Sokollu Mehmed Pasha: Grand Vizier of Three Ottoman Sultans

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (c. 1505–1579) was one of the most powerful statesmen in Ottoman history. Born in Bosnia and taken into imperial service as a boy, he became grand vizier in June 1565 and held the office for over 14 years under three sultans: Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. He is remembered for his steady management of the empire, his ambitious canal schemes and the buildings he sponsored, including the famous bridge at Višegrad.

Early life and rise

Sokollu was born around 1505 in the village of Sokolovići, near Višegrad in eastern Bosnia, into a Serbian Orthodox family. As a boy he was taken by the devshirme, the Ottoman levy of Christian children who were converted to Islam and trained for the army or palace service, a system that also produced the elite Janissaries.

He was educated in the palace school and served in the inner household of Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1546 he became Kapudan Pasha, grand admiral of the fleet, and in 1549 governor-general (beylerbeyi) of Rumelia, the empire’s European provinces. He led campaigns in Hungary and Transylvania in the 1550s and became a vizier in 1555.

In the succession struggle between Suleiman’s sons, Sokollu supported Prince Selim and helped defeat his brother Bayezid in 1559. In 1562 he married Selim’s daughter Ismihan Sultan, binding himself to the future sultan’s family.

Grand vizier

On 28 June 1565 Sokollu became grand vizier, the sultan’s chief minister. The next year he accompanied Suleiman on the campaign that ended at the Siege of Szigetvár. When the old sultan died in his tent in September 1566, Sokollu kept the death secret for several weeks, running the army in the sultan’s name until Selim could reach the capital and secure the throne.

Selim II took little direct part in government, so Sokollu effectively ran the empire for eight years. He negotiated the Treaty of Adrianople with the Habsburgs in 1568 and maintained a network of diplomats and informants across Europe.

He is often said to have opposed the attack on Venetian Cyprus in 1570, preferring other priorities, but he directed the war once it began. After the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, he organised the rapid rebuilding of the fleet. Venetian diplomats reported him telling them that the loss of Cyprus had cut off Venice’s arm, while Lepanto had only shaved the Ottoman beard, which would grow back.

Canal projects

Sokollu is known for bold infrastructure plans. In 1569 he launched an expedition to cut a canal between the Don and Volga rivers in southern Russia, where the two come close together. It was meant to allow Ottoman ships to reach the Caspian Sea, support an attack on Russian-held Astrakhan and open a route against Safavid Iran. Faced with hostile terrain, logistical problems and resistance, the attempt was abandoned within months.

He also considered a canal across the isthmus of Suez to link the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which would have helped Ottoman fleets confront the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. The idea was studied around 1568 but never begun. A further scheme to link the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea by way of the Sakarya River was also discussed without result.

Patron of building

Sokollu was one of the leading patrons of the architect Mimar Sinan. In Istanbul Sinan built for him the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque at Kadırga, finished around 1571–72 and famous for its Iznik tiles, and another mosque at Azapkapı near the Golden Horn. Across the empire he endowed caravanserais, bridges, baths and schools.

The best known is the bridge over the Drina at Višegrad, near his birthplace, completed in 1577. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, and it is the setting of Ivo Andrić’s novel The Bridge on the Drina (1945); Andrić received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. In 1557 Sokollu also supported the restoration of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate of Peć, whose first patriarch, Makarije, was a relative.

Decline and death

Under Murad III, who came to the throne in 1574, Sokollu’s influence slowly declined as rivals at court and in the sultan’s household gained ground and several of his allies were removed. On 11 October 1579 he was stabbed to death while receiving petitioners, by a man disguised as a dervish. He was buried in a tomb designed by Sinan at Eyüp in Istanbul.

Timeline

• c. 1505: Born near Višegrad in Bosnia.
• 1546: Appointed Kapudan Pasha (grand admiral).
• 1549: Becomes beylerbeyi of Rumelia.
• 1562: Marries Ismihan Sultan, daughter of the future Selim II.
• 1565, 28 June: Appointed grand vizier.
• 1566, September: Conceals Suleiman’s death at Szigetvár.
• 1569: The Don–Volga canal expedition fails.
• 1577: The Višegrad bridge is completed.
• 1579, 11 October: Assassinated in Istanbul.

Why it matters

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha shows how far a devshirme recruit could rise in the Ottoman system and how much a capable grand vizier could shape the empire. His long tenure gave continuity between the reign of Suleiman and those of his successors, and his buildings, above all the Višegrad bridge, still stand as monuments to his patronage.