged Suleiman not to promote him too rapidly for fear of arousing the jealousy and enmity of the other viziers, who expected some of those titles for themselves.

Suleiman, pleased with Ibrahim's display of modesty, purportedly swore that he would never be put to death during his reign.

After being appointed grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha continues to receive other additional appointments and titles from the sultan (such as the title of Serasker), and his power in the Ottoman Empire has become almost as absolute as his master's.

Following the execution of his rival Hain Ahmed Pasha, the former governor of Egypt who had declared himself independent of the Ottoman Empir, Ibrahim Pasha travels south to Egypt in the following year and reforms the Egyptian provincial civil and military administration system.

He promulgates an edict, the Kanunname, outlining his system.

Ibrahim Pasha had married Suleiman's sister, Hatice Sultan, and is as such a bridegroom (Damat) to the Ottoman dynasty, but this title is not frequently used by historians in association with him, possibly in order not to confuse him with other grand viziers who were namesakes (Damat Ibrahim Pasha and Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha).

He is usually referred to as "Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha" or "Frenk (the European) Ibrahim Pasha" due to his tastes and manners.

Yet another name given to him by his later contemporaries is the purposefully oxymoronic "Makbul Maktul" (favorite and killed).

Ibrahim Pasha is appointed commander in chief of the Danubian campaigns of 1526.

Although the Ottoman Turks had postponed further attacks on Hungary, the country is too weak to rally its forces and is unprepared when the Turks resume their advance and seize Petrovaradin (Peterwardein) in July 1526.

…Kırşehir had revolted under the leadership of a former sipahi called Kalender Çelebi.

Their number has rapidly grown to thirty thousand.

With the news of the large scale of the rebellion, Suleiman sends the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha with the kapikulu forces mostly composed of Janissaries.

A major battle takes place on May 27, 1528 and the revolt is bloodily suppressed.

Vienna's population, as the Ottomans advance towards the city, organizes an ad-hoc resistance formed from local farmers, peasants and civilians determined to repel the inevitable attack.

The defenders are supported by a variety of European mercenaries, namely German Landsknecht pikemen and Spanish musketeers sent by Charles V. The Hofmeister of Austria, Wilhelm von Roggendorf, assumes charge of the defensive garrison, with operational command entrusted to a his brother-in-law, a seventy-year-old German mercenary named Nicholas, Count of Salm, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

Salm arrives in Vienna as head of the mercenary relief force and sets about fortifying the three-hundred-year-old walls surrounding St. Stephen's Cathedral, near which he establishes his headquarters.

To ensure the city can withstand a lengthy siege, he blocks the four city gates and reinforces the walls, which in some places are no more than six feet thick, and erects earthen bastions and an inner earthen rampart, leveling buildings where necessary to clear room for defenses.

The Ottoman army that arrives in late September has been somewhat depleted during the long advance into Austrian territory, leaving Suleiman short of camels and heavy artillery.

Many of his troops arrive at Vienna in a poor state of health after the tribulations of a long march through the thick of the European wet season and of those fit to fight, a third are light cavalry, or Sipahis, ill-suited for siege warfare.

Three richly dressed Austrian prisoners are dispatched as emissaries by the Sultan to negotiate the city's surrender; Salm sends three richly dressed Muslims back without a response.

The Ottoman army settles into position as the Austrian garrison launches sorties to disrupt the digging and mining of tunnels below the city's walls by Ottoman sappers, and in one case almost capturing Ibrahim Pasha.

The defending forces detect and successfully detonate several mines intended to bring down the city's walls, subsequently dispatching eight thousand men on October 6, to attack the Ottoman mining operations, destroying many of the tunnels, but sustaining serious losses when the confined spaces hinder their retreat into the city.

The Count of Salm is wounded by a falling rock, and will die a few months later from his wounds.

More rain falls on October 11, and with the Ottomans failing to make any breaches in the walls, the prospects for victory begin to fade rapidly.

In addition, Suleiman is facing critical shortages of supplies such as food and water, while casualties, sickness, and desertions begin taking a toll on his army's ranks.

The janissaries begin voicing their displeasure at the progression of events, demanding a decision on whether to remain or abandon the siege.

The Sultan convenes an official council on October 12 to deliberate the matter.

It is decided to attempt one final, major assault on Vienna, an "all or nothing" gamble.

Extra rewards are offered to the troops.

However, this assault is also beaten back as, once again, the arquebuses and long pikes of the defenders prevail.

Unseasonably heavy snowfall makes conditions go from bad to worse.

The Ottoman retreat turns into a disaster with much of the baggage and artillery abandoned or lost in rough conditions, as are many prisoners.

Vienna thus stands as the principal European bulwark against further Muslim advance.

Under the existing conditions of supply, transport, and military organization, the Ottomans have reached the limit of their possible expansion in the West; the winter base that supports this expansion must be maintained in Constantinople because of the constant threat of military action against the Safavids in the East.

The siege of Vienna, however, has secured Süleyman's rule of Hungary and will prevent Ferdinand from launching a new attack against the territories ruled by Zápolya.

Zápolya has meanwhile returned to rule from Buda, and Ferdinand offers Süleyman tribute in exchange for all of Hungary.

The sultan, humiliated and angered, makes no reply.

The shah of Safavid Persia, Tahmasp I, has become active in the eastern borders of the Ottoman Empire.

Suleyman, preoccupied with affairs in the East and convinced that Austria is not to be overcome at one stroke, grants a truce to archduke Ferdinand in 1533.

Ibrahim Pasa, vested with full powers, represents the sultan in negotiations with the Holy Roman emperor Charles V over the Hungarian question; these negotiations establish most of Hungary as tributary to the Ottomans and confirm the extraordinary powers of the grand vizier.

Ferdinand is to be considered as the King of Germany, and Charles V as the King of Spain, and they are equal to the Grand Vizier of Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, they are banned to count anyone as 'Emperor' except the Ottoman Emperor.

By the peace of 1533, signed in Constantinople, Ferdinand abandons his claims to central Hungary and recognizes Zápolya's rule there as Ottoman vassal, while Süleyman agrees to accept Ferdinand as ruler of northern Hungary in return for the payment of an annual tribute of thirty thousand guldens.

Ibrahim Pasha, commanding the Ottoman army at the outbreak of war with Safavid Persia, occupies Van and …

…Tabriz in August 1534, establishing a new Ottoman province at Erzurum, then…