Jusuf Mašković

Silahdar Yusuf Pasha
Birth name	Josef Mašković
Born	c. 1604 Vrana, Croatia (Then Bosnia Eyalet of Ottoman Empire)
Died	1646 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Service/branch	Ottoman Navy
Years of service	fl. 1643–1646
Wars and campaigns	Cretan War (1645–69)
Spouse(s)	Fatma Sultan, daughter of Sultan Ibrahim I (c. 1645–1646, his death)

Silahdar Yusuf Pasha (Turkish: Silahdar Yusuf Paşa, Arabic: يوسف باشا‎‎; c. 1604–1646), was an Ottoman vezir and admiral (Kapudan Pasha, grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet), known for conquering Chania in western Crete in only 54 days in 1645 during the Cretan War (1645–69). He built a large han, or Turkish inn, at Vrana in 1644, which still stands today.

A convert from Christianity, he was surnamed Mašković (known in Serbo-Croatian as Jusuf Mašković), and was born around 1604, in Vrana, a town in Ravni kotari in Dalmatia, at the time situated at the Venetian–Ottoman frontier. He was ethnic Serb. According to Frane Difnico, Yusuf was the servant of Durak Bey, while Girolamo Brusoni claims that his father was the servant of Halil Bey, and that Yusuf was the groomer of Ibrahim Bey Bećiragić in Nadin. Brusoni said that Yusuf eventually came into good relations with the Beys, who even claimed him as a relative and near friend ("Durachbeg, che si dice suo parente" "Il Sapitan bie Bessiraghch, suo amico"). At the service of the Bećiragići in Nadin, Josef learned Turkish and the Arabic script. Though he was a sharp and intelligent boy, he was in serious poverty; once an elder lady of Nadin saw him barefooted and gave him opanci (leather shoes). While following his master on a trip, he got to know a gatekeeper of the Porte, and decided to join Ottoman service in Constantinople.

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