Çoban Mustafa Pasha

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Mustafa, the title is Pasha, and there is no family name.

Çoban Mustafa Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: چوبان مصطفى باشا, "Mustafa Pasha the Shepherd"; died 1529) was an Ottoman statesman. Likely born in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Serbian Sandzak,^[1] and collected through Devshirme to Janissaries, where he gradually rose through the ranks, he eventually served as kapıcıbaşı, vizier, and beylerbey for the Ottoman Empire during various parts of his life.

Skopje's Mustafa Pasha mosque

After serving as kapıcıbaşı ("chief gatekeeper") for some time, Mustafa was appointed a vizier in 1511 under Bayezid II, and finally beylerbey (governor) of the Egypt Eyalet (province) of the empire in 1522, serving for one year (1522–1523).^[2][3][4]

He was married to Hafize Hafsa Sultan, daughter of the then Sultan, Selim I possibly around 1519 when he was raised to the vizierate as the second vizier by Sultan Selim.^[5] He was the second husband of Hafize as her first husband, Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha had been executed in 1515 by her father. She most likely had died soon afterwards, as there are no further certain records of her existence and especially because Mustafa Pasha was then married to another daughter of Selim I, Şehzâde Sultan in 1523, at the same time when Şahihuban Sultan was married to Lütfi Pasha.^[6] With Şehzâde Sultan, he had at least one daughter, possibly named Ayşe Hanımsultan. Both Şehzâde Sultan and her daughter, who is unnamed were alive until at least 1556.^[7][8]

Mustafa Pasha participated in the Siege of Belgrade in 1521 and the Siege of Rhodes the next year, both of them decisive Ottoman victories under sultan Suleiman I. During the Siege of Rhodes, he was the Serdar-ı Ekrem (the rank given to viziers in battle).

Mustafa Pasha died around April 1529 on the way to the Siege of Vienna.

Legacy

Mustafa Pasha Bridge, Svilengrad

In 1492, Mustafa Pasha ordered to be built the mosque in Skopje which bears his name.^[9]

At some point, Mustafa Pasha had a bridge built in Svilengrad in southern Bulgaria, and it was named after him as Mustafa Pasha Bridge (now known as Old Bridge, Svilengrad).^[1]

Mustafa Pasha's mausoleum is in Gebze, Turkey,^[3] in a complex he had built himself and which was completed in 1522.^[2]

See also

• List of Ottoman governors of Egypt

External links

• 180+ pictures of the mosque in Gebze and its complex

Wide view of the entire length of the bridge over the Maritza