Ahmed Cevdet Pasha

Ahmed Cevdet Pasha

Lofçalı Ahmed Cevdet Pasha ( Ottoman احمد جودت پاشا İA Aḥmed Cevdet Paşa ; * March 22nd / 26th, 1822 in Lovetsch ; † May 26, 1895 in Istanbul ) was an Ottoman statesman , historian, and legal scholar . His life's work includes working on several legal codifications , such as the Mecelle , the twelve-volume “Chronik des Cevdet” and the grammar book of the Ottoman language written together with Mehmed Fuad Pascha .

Life

Youth and education

Ahmed was born, depending on the sources, on the 28th  Jumada II or 3rd  Rajab 1237 according to the Islamic calendar , i.e. on 22nd or 26th March 1822 ^greg. , the son of İsmail Ağas, a large landowner and member of the local board of directors, and Ayşe Sünbül Hanıms in the city of Lofça (Lovetsch in today's Bulgaria ). His ancestor Yularkıran Ahmed Ağa, who came from Kırkkilise , settled there after the Peace of the Prut . Already at a young age he learned the Arabic language from Mufti Hâfız Ömer Efendi . In 1836 he was tutored by Mehmed Eşref Efendi and met his son Ahmed Şefik Midhat . He completed his basic school education in his hometown.

Having reached the limits of the training opportunities in Lofça, Ahmed wanted to go to Istanbul to continue his studies there. He received support from his grandfather Hacı Ali Efendi, who was also able to convince Ahmed's parents to send their young son away. In 1839 Lofçalı Ahmed went to the capital of the empire and visited the Papasoğlu Madrasa in Çarşamba, Fatih . There he was one of the wealthiest students and could afford to pay a poor fellow student to clean his room and prepare his food. In the madrasa-free time he attended the "holiday courses" ( tatil dersleri ) offered by some Hodschas . From Miralay (ميرالای / 'Colonel') Nûri Bey received arithmetic , algebra , logarithm and geometry lessons . Around the age of twenty , Hafız Tevfik Efendi taught him the Persian language in the Tekke des Murad Molla, where Şeyh Mehmed Murad Molla recited Masnawī poetry . With the poet Süleyman Fehim Efendi, he deepened his Persian language skills. From this he received the name " Cevdet " in 1843 as Mahlas (مخلص / 'Pseudonym, poet's name'). Ahmed had already received “Vehbi” as Mahlas in Lofça, but Süleyman Fehim Efendi considered this to be unsuitable, as the name was prominently represented by Seyyid Vehbi and Sünbülzade Vehbi . In Istanbul Ahmed Cevdet also studied the works of historians such as Ibn Chaldun , Michelet , Taine and Hammer-Purgstall .

Public offices

In 1844 he went to Përmet for a short time to serve as a qadé . After he had passed the rüûs examination, which allowed him a career in the upper echelons of the ulama , he took up his Müderris activity, i.e. the professorship at a madrasa, in Istanbul on June 2, 1845 . In 1846, Mustafa Resid Pasha , who was soon to be appointed Grand Vizier , chose Ahmed Cevdet, who was recommended to him, as his personal legal advisor. The two men were close friends until Mustafa Reşid Pasha's death in January 1858; Ahmed Cevdet even moved in with Mustafa Reşid at times and taught his children. During this time he also met the pashas Mehmed Emin Ali and Mehmed Fuad . Ahmed Cevdet and Mehmed Fuad Pascha wrote the first modern grammar book of the Ottoman language together in Bursa in the 1840s ( Kavâid-i Osmânîye  / قواعد عثمانیه / 'Rules of Ottoman'). In 1850, Ahmed Cevdet became a member of the General Education Council ( Meclis-i Maârif-i Umûmiye  /مجلس معارف عموميه) and director of Dârülmuallimîn (دارالمعلمين), an educational institute for male Rüşdiye teachers founded in Istanbul on March 16, 1848 .

Excerpt from the title page of Tarih-i Cevdet , 1858.

In 1851 he became a member of the Encümen-i Daniş , on whose behalf he was to write the history of the Ottoman Empire from the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774 to the dissolution of the Janissary Corps in 1826. In this context, between the years 1854 and 1884, the Tarih-i Cevdet (تاريخ جودت / 'Chronicle of Cevdet'; originally Vekâyi-i Devlet-i Alîye  /وقايع دولت عليه / 'Events in the sublime state [Ottoman Empire]') as a continuation of Hammer-Purgstall's “ History of the Ottoman Empire ”. In February 1855 he took over the office of court chronicler ( vakʿanüvis  /وقعه نویس / 'Event writer'), which he held until 1861 or January 1866. In 1856 he became Qādī of Galata . Four years later, the translation Mukaddime-i İbn Haldun  / started by Pirîzâde Mehmed Sâhib Efendi and completed by Ahmed Cevdet wasمقدمۀ ابن خلدون / 'The Muqaddima of Ibn Khaldun ' published in Istanbul. In 1861, Ahmed Cevdet went on a one-month mission to İşkodra in northern Albania, as extraordinary commissioner , to investigate the troubled situation on the Montenegrin border. He later became Wali von Haleb , returned to the capital in February 1868 and took over the office of President of Divan-ı Ahkâm-ı Adliye , which was founded on March 6, 1868.

Ahmed Cevdet became Minister of Justice for the first time on April 5, 1868. His term of office ended after exactly two years. Work on the Mecelle began at this time . After he had become Minister of Education in April 1873, he was sent to Yanya on November 2, 1874 as a Wali . After Hüseyin Avni Pasha was deposed as Grand Vizier on April 25, 1875, Ahmed Cevdet held the office of Minister of Education for the second time. On November 8, 1875 began his second term as Minister of Justice, which ended on May 8, 1876 due to differences with the Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha . Because Mahmud Nedim Pasha was released four days later, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha escaped quasi-exile as a Wali in Syria and was again Minister of Education. After Abdülhamids II ascended the throne , Ahmed Cevdet returned to the Ministry of Justice on October 16, 1876. His third term lasted until February 5, 1877. He was then Minister of the Interior until about the end of the Russo-Ottoman War from 1877-1878 . After a brief tenure as Minister for Foundations, he went to Syria as Governor. He stayed there for about nine months, until he was replaced by Midhat Pasha and brought back as Minister of Commerce. One day after Mehmed Said Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha began his fourth term as Minister of Justice on October 19, 1879, which lasted until Ahmed Vefik Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier. The fifth and last time he held the office of Minister of Justice from June 8, 1886 to May 10, 1890, until he renounced the exercise of further offices due to persistent differences with Kıbrıslı Kâmil Pasha and withdrew from political life.

In the following period he devoted himself to the completion of his new edition ( Tertîb-i Cedîd  /ترتيب جديد) the Tarih-i Cevdet . Ahmed Cevdet Pascha died on May 25, 1895 in his Yalı in Bebek . With his wife, Adviye Rabia Hanım, he had a son, Ali Sedat, and two daughters, Emine Semiye and Fatma Aliye . The latter is widely regarded as the first female novelist in Turkish literary history.

Works (selection)

• Kavâid-i Türkiye  /قواعد تركيه
• Belâgat-ı Osmâniye  /ﺑﻼﻏﺖ عثمانيه
• Kavâid-i Osmânîye  /قواعد عثمانيه / 'Grammar of the Ottoman Language'
• Tarih-i Cevdet  /تاريخ جودت / 'Chronicle of the Cevdet'. 10 volumes. Matbaa-i Osmaniye, Istanbul 1271-1292. New edition ( Tertîb-i Cedîd  /ترتيب جديد): 12 volumes. 1301-1309.
• Tezâkir  /تذاكر / 'Records'
• Ma'rûzât  /معروضات / 'Inputs'
• Kısas-ı Enbiyâ Aleyhimüsselâm ve Tevârih-i Hulefa  /قصص انبيا عليهم السلام و تواريخ خلفا
• Mâlumât-ı Nâfia  /معلومات نافعه

See also

• List of Ottoman chroniclers

literature

• Ischtiraki (Friedrich Schrader): The spiritual life in Turkey and the current regime . In: Die neue Zeit: Revue des intellectual and public life , 18.1899–1900, Volume 2 (1900), no. 45, pp. 548–555, article at FES Bonn, there pp. 552 ff.
• Fatma Aliye: Ahmet Cevdet Paşa ve Zamanı  /احمد جودت پاشا و زمانى. Bedir Yayınevi, Istanbul 1995 (Turkish).
• Mehmet Akif Aydın, Yusuf Halaçoğlu : Cevdet Paşa. (PDF) In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi . Volume 7, TDV Yayını, Istanbul 1993, pp. 443-450 (Turkish).
• H. Bowen: Aḥmad Dj ewdet Pa sh a. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume 1, Brill, Leiden, pp. 284-286 (English).
• Richard Chambers: The Education of a Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Âlim, Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. In: International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 4, No. 4, Cambridge University Press, October 1973, pp. 440-464.
• Osman Keskioğlu: Ahmed Cevdet Paşa (1822–1895) Hayatı ve Eserleri. In: Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Faküllei Dergisi Volume 14, 1966, pp. 221-234 (Turkish); dergiler.ankara.edu.tr (PDF; 1.0 MB).
• Ali Ölmezoğlu: Cevdet Paşa. In: Islam Ansiklopedisi. Volume 3. MEB Yayını, Istanbul 1976, pp. 114-123 (Turkish).

Web links

Wikiquote: Ahmet Cevdet Paşa  - Quotes (Turkish)

• Literature by and about Ahmed Cevdet Pascha in the catalog of the German National Library .
• Entry. In: Encyclopædia Iranica . (English, including references).
• Digitized works by Ahmed Cevdet Paşa in the Internet Archive .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} H. Bowen: Aḥmad Dj ewdet Pa sh a. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume 1, Brill, Leiden, p. 284.
2. ↑ Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu : Osmanlı Astronomi Literaturü Tarihi. History of Astronomy Literature during the Ottoman Period. Volume 2, International Research Center For Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1997, ISBN 978-92-9063-072-2 , p. 665.
3. ↑ Javid Baysun (ed.): Tezâkir. 3. Edition. Volume 4 (40 – Tetimme), Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara 1991, ISBN 975-16-0377-3 , p. 6.
4. ^ Richard Chambers: The Education of a Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Âlim, Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. In: International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 4, No. 4, Cambridge University Press, October 1973, pp. 440-464 (455).
5. ^ Richard Chambers: The Education of a Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Âlim, Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. In: International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 4, No. 4, Cambridge University Press, October 1973, pp. 440-464 (457).
6. ^ Erik Jan Zürcher: Turkey. A Modern History. 3. Edition. IBTauris, London 2004, ISBN 978-1-86064-958-5 , p. 388.
7. ↑ M. Şükrü Hanioğlu: A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-13452-9 , p. 98.
8. ^ Stanford Shaw , Ezel Kural Shaw: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Volume II: Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808-1975. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8 , p. 65.
9. ^ H. Bowen: Aḥmad Dj ewdet Pa sh a. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume 1, Brill, Leiden, p. 285.
10. ↑ On the terms of office as Justice Minister see: Justice Ministers Before the Establishment of Grand National Assembly of Turkey  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Turkey, accessed January 16, 2010.
11. ^ Mathias Bernath, Karl Nehring (Hrsg.): Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa . Volume II: Modern Times. Part 1, Ottoman Empire, Macedonia, Albania. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-486-52901-2 , p. 88.
12. ^ Mathias Bernath, Karl Nehring (Hrsg.): Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa . Volume II, Modern Times. Part 1: Ottoman Empire, Macedonia, Albania. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-486-52901-2 , p. 92.
13. ^ Mathias Bernath, Karl Nehring (Hrsg.): Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa . Volume II: Modern Times. Part 1, Ottoman Empire, Macedonia, Albania. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-486-52901-2 , p. 93.