CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Dakic, Uros |
|---|---|
| Title | The Sokollu Family Clan and the Politics of Vizierial Households in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century |
| Summary | This thesis discusses the politics of vizierial households in the second half of the sixteenth century, an issue that has so far been seen mostly as a feature of the late seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire. This phenomenon is observed through the example of the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (r. 1565-1579), a Bosnian child of the devşirme, and his construction of political power through a network consisting of his family members to the extent that it provoked the reaction of the Ottoman sultan himself. While it is generally accepted that Sokollu Mehmed Pasha became a “virtual sultan” who ruled by appointing his relatives to various positions all around the empire, there is no study which exemplifies how his family clan operated in the political circumstances under three successive sultans: Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), Selim II (r. 1566-1574), and Murad III (r. 1574-1595). Although Sokollu Mehmed Pasha employed nepotism, he and his relatives were good at their job and they served the sultan well. With Sokollu Mehmed Pasha the evolution of the office of grand vizier reached a point that the accumulated power of the grand vizier challenged the supreme patron in the empire -- the Ottoman sultan. This thesis discloses the mechanisms Sokollu Mehmed Pasha employed to become an all-powerful vizier. With the accession of Murad III in 1574, some of the most important nodes of Sokollu network were removed one by one by the orders of the imperial center. After Sokollu Mehmed Pasha’s assassination in 1579, the office of the grand vizier was narrowed down to a mere formality and remained such for almost a century. |
| Supervisor | Tijana Krstic |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/dakic_uros.pdf |
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