Ayas Mehmed Pasha

Ayas Pasha was an Albanian born in the region of Himara (Cimera), not far from Valona. He was recruited through the devshirme in the reign of Bayezid II (886-918 AH, 1481-1512) and went out from the palace with the rank of agha. According to the Venetian report of Piero Bragadino (1526), he was then 44 years old, had three brothers, and sent 100 ducats each month to his mother in Valona. The inscription on his gravestone at Istanbul calls him Ayas b. Mehmed. ²

He fought at the battle of Caldiran (920/1514) as agha of the Janissaries, and in 921/1515 against 'Ala' al-Dawla, prince of Albistan. Holding the same office, he served through the Syrian and Egyptian campaigns of Selim I (922/1516-1517), and according to one version of the events had a considerable share in the defeat and capture of Tuman Bay, the last Mamluk sultan of Egypt. ²

When Suleyman ascended the throne in September 1520, Ayas Pasha seems to have been beglerbeg of Anatolia, a new Janissary agha having been appointed in 925/1519. After helping to crush the revolt of Janbirdi al-Ghazali in Syria (1520-1521), he became governor of Damascus, from Rabi' II 927 to Muharram 928 (March to December 1521). He fought as beglerbeg of Rumeli at the siege of Rhodes (928/1522), and then, rising to third and later second vizier, served in the campaigns of Mohács (932/1526), Vienna (935/1529), Güns (938/1532) and Iraq (941-942/1534-1535). ³

On the death of Ibrahim Pasha (22 Ramadan 942 / 15 March 1536) Ayas Pasha became grand vizier and kept the office until his death. The main events of his tenure were the war against Venice (944-947/1537-1540), an Austrian raid on Osijek (Eszék, 944/1537), the Moldavian campaign (945/1538), and the expedition of Sulayman Pasha, governor of Egypt, against Diu in India (945-946/1538-1539). During the Corfu campaign (944/1537) he brought the Albanians settled around Valona under Ottoman control, and a new sanjak of Delvine was created in the region. He died on 26 Safar 946 (13 July 1539). ³

In the eyes of his contemporaries he was an illiterate man with no great political talent (the sources cited are 'Ali, Bragadino and Gévay). One of his daughters married Güzelce Rüstem Pasha, who became beglerbeg of Buda, and another daughter, or perhaps the same one, is said to have married the sanjakbey of Silistria. His brother Ahmed was governor of Karaman and later of Damascus. The article draws on the Ottoman chronicles, the Venetian report of Bragadino and Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname. ⁴