TY  - JOUR
T1  - Love, Duty and Sacrifice: The Letters of Pargalı İbrāḥīm to Muḥsine Hanım
TT  - Aşk, Görev ve Fedākārlık: Pargalı İbrāhīm’in Muḥsine Hanım’a Mektupları
AU  - Saeedi, Nilab
PY  - 2025
DA  - October
Y2  - 2025
DO  - 10.64957/nesir.1796290
JF  - Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi
JO  - Nesir
PB  - Association for Thought and Literary Studies
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2757-9999
SP  - 365
EP  - 392
IS  - 9
LA  - en
AB  - This paper examines eleven letters exchanged between Grand Vizier İbrāḥīm Pasha and his wife Muḥsine Hanım. The collection consists of ten letters from İbrāḥīm and one from his wife. The examination unfolds across three themes: political reporting, emotional support, and separation. The argument is put forward that, while the content of the letters is personal, they also serve a broader purpose. İbrāḥīm likely uses these letters to apprise his wife of military victories and to communicate with a broader audience, reflecting his dual role as a statesman and family man. The analysis demonstrates how these letters assert political legitimacy while concurrently strengthening emotional bonds, thus revealing the complex intersection of power, faith, and personal devotion in the life of a high-ranking Ottoman statesman. By foregrounding the emotional side of a Grand Vizier, this article contributes to the history of emotions in the early modern Ottoman world and offers a rare analysis of epistolary material that blends personal devotion with political self-fashioning.
KW  - Love
KW  - history of emotions
KW  - early modern Ottoman history
KW  - longing
KW  - epistolary culture
N2  - Bu çalışma, Sadrazam Pargalı İbrāḥīm Paşa ile eşi Muḥsine Hanım arasında yazılmış on bir mektubu analiz etmektedir. Mektup koleksiyonu, İbrāḥīm Paşa’ya ait on mektup ve eşi Muḥsine Hanım’a ait bir mektuptan oluşmaktadır. Çalışma, üç temel tema etrafında şekillendirilmektedir: Siyasi raporlama, duygusal destek ve ayrılık. Mektupların içeriğinin kişisel bir nitelik taşımakla birlikte, aynı zamanda daha geniş bir amaç taşıdığı savunulmaktadır. İbrāḥīm Paşa, bu mektupları yalnızca eşiyle askeri zaferlerini paylaşmak için değil, aynı zamanda daha geniş bir kitleye hitap etmek amacıyla da kullanmaktadır. Bu durum, onun hem bir devlet adamı hem de bir aile reisi olarak iki farklı rolünü yansıtmaktadır. Çalışma, mektupların siyasi meşruiyetin pekiştirilmesi ve duygusal bağların güçlendirilmesi işlevlerini nasıl yerine getirdiğini göstererek, Osmanlı elitinin yaşamında güç, inanç ve kişisel bağlılık arasındaki karmaşık kesişimi ortaya koymaktadır. Bir sadrazamın duygusal yönünü ön plana çıkararak, bu makale erken modern Osmanlı dünyasında duyguların tarihine katkı sağlamakta ve kişisel bağlılık ile siyasi kendilik inşasını harmanlayan, az incelenmiş bir mektup kaynağını nadir bir analizle ele almaktadır.
CR  - “TSMAe_750-35,” November 7, 1535. BOA. “TSMAe_750-53,” November 7, 1534. BOA.
CR  - Al-Haq, M. Ashraf, Norazlina Abd Wahab, Abdullah Abd Ghani, and Nor Hayati Ahmad. “Islamic Prayer, Spirituality, And Productivity: An Exploratory Conceptual Analysis.” Al-Iqtishad: Journal of Islamic Economics 8, no. 2 (July 2016): 271–86.
CR  - Ali Efendi. Ahlâk-ı alâî. Edited by Mustafa Koç. Klasik, 2007.
CR  - Andrews, T., and M. Dalyan. “Poetry, Culture, Neuroscience, Emotions, and the Case of Bonding, Separation, and Separation Anxiety in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Culture: A Theoretical Preface.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 7, no. 2 (2020): 153-73. https://doi.org/10.2979/jottturstuass.7.2.10
CR  - Anooshahr, Ali. “Letter-Writing and Emotional Communities in Early Mughal India: A Note on the Badāyi’ al-Inshā.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 44, no. 1 (January 2, 2021): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2021.1857573
CR  - Ateş-Vural Genç, Sabri. “Ottoman-Safavid Relations: A Religious or Political Rivalry.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.769
CR  - Aydın, Ayşegül. “Kanuni Döneminde Bir Veziriazam: Pargalı İbrahim Paşa.” MA thesis, Bursa Uludağ University, 2019.
CR  - Barton, David, and Nigel Hall. Letter Writing as a Social Practice. Studies in Written Language and Literacy 9. John Benjamins, 2000.
CR  - Bazerman, Charles. “Letters and the Social Grounding of Differentiated Genres.” In Letter Writing as a Social Practice, edited by Nigel Hall and David Barton, 15-30. John Benjamins Publishing Co, 2000.
CR  - ———, ed. Textual Dynamics of the Professions: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Writing in Professional Communities. Rhetoric on the Human Sciences. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
CR  - Boddice, Rob. The History of Emotions: Historical Approaches. Manchester University Press, 2018.
CR  - Brotton, Jerry. The Sultan and the Queen: The Untold Story of Elizabeth and Islam. Viking, 2016.
CR  - Can, Aykut. Pargalı’nın Ölümü. 1st ed. Araştırma İnceleme, Yeditepe Yayınevi, 2013.
CR  - Czygan, Christiane. “Depicting Imperial Love: Love Songs and Letters between Sultan Süleyman (Muhibbi) and Hürrem.” In Suleyman the Lawgiver and His Reign: New Sources, New Approaches, edited by Mehmet Şakir Yılmaz, Suraiya Faroqhi, and M. Fatih Çalışır, 247–65. Ibn Haldun Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2021.
CR  - Del Lungo Camiciotti, Gabriella, and Donatella Pallotti, eds. Letter Writing in Early Modern Culture, 1500–1750. Vol. 3. Firenze University Press, 2014.
CR  - Dinar, Talat. “Türkçe Yazılmış Arap Harfli Metinlerde Bir İmla Arayışı: Çift Hareke Kullanımı.” Unpublished manuscript, n.d.
CR  - Dover, Paul M. The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe. New Approaches to European History. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
CR  - Durmuş, İsmail. “İnşa.” In Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 22:341–42. 2000.
CR  - Emecen, Feridun. “Makbul İbrahim Paşa.” In Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 21:333–35. 2000.
CR  - ———. “Seferi Irakeyn.” In Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 19:116–17. 1999.
CR  - Firth-Godbehere, Richard. A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know. 1st ed. Little, Brown Spark, 2021.
CR  - Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî. Künhü’l-Ahbâr 4. Rükün. Edited by Derya Örs. Vol. 5. Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı Yayınları, 2024.
CR  - Gerber, David A. “Acts of Deceiving and Withholding in Immigrant Letters: Personal Identity and Self Presentation in Personal Correspondence.” Journal of Social History 39, no. 2 (2005): 315–30.
CR  - Gökbilgin, M. Tayyib. “Arz ve Raporlarına Göre İbrahim Paşa’nın Irakeyn Seferindeki İlk Tedbirleri ve Fütuha.” Belleten 21, no. 83 (1957): 449–82. https://doi.org/10.37879/ttkbelleten.1270372
CR  - Gully, Adrian. The Culture of Letter-Writing in Pre-Modern Islamic Society. Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
CR  - Günaydin, Alper. “Harekeli Bir Mi Râciye Nin Dîbâcesi ve Osmanlı Türkçesinin İmlası ve Telaffuzu Hakkında Düşündürdükleri.” Türk Dünyası Dergisi 49 (March 16, 2020): 161–84. https://doi.org/10.24155/tdk.2020.133
CR  - Hachmeier, Klaus. “Private Letters, Official Correspondence: Buyid Insha as Historical Source.” Journal of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies 13, no. 2 (2002): 125–54.
CR  - Halldórsdóttir, Erla Hulda. “Fragments of Lives—The Use of Private Letters in Historical Research.” NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 15, no. 1 (April 2007): 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740701253551
CR  - İnalcık, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300-1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. Phoenix, 2013.
CR  - Jenkins, Hester Donaldson. “Ibrahim Pasha: Grand Vizir of Suleiman the Magnificent.” Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. XLVI, no. 2. Columbia University Press, 1911. 
https://archive.org/details/ibrahimpashagran00jenkiala/
CR  - Jolly, Margaretta, and Liz Stanley. “Letters as / Not a Genre.” Life Writing 2, no. 2 (January 2005): 91–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408340308518291
CR  - Karateke, Hakan T. “Legitimizing the Ottoman Sultanate: A Framework for Historical Analysis.” In Legitimizing the Order: The Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, edited by Hakan T. Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski, 13–52. Brill, 2005.
CR  - Kartallıoğlu, Yavuz. “The Relation of Vowel Points and Pronunciation in the Texts of Ottoman Turkish.” Türkoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi 11, no. 9 (2010): 137–43.
CR  - Kütükoğlu, Mübahat S. Osmanlı Belgelerinin Dili: Diplomatik. Kubbealtı Akademisi Kültür ve San’at Vakfı, 1994.
CR  - Lutz, Catherine A., and Lila Abu-Lughod. Language and the Politics of Emotion. Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
CR  - Maybin, Janet. “Death Row Penfriends: Some Effects of Letter Writing on Identity and Relationships.” In Letter Writing as a Social Practice, edited by Nigel Hall and David Barton, 151–79. John Benjamins Publishing Co, 2000.
CR  - Nasuh-i Matrakī. Beyān-ı Menāzil-i Sefer-i Irākeyn. Edited by Hüseyin Yurdaydın. Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1976.
CR  - Oatley, Keith, ed. Emotions: A Brief History. Blackwell Brief Histories of Psychology. Blackwell Publishing, 2008.
CR  - Peirce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Studies in Middle Eastern History. Oxford University Press, 1993.
CR  - Procházka-Eisl, Gisela, and Claudia Römer. Osmanische Beamtenschreiben und Privatbriefe der Zeit Süleymāns des Prächtigen aus dem Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv zu Wien. Denkschriften der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Bd. 357. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007.
CR  - Reddy, William M. The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
CR  - Rosenwein, Barbara H. Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages. Cornell Paperbacks. Cornell University Press, 2007.
CR  - ———. Generations of Feeling: A History of Emotions, 600-1700. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
CR  - Saeedi, Nilab. 2025. “Yours Sincerely, the Grand Vizier: A Compendium of İbrāhīm Paşa’s Letter Weaving Love and Longing.” Keshif 3, no. 1: 77–85. https://doi.org/10.25365/kshf-25-01-10
CR  - Sarıçiçek, Sertaç. “Safeviler Döneminde İran’da Savaşlar.” MA thesis, Hacettepe University, 2016. https://acikbilim.yok.gov.tr/bitstream/handle/20.500.12812/463879/yokAcikBilim_10119485.pdf?sequence=-1&isAllowed=y
CR  - Stanley, Liz. “The Epistolarium: On Theorizing Letters and Correspondences.” Auto/Biography 12, no. 3 (September 2004): 201–35. https://doi.org/10.1191/ 0967550704ab014oa
CR  - Sümer, Faruk. Safevi Devleti’nin Kuruluşu ve Gelişmesinde Anadolu Türklerinin Rolü. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1999.
CR  - Şahin, Kaya. Empire and Power in the Reign of Süleyman: Narrating the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman World. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
CR  - ———. Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman. Oxford University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531631.003.0001
CR  - Tekgül, Nil. “Early Modern Ottoman Politics of Emotion: What Has Love Got to Do with It?” Turkish Historical Review 10, no. 2-3 (March 16, 2020): 125-50. https://doi.org/10.1163/18775462-01002006
CR  - ———. Emotions in the Ottoman Empire: Politics, Society, and Family in the Early Modern Era. Paperback edition. History of Emotions. Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
CR  - “TSMA No: 5426/1.”, February 21, 974. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Arşivi, TS.MA.e. 745-9.
CR  - Turan, Ebru. “The Marriage of Ibrahim Pasha (ca. 1495-1536).” Turcica 41, (2009): 3-36. https://doi.org/10.2143/TURC.41.0.2049287
CR  - ———. “The Sultan’s Favorite: İbrahim Paşan and the Making of the Ottoman Universal Sovereignty in the Reign of Sultan Süleyman (1516-1526).” PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2007.
CR  - Uluçay, M. Çağatay. Osmanlı Sultanlarına Aşk Mektupları. Istanbul: Türk Dünyası Mecmuası Yayınlarından, 1950.
CR  - Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakkı. “Kanuni Sultan Süleyman’ın Vezir-i Azami Makbül ve Maktül İbrahim Paşa Padişah Damadı Değildi.” Belleten 29, no. 114 (April 1965): 355–62. https://doi.org/10.37879/ttkbelleten.1204192
CR  - ———. Osmanlı Tarihi. Vol. II. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1988.
CR  - Von Tippelskirch, Xenia. “Reading, Interpreting and Historicizing: Letters as Historical Sources.” In Reading, Interpreting and Historicizing: Letters as Historical Sources, edited by Regina Schulte, 73-88. European University Institute, 2004.
CR  - Walton, Stuart. A Natural History of Human Emotions. La Vergne: Dean Street Press, 2016. Williams, Liz. Kind Regards: The Lost Art of Letter-Writing. Michael O’Mara Books Limited,
2012.
CR  - Yılmaz, Yasir. “‘From Theory to Practice’ Origins of the Ottoman Grand Vizierate and the Köprülü Restoration: A New Research Framework for the Office of the Grand Vizier.” Review of Middle East Studies 57, no. 1 (June 2023): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1017/rms.2024.19
CR  - Ysebaert, Walter. “Medieval Letters and Letter Collections as Historical Sources: Methodological Questions, Reflections, and Research Perspectives (Sixth–Fifteenth Centuries).” In Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, edited by Christian Høgel and Elisabetta Bartoli, 33–62. Vol. 33. Brepols Publishers, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105112
UR  - https://doi.org/10.64957/nesir.1796290
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/5297527
ER  -