Ahmed Şefik Midhat Pasha
( ota , احمد شفيق مدحت پاشا, 18 October 1822 – 26 April 1883) was an
Ottoman democrat,
kingmaker and one of the leading statesmen during the late
Tanzimat period.
He is most famous for leading the Ottoman
constitutional movement of 1876 and introducing the
First Constitutional Era, but was also a leading figure of reform in the educational and provincial administrations.
He was part of a governing elite which recognized the crisis the Empire was in and considered reform to be a dire need.
Midhat Pasha is described as a person with a
liberal attitude and is often considered one of the founders of the
Ottoman Parliament
The General Assembly ( tr, Meclis-i Umumî (French romanization: "Medjliss Oumoumi" ) or ''Genel Parlamento''; french: Assemblée Générale) was the first attempt at representative democracy by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire. Al ...
.
He was described by historian
Caroline Finkel
Caroline Finkel is a British historian and writer based in Turkey; she has a doctorate in Ottoman history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Publications
Her book ''Osman's Dream, History of the Ottoman E ...
as "a true representative of Tanzimat optimism, who believed that separatist tendencies could be best countered by demonstrating the benefits of good government."
The
Midhat Pasha Souq in
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
still bears his name.
Early life
Midhat Pasha was born in
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
in the
Islamic month of
Safar, 1238
AH (which began on 18 October 1822),
into a well-established family of Muslim scholars.
Born into an
Ilmiye family, he received a private and
medrese education.
His father was Hadjdji 'Air Efendi-Zade Hadjdji Hafiz Mehemmed Eshref Efendi, a native of
Ruse
Ruse may refer to:
Places
*Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria
**Ruse Municipality
**Ruse Province
** 19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency
*Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia
* Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-cen ...
.
The family seem to have been professed
Bektashis.
He spent his youth in his parents' home in
Vidin,
Lovech and later Istanbul, where his father held judicial office.
In 1836 he worked in the secretariat of the
grand vizier, and in 1854 the Grand Vizier
Kıbrıslı Mehmed Emin Pasha gave him the task of pacifying the
province of Adrianople,
and he succeeded in putting down banditry in the Balkans in 1854–1856.
In 1858 he spent six months traveling in western Europe for studies, including in Vienna, Paris, Brussels and London.
Governor of Niš, Danube and Baghdad
In 1861 he was appointed governor of
Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, whi ...
,
where he was instrumental in introducing the
vilayet system in the Balkans.
He was governor of the
Danube Province from 1864 to 1868.
During his governorship, he built countless schools and educational institutes, built hospitals, granaries, roads and bridges, paying for these projects through voluntary contributions from the people.
He clashed with the Grand Vizier
Ali Pasha, which led to his appointment as governor of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
in 1869, as the appointment to such a remote posting was intended as a punishment.
After his arrival in Baghdad in 1869, he opened a series of government schools, as the city previously had no state educational institutions.
He also emphasized reforming the
Sixth Army, and to that end he opened military schools.
The military schools were to have the more lasting impact: by 1900, the civil preparatory high school was attended by only 96 students, compared to 256 for the military preparatory school, and 846 for the military middle school in the same year.
He helped modernize the province, and he re-established Ottoman rule in
al-Hasa.
He enacted the vilayet system in Baghdad, and applied the 1858 land decree under which miri land could be granted to individuals, under a system known as nizam tapu.
Sir
Henry Dobbs
Sir Henry Robert Conway Dobbs (26 August 1871 – 30 May 1934) was an administrator in British India and High Commissioner in Iraq.
Career
Dobbs was educated at Winchester College and Brasenose College, Oxford. He joined the Indian Civil Servi ...
recognised the three years of Midhat Pasha's governorship as the most stable and secure period of Ottoman rule in the region.
He left the post in 1872, returning to Istanbul.
Appointment as Grand Vizier
He was appointed
Grand Vizier by
Abdülaziz in 1872,
but his first tenure came to an abrupt end, mainly due to his clashes with Abdülaziz over financial and economic issues.
He was dismissed after two months.
He also served as Minister of Justice in 1873 and 1875, but his tenure in these offices was short-lived, owing to his inclination towards a constitutional regime.
The emerging internal, financial and diplomatic crises of 1875–1876 provided him with a chance to introduce the
constitution of 1876.
On 15 June 1876, an Ottoman infantry officer named Çerkes Hasan assaulted a meeting in the mansion of Midhat Pasha, where all the chief ministers were present. The Minister of War
Huseyin Avni Pasha was shot, and the Foreign Minister
Rashid Pasha was killed, as was one of Midhat's servants, named Ahmed Aga. In total, 5 were killed and 10 were wounded, and Hasan was sentenced to death for the crime, in an incident known as the Çerkes Hasan Olayı.
Midhat Pasha was again appointed Grand Vizier, in place of
Mehmed Rushdi Pasha, on 19 December 1876.
When he was appointed, he promised to continue on the path of reform, and announced on 23 December 1876 that a constitution would be promulgated and a representative parliament established.
Though not a member of the commission that drafted the constitution, he played an important part in its adoption.
The constitution provided for
equal rights for all citizens without distinction of race or creed, abolition of slavery, an independent judiciary based on civil (rather than religious) law, universal elementary education, and a bicameral parliament, with a
Senate appointed by the Sultan and a directly elected
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
.
Popular support for the constitution began to plummet when it became known that it was to grant equal rights for non-Muslims.
The
softas, which had been Midhat's supporters just months earlier, became largely opposed.
Midhat Pasha managed to pressure
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
into approving the constitution, but the Sultan was able to include the notorious article 113, which gave him the power to banish anyone from the empire without trial or other legal procedure.
Abdul Hamid had no real interest in constitutionalism, and on 5 February 1877, he exiled Midhat Pasha.
Sent to
Brindisi on the imperial yacht, from there he visited France, Spain, Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom, where he wrote memoranda supporting the Ottoman cause in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, and a pamphlet defending Ottoman reforms.
Midhat's popularity in Europe, coupled with British pressure, led Abdul Hamid to allow him to return from exile, and he arrived in
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
on 26 September 1878.
After the war ended, Sultan Abdul Hamid II dismissed the government and returned to despotic rule.
Governor of Syria
The intervention of the British led to his appointing as governor again,
and he became governor of the
Vilayet of Syria on 22 November 1878, a post he held until 31 August 1881.
During his tenure he endeavoured to reform the province.
He used a charitable association for education, which had been formed by some of Beirut's prominent Muslim citizens, into a centrepiece of his educational reform, and encouraged the formation of similar associations in Damascus and elsewhere.
He admitted many Arabs in the civil service, including in the positions of
qaimaqam
Kaymakam, also known by many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been retained a ...
and
mutasarrif
Mutasarrif or mutesarrif ( ota, متصرّف, tr, mutasarrıf) was the title used in the Ottoman Empire and places like post-Ottoman Iraq for the governor of an administrative district. The Ottoman rank of mutasarrif was established as part of a ...
, and gave minorities broad representation in the administration.
He encouraged the development of the press, and the number of newspapers rose to more than twelve.
He took an interest in the construction of roads, and in the maintenance of security.
He involved local notables in the financing of local projects, such as the tramway system in Tripoli and the founding of the Beirut Chamber of Commerce.
He then resigned the post, as he felt Istanbul was offering him an insufficient amount of support.
His reputation in Europe was that his reforming zeal was an aberration, based on individual strength of personality.
They believed Midhat Pasha could not succeed, citing the inefficient and corrupt nature of the Ottoman state, and the fractured nature of its society.
Imprisonment and death
He served briefly in
İzmir
İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
as governor of the
vilayet of Aydin,
but on 17 May 1881, after only a few months on that post, he was arrested.
Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, the justice minister, brought him to Istanbul, where he was charged with the murder of
Sultan Abdülaziz
Abdulaziz ( ota, عبد العزيز, ʿAbdü'l-ʿAzîz; tr, Abdülaziz; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was overthrown in a government coup. He was a ...
.
The interrogation and court proceedings took place at
Yildiz.
In conclusion, he was convicted and charged with the murder, and was sentenced to death. However the execution was commuted to life imprisonment in
Taif in
Hejaz.
Some historians claim that these to be trumped-up accusations
as they believe that confessions were extracted from some suspects through the use of torture, and the use of forged evidence and paid witnesses led to his conviction.
However, they claim that the British pressure impeded his execution,
so he was imprisoned in the fortress of
Taif, in
Hejaz.
It was reported that, soon after his arrival, the
Emir of Mecca
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremo ...
received a message from Istanbul demanding the death of Midhat from "an accident".
The incumbent Emir Abdul Muttalib was a close friend of Midhat however, and no action was taken by him.
As a result, Osman Pasha, governor of Hejaz, surrounded the Emir's summer residence in Taif and imprisoned him.
After that, Midhat Pasha's fate was sealed.
He was assassinated in his cell
on 26 April 1883.
Gallery
File:MidhatPashaVanityFair.jpg, Midhat Pasha on the cover of ''Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Literature
* Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan
* ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray
* ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'', 30 June 1877
File:MithatPasa-Sultanahmet.jpg, Bust of Midhat Pasha in Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
File:Пашин конак у Нишу.jpg, Midhat Pasha's palace in Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, whi ...
References
External links
Death of Midhat Pasha, the Career of the Great Reformer in Turkeyfrom the New York Times (12 May 1884)
* The life of Midhat Pasha (1903 biography)
*
Page images at the Internet Archive*
transcribed text at Project Gutenberg*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Midhat Pasha
Pashas
1822 births
1883 deaths
Civil servants from the Ottoman Empire
Exiles from the Ottoman Empire
19th-century Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman governors of Damascus
Executed people from the Ottoman Empire
Assassinated people from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman governors of Aidin
Politicians from Istanbul
19th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire
Reform in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman governors of Baghdad
Baghdad vilayet