Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha

Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha (d. 1515) was a high-ranking statesman and military commander of the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century. He hailed from the Albanian Dukagjini family, one of the strongest in pre-Ottoman medieval Albania.

Dukakinzade Ahmed Pasha
24th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office 18 December 1514 – 4 March 1515
Monarch	Selim I
Preceded by	Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha
Succeeded by	Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha
Personal details
Born	Unknown
Died	4 March 1515 Amasya, Ottoman Empire
Nationality	Ottoman
Spouse(s)	Gevherşah Sultan
Children	Dukakinzade Mehmed Pasha Fatma Sultan
Ethnicity	Albanian

By 1503, he had become sanjakbey of Ankara and was married to Gevherşah Sultan, daughter of Arnavud Sinan Pasha, another Ottoman Albanian general and grand-daughter of Sultan Bayezid II. Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha was one of the commanders who supported Prince Selim in the Ottoman succession dispute. In 1511, as a result of the large revolt of the janissaries, he became beylerbey of Anatolia.[1] In his new position, he played an instrumental role in securing that Selim would be the next Sultan in 1512 and had an important impact in the military victory against Prince Ahmet, the pretender to the Ottoman throne on April 15, 1513 in Yenişehir. Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha may have been the commander who captured Prince Ahmet in the battle.[2]

By the summer of 1513, he became joined as a vizier (minister) in the Imperial Council (diwan) and was responsible for the negotiations with Venice about possible Ottoman support to Venice against H.R.E. Charles V.[2] In 1514, Selim I began his campaign against the Safavids which culminated in the Battle of Chaldiran. At the beginning of the campaign, Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha was at the head of the vanguard of 20,000 sipahi. His activity in the early stages of the campaign in contemporary sources is unclear, but in the battle of Chaldiran on August 23, 1514 he and the other viziers were at the centre of the battle line next to Selim.[3] Around September 7, when the Ottoman army reached Tabriz, the Safavid capital, Dukaginzade was in the delegation which went ahead of the army in order to accept the city's surrender to Selim.[4]

He was Grand Vizier of the empire between December 1514 and March 1515. Then he was executed by Selim I, who thought that he was involved in the ongoing revolt of the janissaries. His son, Dukakinzade Mehmed Pasha, was the governor of the Egypt Eyalet from 1544 to 1546, until he was executed.[5]

In Ottoman sources, Dukaginzade and Dukaginoğlu have been used to refer to him.

See also

• List of Ottoman Grand Viziers
• Dukakinzade Yahya bey

Sources

References

1. Sebastian 1988, p. 59.
2. Sebastian 1988, p. 60
3. Sebastian 1988, p. 61.
4. Sebastian 1988, p. 62.
5. Michael Winter (14 January 2004). Egyptian Society Under Ottoman Rule, 1517-1798. Taylor & Francis. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-203-16923-0.

Bibliography

• Sebastian, Peter (1988). Turkish prosopography in the Diarii of Marino Sanuto, 1496-1517. University of London.