Abstract:

There is no definite information about the origin of Rum Mehmed Pasha, one of the viziers of the Fatih Period, and different information is given in the sources of the period. The most common discourse about him is that he was a cruel vizier, and his controversial political identity was built on this discourse in historiography. In his short-term political life, Rum Mehmed Pasha undertook the patronage of structures that had a considerable value in the development phase of Ottoman Architecture. After Mahmud Pasha and Ishak Pasha, who were viziers of the Fatih period, he was the vizier who had the most endowments. It is known that he undertook the sponsorship of three mosques, three baths, three madrasas, soup kitchens, bazaars and an aqueduct in Üsküdar, Tire, Bademiye. Among these structures, the Rum Mehmed Pasha Mosque and Tomb built in Üsküdar, the mosque and tomb bearing his name in Tire, and the Manisa covered bazaar, which was built to provide income for the complex in Üsküdar, are the structures that have survived from the 15th century. However, Rum Mehmed Pasha was referred to as “menna’in lilhayr”, withholder of good, in his political life, which was recorded as betrayal to the public. In this context, the identity of the patron remains in the shadow of her controversial political actor. In this study, the works of the vizier of the Fatih period, who was criticized for his cruelty, are included. This study focuses on the structures that Rum Mehmed Pasha undertook to build and which have survived to the present day, and the plan, installation and decoration of the structures in question are discussed.