Ishak Pasha Explained

Ishak
Honorific-Suffix:	Pasha
Office1:	15th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
Term Start1:	1469
Term End1:	1472
Monarch1:	Mehmed II
Predecessor1:	Rum Mehmed Pasha
Successor1:	Mahmud Pasha Angelovic
Term Start2:	1481
Term End2:	1482
Monarch2:	Bayezid II
Predecessor2:	Karamanlı Mehmet Pasha
Successor2:	Koca Davud Pasha
Death Date:	30 January 1487
Death Place:	Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire
Nationality:	Ottoman
Spouse:	Hatice Hatun
Allegiance:	Ottoman Empire

Ishak Pasha (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: إسحق پاشا, Turkish: İshak Paşa; 1444 – died 30 January 1487) was an Ottoman general, statesman, and later Grand Vizier of Albanian or Greek origins.^[1]

Origin

Turkish orientalist Halil Inalcik believed that the figure of Ishak Pasha stemmed from the confusion between several Ottoman Ishak Pashas (particularly Ishak bin Abdullah and Ishak bin Ibrahim) and Ishak Bey, but according to him Ishak Pasha was Greek or of Croatian origins.^[2] According to German orientalist Franz Babinger (1891–1967) he was a convert of Orthodox Albanian or Greek origin. Jean-Claude Faveyrial reveals that Ishak Pasha was Albanian.^[3]

Career

In circa 1451, Ishak Pasha was appointed as the beylerbey (provincial governor) of Anatolia; the same year, the newly ascended Sultan Mehmed II forced him to marry Hatice Hatun, one of his father Sultan Murad II's widows consorts. They had eight children, five sons named Halil Bey, Şadi Bey, Mustafa Çelebi, Piri Çelebi and Ibrahim Bey, and three daughters named Hafsa Hatun, Fahrünnisa Hatun and Şahzade Hatun.^{[4] [5] [6]}

His first term as a Grand Vizier was during the reign of Mehmed II. During this term, he transferred Oghuz Turk people from their Anatolian city of Aksaray to newly conquered Constantinople in order to populate the city, which had lost a portion of its former population prior to the 1453 conquest. The quarter of the city where the migrants were settled is now called Aksaray.^[7]

His second term was during the reign of Sultan Bayezid II. He died on 30 January 1487 in Thessaloniki.^[6]

In popular culture

• Alev Elmas played Ishak Pasha in the 1951 film, İstanbul'un Fethi.^[8]
• Ishak Pasha is referenced in the 2011 video game , as the former Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood in the Ottoman Empire, in which his armor was hidden underneath the Hagia Sophia, and is later recovered by the protagonist Ezio Auditore da Firenze by collecting his Memoir Pages scattered around Constantinople.^{[9] [10]} Assassin's Creed Rebellion, a free-to-play mobile game, further details his story during the Spanish Inquisition as he and his apprentice Yusuf Tazim search for Niccolo Polo's journal in 1495 (which contradicts historical records of Ishak Pasha's death in 1487).
• Yılmaz Babatürk portrayed Ishak Pasha in the 2012 film, Fetih 1453.

See also

• Ishak Pasha Palace
• List of Ottoman grand viziers

Further reading

• Danişmend, İsmail Hâmi (1961), Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, İstanbul:Türkiye Yayınevi.
• Tektaş, Nazım (2002), Sadrazamlar-Osmanlı'da İkinci Adam Saltanatı, İstanbul:Çatı Kitapları.

Notes and References

1. Book: Radushev, Evg . Svetlana . Ivanova . Svetlana Ivanova . Rumen . Kovachev . 228 . Inventory of Ottoman Turkish documents about Waqf preserved in the Oriental Department at the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library . Narodna biblioteka "Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodiĭ" . 2003 . 9789545230721 .
2. Book: Stavrides, Théoharis . The Sultan of Vezirs: The Life and Times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha Angelović (1453-1474) . 2001 . . 978-90-04-12106-5 . 64 . There is considerable confusion regarding Ishak Pasha [...] Ishak Pasha was of Greek or Croatian origins.
3. Book: Faveyrial, Jean-Claude . Jean-Claude Faveyrial . 215 . Histoire de l'Albanie . House of the Lazarite Missionaries in Paris . 1888 . fr . https://web.archive.org/web/20141223182000/http://www.albanianhistory.net/pdf/FaveyrialHistoireAlbanie.pdf . 23 December 2014 . Robert . Elsie . Robert Elsie . 23 May 2015 . dead .
4. Book: Freely, John . John Freely . The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople, Master of an Empire and Lord of Two Seas . . February 28, 2009 . 978-0-857-73022-0 . 288.
5. Book: Thatcher, Bruce D. . Adamant Aggressors: How to Recognize and Deal with Them . . 25 June 2011 . 978-1-462-89195-5 . 353.
6. Web site: İSHAK PAŞA KÜLLİYESİ: İnegöl'de XV. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında inşa edilen bir külliye.. İslam Ansiklopedisi. 9 June 2019.
7. Book: Buz, Ayhan . Osmanlı Sadrazamları . Neden Kitap . İstanbul . 2009 . 978-975-254-278-5 . 22.
8. Book: Yüksel, Ahmet . İnsan Bilimleri İçin Kaynak Araştırmaları Dergisi . Kebikeç: Insan Bilimleri Için Kaynak Araştırmaları Dergisi . 2009 . Tanyer . Turan . 251–290 . Türk Sinemasında Tarihsel Filmler ve Bir Şair, İki Yönetmen . 1300-2864 . https://kebikecdergi.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/15_turantanyer.pdf.
9. Assassin's Creed Revelations Data Fragments and Ishak Pasha's Memoir Pages guide . Reparaz . Mikel . 12 April 2017 . 27 April 2018 . . Future Publishing Limited Quay House.
10. Web site: Ishak Pasha's Memoir Pages . 28 February 2012 . 27 April 2018 . . Ziff Davis, LLC.