Lütfi Pasha

Damat Çelebi Lütfi Pasha
An engraving of Lütfi Pasha by Johann Theodor de Bry, 1590s
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office 13 July 1539 – April 1541
Monarch	Suleiman I
Preceded by	Ayas Mehmed Pasha
Succeeded by	Hadım Suleiman Pasha
Personal details
Born	c. 1488
Died	27 March 1564 (aged 76) Didymoteicho
Nationality	Ottoman
Spouse(s)	Şah Sultan (1523–1541; divorced)
Children	Esmehan Baharnaz Sultan Neslihan Sultan
Religion	Islam
Ethnicity	Albanian

Lütfi Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: لطفى پاشا‎, Luṭfī Paşa; Modern Turkish: Lütfi Paşa, more fully Damat Çelebi Lütfi Paşa; c. 1488 – 27 March 1564, Didymoteicho) was an Ottoman statesman and grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent from 1539 to 1541.

Lütfi was an Albanian from Vlora. As a devshirme youth, he entered Bayazid II's harem-i hass, where he received a thorough education in the Islamic sciences.

His first appointment to service outside the palace was as sanjakbey of Kastamuni, and he subsequently became beylerbey of Karaman. Lütfi Pasha himself gave these details of his life in the introduction to his Asafname. However, he does not give the dates of his appointments and omits all details of his life before entering the Palace. He may also have served as sanjakbey first of Aydin and then of Yanya (Ioannina), since Feridun Bey mentions a Lütfi Bey who served at the siege of Rhodes in 1522 as sanjakbey of Aydin (Feridun Bey, Münşe'at al-selâtin, İstanbul 1274 AH/1857) and a Lütfi Bey who served at the siege of Vienna in 1529 as sanjakbey of Yanya (ibid. I, 573). These references may well be to Lütfi Pasha, the future Grand Vizier, since the latter himself stated to have participated in both these campaigns (Lütfi Pasha, Tevârih-i 'Al-i Osman, ed. Ali, İstanbul 1341/1922–3, 3). In his book he laid stress on the question of whether the Ottoman sultans who were non-Arab could assume the title of caliph or not.