1. Mesih Pasha or Misac Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of Byzantine Greek origin, being a nephew of the last Roman emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos.
13 Facts About Mesih Pasha
1. 2.
Mesih Pasha served as Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Navy and was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in 1501.
3.
The Byzanto-Italian chronicler Theodore Spandounes, who claimed that Mesih Pasha was the brother of his own paternal grandmother, wrote that Mesih Pasha was ten years old at the time of Constantinople's fall.
4.
Mesih Pasha is first attested in historical accounts in 1470, by which time he was the sanjak bey of Gallipoli.
5.
Mesih Pasha was raised to the rank of vizier in the central imperial government in 1476 or early 1477; contemporary documents show him already as second vizier in 1478, but the Historia Turchesca records that he was "newly appointed" as fourth vizier in 1480, when he was given command of the Ottoman army and navy during the siege of Rhodes in 1480.
6.
Mesih Pasha was able to appease them by promising, among other things, that only members of the devsirme would become viziers.
7.
Mesih Pasha thus demonstrated both his loyalty and his diplomatic skills, and managed to become one of a small group of devsirme officials who henceforth came to dominate the divan.
8.
Mesih Pasha was then sent to Kaffa, a popular place of exile for disgraced officials, as its sanjak bey.
9.
Mesih Pasha probably remained there until replaced in 1489, and is next mentioned in 1497 as sanjak bey of Akkerman.
10.
In spring 1501, Mesih Pasha was named Grand Vizier, and left Constantinople to suppress the rebellion by the Warsak tribe in Anatolia which was supporting a Karamanid pretender known as Mustafa.
11.
Shortly afterward, Mesih Pasha was injured while supervising the suppression of a fire in Galata, and died of his wounds.
12.
Mesih Pasha was buried in a mosque erected by his brother in the Aksaray district of Constantinople, which Mesih had completed after Hass Murad's death in battle.
13.
Mesih Pasha had three known sons: Ali Bey, Mahmud Celebi, and Bali Bey, who served as sanjak bey of Vulcitrin in 1503.