Page 118 - sfogliabile 49

384 Evrim Türkçelik

image of Barbarossa. As the Gazavât was intended to be read aloud in
public, it is possible that the continuous intertextual emphasis on the
unintended nature of the conquest of Tunis in the Ms. 2639 might
have arisen as a rhetorical device throughout its several recitations in
public, later to be taken up by the author or the copyist . If
33
Barbarossa had admitted to having followed an official order from the
sultan and consequently to have intended to conquer Tunis all along,
his immediate defeat by Charles V might have meant admitting a
significant failure to fulfil the sultan’s orders.
The apologetic tone of Gazavât makes sense when assessed
together with the third approach which was adopted by Lutfi Pasha.
He severely criticized the conquest of Tunis in his Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osman.
Lutfi Pasha wrote his history in the 1550s after he had been dismissed
as Grand Vizier, but he had been actively serving the sultan at the
time of the campaign. He was married to the sultan’s sister and thus
enjoyed the high status of a husband of an Ottoman princess, a
damad . He had also been the admiral of the Ottoman fleet
34
immediately before Barbarossa’s appointment. When Barbarossa was
elevated to the status of Pasha, Lutfi Pasha remained with the title
Beg and his rank was relegated to a secondary commander .
35
Although he never mentioned these episodes in his chronicle, his
dismissal from the admiralty must have been upsetting and have
seemed unfortunate at a time when he enjoyed great favour with the
sultan as a damad of the Ottoman dynasty.
Lutfi Pasha’s chronicle is famous for his outspoken criticisms of
sultans and statesmen, but his negative stance towards Barbarossa is
even more evident and it extended throughout his history . It is not
36
known exactly when he recorded his account of the campaign but his
approach provides the harshest criticism of the conquest of Tunis and
Barbarossa’s actions. He states that Barbarossa’s range of action with
the Ottoman fleet was supposed to be limited to the Italian or Spanish
coasts and that his mission was merely to retaliate against the

33 T. Değirmenci, Bir Kitabı Kaç Kişi Okur? Osmanlı’da Okurlar ve Okuma Biçimleri
Üzerine Bazı Gözlemler, «Tarih ve Toplum: Yeni Yaklaşımlar», 13 (2011), pp. 37-38.
34 According to Çağatay Uluçay, Lutfi Pasha got married with Şah Sultan, sister of Sultan
Süleyman, before 1523. M. Çağatay Uluçay, Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları [The Wifes and
Daughters of the Sultans], Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara, 2001, p. 57. A document
in Spanish archives also recognizes Lutfi Pasha’s marital status as belonging to the sultan’s
household: «Havea dato esso Signor Turco a Lufetibei suo genero cento altre galere». S.l.,
1533, Archivo General de Simancas, Estado, 1366, f. 212.
35 İ. Bostan, The Establishment of the Province of Cezayir-i Bahr-i Sefid cit., p. 245.
36 R. Murphey, Seyyid Muradî’s prose biography of Hızır ibn Yakub, alias Hayreddin
Barbarossa, «Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae», 4 (2001), pp. 519-532.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)