Lala Mustafa Pasha

Lala Mustafa Pasha (about 1500 to 7 August 1580), also called Kara, was an Ottoman general and Grand Vizier from the Sanjak of Bosnia. Born near Sokolac on the Glasinac Plateau into the Orthodox Christian Sokolovic family, he was the younger brother of Deli Husrev Pasha. He rose from acting governor of Egypt Eyalet in 1549 through the posts of Beylerbeyi of Damascus and Fifth Vizier. His honorific Lala means tutor to the Sultan, because he taught the sons of Suleiman the Magnificent. He commanded Ottoman land forces in the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1570 to 1573, including the conquest of Venetian-held Cyprus, where he ordered the Venetian commander of Famagusta, Marco Antonio Bragadin, flayed alive after promising safe passage, and he led the Caucasian campaign of 1578. He became Grand Vizier on 28 April 1580 and died that year in Constantinople.