Hadım Sinan Pasha

Hadım Sinan Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: خادم سنان پاشا, Modern Turkish: Hadım Sinan Paşa, "Sinan Pasha the Eunuch"; Bosnian: Sinan-paša Borovinić; 1459 – 22 January 1517) was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1517. He was of Bosniak decent.

Origin and early life

According to Ragusan documents the Borovinić noble family were from the Borovinići village near Foča. His ancestor Tvrtko Borovinić (fl. 1417–46) was a near relative of the Bosnian vojvoda Radoslav Pavlović, whom he served.

Sanjak-bey

From December 1496 he was sanjak-bey of Bosnia. From 1504 to 1506, he was the sanjak-bey of Herzegovina. In 1507–08 he expanded the Mostar mosque built in 1473 by an earlier Sinan Pasha who was the first sanjak-bey of Herzegovina. Then he was the sanjak-bey of Smederevo between 1506 and 1513.

Beylerbey and Grand Vizier

In 1514, he was the Beylerbey (high governor) of Anatolia. In the battle of Chaldiran against Safavid Persia he was in charge of right flank. After the battle he was appointed as the beylerbey of Rumeli, a post more prestigious than his former post. His next mission was the conquest of the Dulkadirids, in what is now South Turkey. He defeated Bozkurt of Dulkadir in the Battle of Turnadağ. After the conquest of the beylik, Selim I appointed him as the grand vizier on April 25, 1516. Sinan was Selim’s favorite grand vizier. He was active in the conquest of Syria and Egypt. On October 28, 1516 he defeated an Egyptian Mameluke army in Khan Yunis, near Gazza, Palestine. Next year, he fought in the Battle of Ridaniya in Egypt on January 22, 1517. In Ottoman battle tradition, the sultan was almost always in the central headquarters. But battle of Ridaniya was an exception. Selim I decided to encircle the Mameluks personally and assigned Sinan in the central headquarters. The plot was successful and the Mameluks were defeated. However, before the battle was over, Mameluke cavalry (including Tuman bay II, the Egyptian sultan) raided the Ottoman headquarters and killed Sinan, thinking he was the sultan.

After the battle sultan Selim expressed his sorrow, saying, "We won the battle, but we lost Sinan."

There is a misinformation that Sinan Pasha being a eunuch married a daughter of Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512), and this error is caused by the fact that the husband of Ayşe Sultan is named Damat Guveyi Sinan Pasha who beget three children with Ayşe and died in 12 January 1504.