Lala was a Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 title (of Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 origin) meaning tutor during Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 period.

History

In Ottoman tradition, lalas were the experienced statesmen who were assigned as the tutors of the young princes (. While still in teen ages, the princes were sent to provinces as provencial governors . They were accompanied by their lalas who trained them in statesmanship. The purpose of this practice was to prepare the princes for the future duty of regency. Later when the prince was enthroned as the sultan his lala was usually promoted to be a vizier

Vizier

A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....

.

Up to the 13th sultan Mehmet III (the end of the 16th century) all sultans enjoyed a period of provencial governship prior to their reign. However 14th sultan Ahmet I (1603-1617) who was enthroned in early teens without a period of provencial governship, banned this practice. This meant the decrease in the status of the lala.

Atabeg vs lala

The practice of lala was even older than the Ottoman Empire. During the Seljuk Empire, the experienced statesmen accompanying the princes were called Atabeg

Atabeg

Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince...

 or Atabey ( a Turkish composite title meaning anchestor-lord). However Seljuk Empire was highly feudalistic and atabeys frequently used their power for separatist policies whenever they felt a weakness in the central authority. (like Ildeniz

Ildeniz

Shams al-Din Ildeniz, Eldigüz or Shamseddin Eldeniz was an atabeg of the Seljuq empire and founder of the dynasty of Eldiguzids , which held sway over Caucasian Albania, Iranian Azerbaijan, and most of northwestern Persia from the second half of the 12th century to the early decades of the 13th.A...

 in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 and Zangids in North Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

)
The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand was more centralist and almost no lala tried to follow a separatist policy.

Some grand viziers of lala background

Name	Term (as grand vizier)	Tutee
Beyazıt Pasha	1413-1421	Mehmet I
Çandarlı (2nd) İbrahim Pasha Çandarlı Ibrahim Pasha (died 1499) Çandarlı Ibrahim Paşa was an Ottoman statesman. He was the scion of the Çandarlı family, which provided a series of Grand Viziers during the first centuries of the Ottoman Empire. His father, Çandarlı Halil Pasha, had also served as Grand Vizier from 1443 to his execution in 1453...	1498-1499	Beyazıt II Bayezid II Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî was the oldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512...
Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman general and Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.He had risen to the position of Beylerbey of Damascus and then to that of Fifth Vizier...	1580	Selim II Selim II Selim II Sarkhosh Hashoink , also known as "Selim the Sot " or "Selim the Drunkard"; and as "Sarı Selim" or "Selim the Blond", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574.-Early years:He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the...
Tekeli Lala Mehmet Pasha	1595	Mehmet III
Sokolluzade Lala Mehmet Pasha	1604-1606	Ahmet I