Hadim Yusuf Pasha

In 1602, Yusuf Pasha was sent from Istanbul to assert an Ottoman presence in the disputed town of Basra, where he held the post of governor despite the presence of a local power-holder named Afrasiyab Paşa.^[8][3] His travel from Istanbul to Basra was documented in his travelogue Sefernāme.^[3]

In 1604 Yusuf Pasha was then was dispatched from Basra to Baghdad, to replace the current Baghdad governor Mehmed Pasha (1602-1604), son of Sinan Pasha, and arrived at the end of 1604.^[9] Yusuf Pasha was mentioned by Pedro Teixeira, who visited Baghdad in 1604, and who explained that the newly arrived governor came from Basra and was "called Issuf or Iuçef Paşa, a eunuch, and a Xerquez [Circassian] by birth."^[3] He also mentioned that the governor recently received the title of vizier.^[3][10]

The Pasha had come lately from Baçora, which he had left, by the desert route, three days before our arrival there. He was called Issuf or luçef Pasha, a eunuch, and a Xerquez by nation. His office is worth yearly 200,000 sequins, or about 250,000 ducats, whereof he may expend at most thirty or forty thousand. This is the value of it in time of peace, but in war-time he makes what he pleases. When we were now set upon our departure, there came to this Pasha fifteen capgis (porters) from Constantinople, who are gate-wards of the Grand Turk, bringing him the title of Wazir, and continuance in his government for seven years, with a robe of brocade, a sword, and a golden chain-bridle: things that the Turk is wont to send to such as he raises to the like dignity.

After Baghdad, Yusuf Pasha became muhafız (keeper) of Üsküdar (1607–1608).^[3] In 1608, he was sent to Bursa to suppress a rebellion led by Kalenderoğlu.^[7] A few years later, he is recorded in the retinue of Sultan Ahmed I during a hunting party in Edirne, and is said to have had a household of three hundred members.^[7]

Yusuf Pasha died in 1614. His properties and vizierate were transferred to Kalender Pasha, the second treasurer and building supervisor of the "Blue Mosque" (Sultan Ahmed Mosque).^[7]

Yusuf Pasha is relatively well known through Ottoman accounts and miniatures relating his travels in Anatolia and Iraq, particularly a Sefernāme (“Book of a Journey” or “Travelogue”) by an artist named Muhlisi who accompanied him in his travels, and who completed the account in 1605–06 in Baghdad.^[1] Yusuf Pasha is especially described as he visited whirling dervishes in Konya, or the shrine of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi and the tombs of Seljuq rulers in the years 1602–1603.^[2] In his perigrinations and military conflicts during his tenure in Baghdad, he is described as valorous, just, and pious leader, acting under difficult circumstances.^[12]

Among the Ottoman governors of Baghdad, only Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha is also known to have commissioned illustrated manuscripts, which were significantly more ambitious and rather belonged to the genre of universal histories.^[12]

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  Yusuf Paşa among whirling dervishes in Konya (Shrine of Rumi)
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  Yusuf Paşa visiting the tombs of Rum Seljuq rulers in Konya (Alâeddin Mosque)
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  Yusuf Paşa visiting Kurdish prince Mir Sheref in Jizra.^[13]
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  Yusuf Paşa inspecting troops
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  Severed heads of the rebels brought before Yusuf Paşa.^[14]

• List of Ottoman governors of Baghdad