Mehmed Namık Pasha
Mehmed Emin Namık Pascha (* 1804 in Constantinople , today Istanbul ; † September 14, 1892 ibid) was an Ottoman statesman and military reformer who was one of the founding fathers of the modern Ottoman army . He served under five sultans and advised four of them. He founded the Ottoman Military Academy Mekteb-i Harbiye , was twice Wālī des Eyâlet Baghdad, Serasker (Field Marshal General), first Ambassador of the Sublime Porte to the British Royal Court and served as War Minister, Cabinet Minister and Head of Imperial Ministers.
Life
Mehmed Namık was born in Constantinople as the son of the teacher at the Ottoman court Halil Ramis Agha . His great-grandfather Ummeti Konevî came to Constantinople from Konya . Mehmed Namık was privately tutored by his father until he was 16. In 1816 he became şakird (volunteer) in the Secretariat of Divanı Hümayun (Imperial Cabinet), where he expanded his knowledge in courses in Arabic, Persian, grammar, rhetoric, French and English, and religious studies. During the tenure of Sultan Mahmud II , he was sent to the École Militaire in Paris for training .
Career as a diplomat
After his return he was a member of the Secretariat of the Divanı Hümayu, the second translator of an Ottoman delegation that signed the 1826 Akkerman Agreement with the Russian Empire . In 1826 the Janissary Corps was also disbanded and Mehmed Namık was tasked with translating French texts on military rules that were supposed to help restructure the army. The sultan rewarded him for his services in 1827 with the title Alayemin . The following year, Mehmed Namık Bey was promoted to binbaşı (lieutenant colonel) and sent to St. Petersburg as a military attaché , where he was to study the organization of the Russian army . He returned a year later, was promoted to the rank of kaymakam (colonel) and served in a regiment. In 1832 he was promoted to the rank of Miralay ( Brigadier ).
Namık Pasha was sent to London as plenipotentiary ambassador that same year to solicit naval support against the insurgent Khedive Mohammed Ali, whom France supported. King William IV received him, but refused any help. Namık Pascha managed to get arms deliveries and was allowed to send 14 trainees from the Ottoman Army to military schools in the United Kingdom. He also attended military schools, factories and shipyards. He brought technical innovations with him from his trip, such as an improved lamp for lighthouses.
Back in Istanbul, Namık Pasha became active again as an officer. The Sultan commissioned him and the Müşir Ahmed Fevzi Pascha to establish a military academy for future officers. In 1834 the Mekteb-i Harbiye was founded, which still exists today as Kara Harp Okulu (Army School).
During his visit to London, Namık Pasha recognized the need to send permanent envoys to European capitals such as Paris or London, and suggested this to the Sultan. Namık Pasha himself became Ambassador to the Sublime Porte in London in 1834 and stayed until 1836.
Commander of the Navy and the Arab Army
On his return to the Ottoman capital, he served again as a general, but was soon promoted to Ferik (about lieutenant general ). He was sent to Trablus (today Tripoli ) to fight against insurgent troops at the side of Tahir Pasha. After 15 months the uprising was suppressed (1837/38). The military success was attributed to Namık Pasha.
1843 Namık Pasha rose for the vizier and was the rank of Müşirs (Marshal) five years commander of the Arab army.
Wālī in Baghdad, advancement to serasker and minister
In 1851 he became Marshal of the Forces of Iraq and Hejaz and Wālī of Baghdad Province. Only a year later he was called back because his harshness had aroused displeasure.
In 1852 he was awarded the Mecidiye Order, 2nd class. Namık Pasha was briefly Marshal of Tophane and became Minister of Commerce in the Cabinet in 1854. The approaching Crimean War caused the Sultan to have money shortages and in the winter of 1853/54 it was the Minister of Commerce to ask banks for loans in Europe. He also used his trip for diplomatic talks and he was served by Napoleon III. receive. But he had to return to Constantinople without having achieved anything.
In 1856 Namık Pasha became viceroy of Jeddah , in 1860 the sultan made him chairman of the military council and later serasker (commander in chief). In 1860 Namık Pasha was sent by the Sultan as a special envoy to Syria. But France and England protested the order and the Ottoman Empire sent Fuad Pasha instead .
Abdülaziz ascended the throne in 1861 . Mehmed Namık Pasha was again viceroy of the province of Baghdad, to which the provinces of Basra and Mosul also belonged - and thus almost the entire national territory of today's Iraq. Namık Pasha succeeded in suppressing some uprisings and building an infrastructure. The shipyard in Basra received orders mainly from the emerging shipping traffic on the Euphrates and Tigris , bridges were also built and the land was made arable through irrigation. He built government buildings, barracks, schools and streets. He also ensured that the customs revenue ended up in the treasury, boosted trade, stopped the misuse of land deeds and was able to increase tax revenue. In 1867 he returned to Constantinople. For his successes in Baghdad he received the Osmanje Order 1st Class from the Sultan and was also awarded by the Shah of Iran .
Namık Pasha financed the construction of the War Ministry from his own resources, which is now the main building of the Istanbul University .
Minister of the Naval Forces
In 1872 Sultan Abdülhamid II appointed him Minister of the Naval Forces and in 1877 he was appointed to the Senate of the Ottoman Empire ( Meclis-i Âyân ). He was part of a delegation that signed the Edirne armistice in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/78 . In 1877 he became a member of the Ottoman Parliament .
During this time he received many other titles, including the yaver-i ekrem ( Aide-de-camp des Sultan). In this capacity, Mehmed Namık Pasha also brought a diplomatic note from the Sultan to Alexander II. The Pasha later received the Alexander Nevsky Order from him . In 1883 Namık Pasha was appointed Şeyh-ül Vüzera head of the Council of Ministers.
Namık Pasha spent the last years of his life in retirement in a mansion ( Konak ) in the Kabataş district of Istanbul . The French Empress Eugénie also lived here during her visit to Constantinople. The "Namık Paşa Yokuşu" (Namık Pasha Hill) was named after him here. In addition, Namık Paşa Sokak (Namık Pasha Street) commemorates the officer and diplomat.
family
Namık Pasha was married to four women, but divorced from one of them. Of the other three women he had eleven children. His son Hasan Riza Pasha was a general in the Ottoman army. His great-grandson Ahmet Sinaplı wrote the biography Şeyhül Vüzera, Serasker Mehmet Namık Paşa .
His grave is in the Karacaahmet cemetery.
literature
- Şehabeddin Akalın: Mehmed Namık Paşa . In: Tarih Dergisi , 1953, No. 7, pp. 127–145 ( online as PDF )
- Candan Bath: The Ottomans and the Crimean War . Dissertation, Sabancı University, 2007
- Gokhan Cetinsaya: Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890–1908 . Routledge, London / New York 2006
- Over Ortaylı: İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı . 1983. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, Istanbul 2000
- Ahmet Nuri Sinaplı: Şeyhül Vüzera, Serasker Mehmet Namık Paşa . Yenilik Basımevi, Istanbul 1987
Individual evidence
- ↑ Şehabeddin Akalın: Mehmed Namık Paşa . In: Tarih Dergisi , 1953, No. 7, pp. 127-145
- ↑ a b c d e f g Mehmed Namık Paşa , Biyografya, accessed on May 2, 2018 (Turkish)
- ^ The London and Edinburgh philosophical magazine and journal of science , January-June 1836 , Richard Taylor Publishers, 1836, p. 238
- ↑ GR Berridge: British Diplomacy in Turkey, 1583 to the Present: A Study in the Evolution of the Resident Embassy , Martinus Nijhof, Leiden / Boston 2009
- ^ Julia Pardoe: City of the Sultans , Henry Colbourn, 1837, p. 267
- ^ Charles Philip Issawi: The Fertile Crescent, 1800-1914: a documentary economic history , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988, p. 113
- ↑ Candan Bath: The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856) . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, pp. 301-316
- ↑ Leila Tarazi Fawaz: An occasion for war: civil conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860 , University of California Press, 1994, p. 104
- ↑ Roger Owen: The Middle East in the world economy, 1800-1914 , IB Tauris, 2002, p. 181
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mehmed Namık Pasha |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mehmed Emin Namık Pasha (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ottoman diplomat, officer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1804 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Constantinople , now Istanbul |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1892 |
| Place of death | Constantinople , now Istanbul |