Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha

His personal life in the palace was its own kind of political theatre.

His closest friend from childhood, Ibrahim Pasha, served as Grand Vizier from 1523. an extraordinarily powerful position that Ibrahim filled with genuine competence and increasing confidence.

The confidence eventually became a problem.

Ibrahim began making statements and gestures that implied a co-equal relationship with the sultan.

In 1536, Suleiman invited Ibrahim to dine with him at Topkapi Palace.

Ibrahim accepted, spent the evening in apparently comfortable conversation and was strangled in his sleep that night on Suleiman's orders.

The friendship had lasted over 20 years.

The decision to end it took, apparently, one dinner.

The favored heir to the throne was Prince Mustafa, the son of Hurrem's old rival, Mahidevran.

Mustafa had the support of the army and the Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Pasha.

Some viziers were captured slaves like Ibrahim Pasha.

He did become a companion and a favorite of the sultan.

They talk and entertain themselves, and then they go to bed.

We don't really know what happened that night.

But obviously, the sultan had decided that the grand vizier had become too powerful.

As a compliment to his boyhood friend, Suleiman apparently ordered the same method of execution reserved for his own kin, garroting with a bowstring, so there would be no spilling of royal blood.