Ahmed Vefik Pasha

Ahmed Vefik Pasha (born July 6, 1823 in Istanbul ; † April 2, 1891 ibid) was an Ottoman statesman, translator and Turkologist .

Ahmed Vefik Pascha, son of a Greek who converted to Islam and a Jew , accompanied his father to Paris in 1834 , where he was educated at the Collège Ste-Louis .

After several years in Paris, he returned to Istanbul and got a job in the translation agency, of which he soon became head. On the basis of detailed historical and statistical studies, he published a statistical yearbook on Turkey since 1847.

At the end of 1847 he was appointed Commissioner of the Porte in the Danube Principalities and then, as he demonstrated great diplomatic skills, sent as envoy to Persia in 1851, where he stayed until 1855 and knew how to prevent the Russian alliance. After his return he became a member of the State Council and the High Council of War, and finally the Tanzimat .

He was one of the leaders of the Turkish reform party. After he had been Minister of Justice for a short time in 1857 and envoy to Paris from 1860–61, although he incurred the court's disfavour due to his violent protest against the Syrian expedition, he was appointed head of the Vakuf Ministry , but made himself through brusque intervention unpopular against the abuses and was deposed in 1863.

He remained without office for a while and devoted himself to his scholarly studies; as the hermit of Rumeli Hisari , the great philosopher achieved a certain fame. He also translated Molière's works into Turkish and wrote a geographic manual for elementary schools.

In 1877 the Sultan Abdülhamid II appointed him President of the first Turkish Chamber of Deputies, in which he switched with despotic severity and, by not tolerating open words, thwarted any fruitful parliamentary activity.

He then became Governor General of Adrianople and was Prime Minister from February to May 1878. As Prime Minister he signed the Peace of San Stefano and then went to Bursa as Wali , where he made himself little popular due to his severity. In 1882 Ahmed Vefik Pasha was therefore deposed.

According to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey , Vefik Pasha was a Freemason .

literature

Ömer Faruk Akün : Ahmed Vefik Paşa. In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi , Vol. 2 (1989), pp. 143–157 ( online , PDF, 12.65 MB) (Turkish).
Ischtiraki (Friedrich Schrader): The intellectual life in Turkey and the current regime , In: The new time: Review of intellectual and public life. - 18.1899–1900, 2nd vol. (1900), H. 45, pp. 548–555 Online article at FES Bonn , there p. 551 ff.
Jean Deny: Aḥmad Wafīḳ Pas̲h̲a. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Brill Online, 2013 (accessed July 9, 2013). Print edition first published in 1960 (Vol. I, p. 298).
Jan Schmidt: Aḥmed Vefīq Pasha. ( Memento from April 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In Encyclopaedia of Islam , THREE. Ed .: Gudrun Krämer , Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Brill Online, 2013. (Accessed July 9, 2013)
Dieter F. Kickingereder: A friendship for life: Ahmed Vefik Paşa's letters to Sir Henry A. Layard. In: Yavuz Köse (Ed.): Şehrâyîn. The world of the Ottomans, the Ottomans in the world - perceptions, encounters and boundaries. Festschrift for Hans Georg Majer , with the collaboration of Tobias Völker, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06739-3 , pp. 351–359.

Individual evidence

↑ Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey: Information on Edhem's membership in the Grand Lodge ( Memento of April 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Turkish)

predecessor	Office	successor
Ahmed Hamdi Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire February 4, 1878-18. April 1878	Mehmed Sadık Pasha
Küçük Mehmed Said Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire December 1, 1882 - December 3, 1882	Küçük Mehmed Said Pasha

personal data
SURNAME	Ahmed Vefik Pasha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ahmed Véfyk Pacha; Ahmed Vefik Paşa; Ahmed Vefik Pasha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Turkish statesman
DATE OF BIRTH	July 6, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH	Istanbul
DATE OF DEATH	April 2, 1891
Place of death	Istanbul

[Mason-1] Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey: Information on Edhem's membership in the Grand Lodge ( Memento of April 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Turkish)