Ferhad Paşa Tomb
About the Person:
- Ferhad Paşa was trained in the Enderun in the Ottoman palace, and held important positions such as chief doorman and Janissary Agha. He was appointed as the Iranian commander in 1582, and he annexed many places including Ganja and Tabriz to the Ottoman lands. He served as the 2nd Vizier and then as the Grand Vizier. He was dismissed from his duty in 1591, and became the Grand Vizier again during the reign of Sultan Mehmet III, but was killed in Yedikule Dungeon in 1595. He was a good calligrapher; he wrote the Quran and requested that his funeral expenses be covered from his lawful earnings.
About the Tomb:
Construction Year: 1595
Ordered by: Ferhad Paşa
Architect: Unknown
Prominent Features:
- It is built of cut stone with a hexagonal plan.
- Porticoed entrance, four columns and wooden roof.
- The exterior is decorated with semi-cylindrical piers, palmettes and muqarnas eaves moldings.
- Two rows of windows, one above the other: the lower ones are rectangular, the upper ones are eyebrow arched and stained glass.
- There are 16 coffins in the interior, eight marble and four wooden.
- The interior of the dome is decorated with hand-drawn ornaments, and in the middle is the Esmâ-i Hüsna (The Beautiful Names of God).
- Verse inscriptions are written in gold gilding on the lower windows.
- There is a 16-line Persian-Turkish mixed verse inscription on the entrance gate of the tomb.
- The graveyard contains graves belonging to Ottoman statesmen and the Ferhad Paşa family.
