The Marriage of Ibraim Pasha: An Episode at the Court of Sultan Murad Iii., 1586

TOWARDS the close of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire had begun to show signs of declension. In the year 1574, the Sultan, Selim the Drunkard, died, and was succeeded by his son, Murad III. The new Sultan’s person, his physical condition, his character, and his habits are described, with some slight variations, by the representatives of foreign powers at the Porte. The picture is not a pleasant one. “ The Sultan is of medium height,” says Ungnad, the imperial ambassador, “ not stout; his body flaccid; his eyes languid and protruding, covered by enormous eyebrows. He wears a long, straggling reddish beard.” His thinness is attributed to an abuse of opium, or, as Knolles reported, of absinthe, and to his intemperance in other matters, which rendered him subject to the falling sickness, or epilepsy. He was twenty-eight years old, but had the air of a professor rather than of a general. He was something of a poet, and was passionately fond of mechanical toys, such as clocks and watches which showed the movements of the celestial bodies. He loved to pass his days in a garden, entertained by conjurers, mimes, buffoons. At sunset he would rise and retire to the harem, saying, “Thanks be to God who has allowed me to get through another day not so badly.” A man very different from his father, the brutal but vigorous Selim.

At his accession to the throne, Murad found one minister, the Grand Vizir Sokolli, who was able to maintain the dignity of the Ottoman Empire, and to prevent its inherent weakness from becoming too patent to the world. But Sokolli’s influence waned ; Murad’s favorites succeeded in ousting the great statesman, and his place was taken by the cultivated but corrupt Scemsi Pasha. Scemsi claimed descent from the family of Kizil Ahmedlü, and vaunted a lineage more noble than that of the reigning family. An interesting anecdote, which illustrates the manners of the period and the bitterness of family feud, is narrated by the historian Aali. Aali one day found himself in Scemsi’s house when the favorite had just left the Sultan. Scemsi was radiant with pleasure, and, turning to his major-domo, he said, “ At last I have avenged the royal line of Kizil Ahmedlü on the Osmanlis; their doom is fixed.” “How is that?” said the major-domo. “ I have persuaded the Sultan to accept a bribe. His example will spread, and will ruin the state.” Whereupon Aali, who was standing by, broke in, “Your Excellency is a worthy descendant of your ancestor Caled Ben Welid, who, as the story tells us, bribed his way to the presence of the Calif, and so began the seduction of Islam ; ” to which Scemsi, in confusion, replied, “Ah, Aali, you know much.” The course of the episode we are relating, the marriage of Ibraim Pasha to the Sultan Murad’s daughter, will prove how right both Scemsi and Aali were in their observations.

Perhaps nothing about the court of Murad is more surprising than the fact, abundantly illustrated by the Venetian ambassador’s dispatches, that almost all the persons of importance were either renegade Christians or Jews. To begin with, the favorite and powerful Sultana Ssaffije (the Pure) was a lady of the Venetian family of Baffo, whose father had been governor of Corfu, from which island she was stolen when quite a child, and placed in the harem of Murad. Among the Vizirs, we find Sokolli, the Grand Vizir, was a Bosnian ; Viale, a Hungarian ; the Captain of the Sea, the famous Mage or Occhiali, a Calabrian ; the chief of the Janizaries, a very important post, the Genoese Ciedla.

The Jews did not occupy so prominent a place at court, though their back-stair influence was very great. Hardly any business was transacted without their interposition ; in all diplomatic negotiations, we find Jews acting as intermediaries, sounding the ground and promising bribes. No ambassador of a Christian power dreamed of carrying on his diplomatic transactions without the assistance of a Jew : Benveniste, for example, acted for the king of Spain and for the Venetian republic, David Passi for the English agent, Angeli for the Swiss. One of the most important personages at the Porte was the Jew Salomon Eschinasi. All ambassadors found it necessary to make presents to Chieraggia, the Jewess, purveyor-general to the Sultan’s harem.

Various reasons contributed, to confer upon the Jews this exceptional position. First of all, they were not Christians, and their presence did not defile. They were doctors, and in the exercise of their profession they had ready access to the great officers of state. They were money-lenders and jewelers, and the Turks, in their love for precious stones, were obliged to have frequent recourse to the Jews. They were astronomers, and the more superstitious Turks applied to them for information about the future ; we hear of an observatory sunk down at the bottom of a deep well, so as to allow of the diurnal observation of the stars. But, above all, the Jews displayed that pliant and insinuating servility which is so characteristic of their race. On a great occasion of state, such as the circumcision of the Sultan’s eldest son, the Jew did not refuse to take part in ribald comedies, and submitted to play buffoon to the assembly.

Among the many foreigners who rose to prominence upon the accession of Murad III. was the renegade Christian, Ibraim. He was a Slav by birth; his native city was Kanischa, near Ragusa. While still a lad he had been presented to the Sultan Selim by one of the Pashas. Selim placed Ibraim in the harem, and caused him to be educated with his own son, the future Sultan Murad, to whom he was attached as servant. To the intimate relations thus formed between Murad and Ibraim the latter owed his subsequent advance. When Murad ascended the throne, Ibraim was made a Pasha, and was sent as governor to Cairo.

Ibraim was then thirty-seven years old ; of medium height, with a dark complexion, a brown beard, bright eyes, and a quick intelligence. He possessed grace of manner and charm of speech. He was, however, extremely ambitious, and, as he saw his ambitions realized, he developed a haughtiness of bearing which, as the Venetian ambassador declared, made it impossible to transact business with him.

Ibraim’s appointment to Cairo gave him the opportunity for amassing wealth, which he knew to be indispensable at the Porte, especially for those no longer young. Egypt was an enormously rich storehouse to plunder. At the accession of Murad, the governor was the eunuch Mesih Pasha ; he was merely cruel, not rapacious. But his successor, Hassan Pasha, owed his downfall to the excessive wealth which he had wrung out. of the suffering province. He labored for others, however. A sudden order from Constantinople recalled him. He obeyed, leaving his treasure behind him. and on his arrival at the capital he was confined in the Seven Towers. Ibraim received the vacant appointment. No sooner had he reached Cairo than he took possession of Hassan’s treasure, and so industrious was he in pursuit of wealth that, when an order of the Sultan recalled him to the capital, a year and a half later, he returned to Constantinople with fabulous riches.

Ibraim was commissioned by Murad to reduce the Druses, on his way home to Constantinople. He did so partly by treachery and partly by superior force. To render his return more triumphant he sent on before him four hundred heads, all of which he said were those of Druses slain in battle, though fears were expressed at Constantinople that some of these ghastly trophies were the heads, not of Druses, but of Ibraim’s own Turkish troops, many of whom fell before the hardy mountaineers. So far all had prospered with Ibraim. On his return to Constantinople, he began to employ his riches in the recognized way, by making presents to the Sultan ; among others, we hear of a rich jeweled throne, and one great emerald in the rough, so large that eight flat emeralds about the size of an eyeglass were cut from it. But whether the result of these presents was that which Ibraim desired is more than doubtful; for, a very few days after his return home, the Sultan sent to inform Ibraim that he had resolved to give him his daughter in marriage, and that the wedding festival should be held “ in the time of the roses,” the month of May.

This was a great honor, no doubt, but a dubious satisfaction. It was impossible to decline to marry the Sultan’s daughter ; and yet her rank was so exalted that her husband could no longer enjoy the same freedom in his domestic arrangements as that possessed by less favored Turks. Not merely were the more exotic pleasures of the seraglio denied him, but he was compelled to a monogamic existence, upon pain of his fortune, perhaps of his very life. If the honored subject could succeed in retaining the Sultan’s favor, there were compensations for these drawbacks. Thanks to his near connection with the Calif, he was supposed to possess great influence, and became the recipient of large sums of money, presented to him for favors demanded.

When Ibraim received the message of the Sultan, nothing remained for him but to obey, and to begin the preparations for his marriage. He presented gifts to those who brought him the news, and proceeded at once to kiss the Sultan’s hand. His next step was to choose his best man and best woman, — his compadre and commadre. His choice fell on the Captain of the Sea, and on Gianfeda, the governess of the Sultan’s harem. It was no slight burden to be chosen best man on such an occasion as this. The presents were costly. Those of the Captain of the Sea to Ibraim Pasha consisted of two complete palaces : one in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, which had once belonged to another Ibraim Pasha, favorite of Suleiman the Great; the other among gardens upon the Bosphorus, which was to serve as a villeggiatura for the newly married couple. The palace in the Hippodrome was not considered fine enough for the Sultan’s daughter, and the best man undertook to make it suitable at his own expense. The seraglio, as it then stood, was built upon vaulted arches springing from three rows of columns which had belonged to some building of the late empire. In the middle of the seraglio were the women’s apartments, with gardens, courtyards, loggias, baths, and fountains. In the centre of one of the gardens, and quite surrounded by fountains, was a chamber entirely inlaid with precious marbles. But, beautiful as these apartments were in their decoration, they were too dark for the modern taste, and somewhat melancholy. The Captain of the Sea accordingly constructed an apartment especially for the use of the bride. It consisted of a saloon adorned with mosaics like majolica. Next to this was a vaulted chamber in mosaics and gold, and frescoed in part; in thiss chamber was a fountain. Behind the vaulted chamber came a toilet closet decorated in gold, and out of that opened a bath. All round the new apartment ran a covered loggia, fully protected from the sun and the heat. This was the present from the best man to the bridegroom. Meantime, the Sultan had given to his daughter all the jewels which belonged to the Sultana, her mother, and two beautiful ponies trapped in gold and jewels, which were to take her from the seraglio of her father to that of her husband.

Ibraim, too, was busy. He had sent to all the embassies to ask the ambassadors to supply him with pheasants, partridges, hares, and other game. The Venetian and French representatives excused themselves on the ground that they were foreigners, and did not know how to get any game even for themselves. The English ambassador not only provided game and sent it, but added a vast quantity of fowls.

The ceremonies which were to lead up to the wedding began on the 15th of May. On that day, the Sultana mother, the bride, and all the women of the Sultan’s harem passed from the new seraglio on the water to the old seraglio in the city. There they found the other Sultanas, the sisters and relations of the Sultan, and the wives of the Pashas and great officers of state. All these ladies began an eight days’ revelry, which was kept up day and night. Female slaves danced and sang. The ladies lay on couches, drinking sherbet. No men were allowed near the place except the black eunuchs who kept watch at the doors. The day after the ladies arrived at the old seraglio, the Pashas and other ministers of the Porte made their presents to the bride. The next day, the best man, the Captain of the Sea, having prepared all his presents in several small houses near the seraglio, went there early in the morning, attended by upwards of three hundred horsemen and a like number of foot. He then headed the procession which conveyed his gifts to the bride. These presents were vast in size and quantity, and required hundreds of sailors to carry them. They consisted of fifty life-size figures of animals made of sugar ; a great castle, also of sugar; five bowls filled with necklaces of gold, jeweled slippers, crowns, girdles, earrings, all richly jeweled; five bales of cloth of gold and of silk ; one packet of henna, which these ladies use to dye their hands, feet, and other parts of the body, for greater beauty; lastly, four parcels of comfits. All these gifts were consigned to the black eunuchs at the door of the seraglio, to be presented to the bride.

The next day was the turn of the best woman, the commadre. She walked first, followed by the captain of the Janizaries, the Captain of the Sea, and all the ministers of state; behind them came the music and the crowd of shouters, and then the presents. These consisted of a huge machine of silver gilt, studded with turquoise let into it in various patterns. This machine was twenty yards high, and from one and a half to two yards wide; it was covered with flowers and plants wrought in gold, silver, and colored silks ; it required a large number of men to carry it, and was valued at twenty thousand sequins. After the big machine came eight smaller ones, of similar construction, eight horses laden with bales of silk and cloth of gold, and five bales of that kind of cloth which is used by Turkish ladies to hang on each side of the landing-stages which lead from their caïques to their houses or gardens, to shut out inquisitive gazers. When the bride had received all her presents, her father, the Sultan, came in state to inspect them, and to assure himself that they were worthy of his daughter’s acceptance.

So far, the father, the best man, and the best woman had all done their part. It was Ibraim’s turn now. On the 18th he began a series of banquets at his own house. His first guests were the Emirs of the Green Toque, relations of the Prophet. The following day he received all the priests, preachers, doctors of law, and divines. The Sultan’s secretary on behalf of his Majesty, and the Captain of the Sea on behalf of Ibraim, were both present on this occasion, and drew up the marriage contract. The dowry was fixed at three hundred thousand ducats. After dinner Ibraim held a reception, and received the congratulations of all the nobles of the Porte. After this ceremony was concluded, accompanied by all who had attended his levee, he went to the old seraglio to receive the presents and the dowry of the bride and to take them to his own house. A the end of this procession came a coach hung round with crimson brocade, so that it was impossible to see who was inside; but it was supposed to contain the governess of the harem, the best woman, whose suite consisted of fifty waiting-women, who were conveyed in fifty closely draped coaches, each one with a black eunuch on horseback as guard. It was the duty of these women to prepare the chamber and the couch for the newly wedded couple. On the return journey to the seraglio of Ibraim, one hundred female slaves riding astride, and all of them richly dressed in brocade, followed the fifty coaches, and scattered money among the crowd. Each horse was led by a slave, and the whole band was escorted by fifty handsome black eunuchs on horseback. After the slave women came a gold-bound Koran carried on a golden desk studded with jewels ; then six silver candelabra with lighted torches, a crystal box full of gems, and many other caskets of jewels ; then the bride’s bed. made of silver gilt, and carried in several pieces, to be put together, and bedquilts and coverlids of gold brocade embroidered with pearls; then a cook with a whole sheep spitted on a spit; then kitchen utensils in silver ; then one hundred and twenty-five mules laden with boxes of precious stones, silver, gold, cushions, carpets, curtains ; and, to wind up, all the common kitchen and scullery utensils, piled up anyhow. By the time this long procession of household furniture reached the seraglio of Ibraim, the fifty waiting-women, under the direction of the governess of the harem, were ready to receive it, and in a short time the rooms of the bride, the kitchen, and the rest of the house were in order.

Besides the big machine already described, which was presented to the bride by the governess of the harem, the Captain of the Sea had prepared two others of even greater size. They were made in the shape of a pyramid, and on the top of each was a huge candle. They were carried on the shoulders of a great number of men, whose movements were regulated by the whistle of a boatswain who stood at the foot of the pyramid. As these huge and cumbersome erections were carried through the streets, one of them had its candle knocked over by the topmost branches of a lofty tree, and it was found necessary to cut away the eaves of the houses in those streets through which they were to pass. They reached the old seraglio in safety at last, and were placed one on each side of the door.

At last the 22d of May arrived, the day destined for the passage of the bride to Ibraim’s house. The procession, headed by the three great constructions already described, was formed in much the same order as on the occasion of previous processions, only every one was more richly dressed, and the number of foot and horse was increased by several hundreds. Jugglers, mountebanks, and conjurers were added to the throng. All the Pashas and the Grand Vizir were on horseback, dressed in white. Behind them came Ibraim’s household and all his horses. The horse destined for the bride had its mane and tail decked out with gold and jewels. Then came the commadre and the bride, both on horseback, riding like men. Over the bride’s head was a baldacchino of gold brocade, whose sides hung down so as to cover completely the bride, leaving free only the head of her horse. Under the baldacchino were her guard of eunuchs and her waiting-women. Behind the bride came fifty women on horseback, riding like men. These were the wives of the Pashas and the chief ministers of the Porte.

In this way the bride was led to the door of her husband’s house. Ibraim met her on the threshold. It was the first time he had been allowed to see her. Even then the bridegroom saw no more than her eyes, for she kept her veil on. It was not till after supper that she finally uncovered her face. She is described as short, dark, thin, and with a nose long and excessively hooked.

All through these eight days of the wedding festival the Hippodrome had been full of tumblers, acrobats, ropewalkers, by day; and at night, on the Bosphorus, in front of the new seraglio, fireworks and set pieces had delighted and diverted the Sultan Murad.

But although Ibraim had received his bride into his own house, she still remained the Sultan’s daughter. He was not allowed to approach her until her father sent him formal permission. When he spoke to her, he was obliged to use all humility of manner, — he called himself her slave; nor might he sit down unless site invited him to do so. He was kept in this trying position for fifteen or twenty days, until the Sultan chose to end the situation. The result of this very painful treatment was, perhaps, not surprising. The day after the Sultan gave orders to place the newly married couple on a more rational footing, and to complete the ceremony, the Venetian ambassador sent to congratulate Ibraim, and to offer the presents of his government. He found, however, that the Sultan’s orders had not been sufficient for their purpose. Congratulations and presents had to be postponed.

Ibraim’s position was now a very dangerous one. His wife and her father, the Sultan, considered themselves insulted. Ibraim was in disgrace, and instantly found himself deprived of the one compensation for the misfortune of having to marry the Sultan’s daughter, namely, influence at court and the money that it brought in. He had spent a vast sum on his marriage, and the sudden cessation of this source of revenue left him almost penniless. He asked his best man, the Captain of the Sea, to lend him fifty thousand ducats, but was at once refused. Ibraim declared that he had been bewitched by the Sultan’s sister, his wife’s aunt, who was married to Mehemet Pasha, and was afraid and jealous of Ibraim’s growing influence. He accordingly put himself in the hands of certain Turks who were skilled in treating such cases. The results were satisfactory, and by the 25th of June Ibraim’s marriage was un fait accompli.

Horatio F. Brown.