Ahmed Şefik Midhat Paşa Tomb

Ahmed Şefik Midhat Paşa is one of the leading reformist statesmen of the Tanzimat and Constitutional Era periods in the Ottoman Empire.
He was born in Istanbul, started his civil service career at a young age, and rose quickly to serve as provincial mayor and grand vizier.
He is especially known for the administrative, social and economic reforms he implemented during his governorships of Danube and Baghdad. He opened educational institutions, encouraged agriculture, established the modern province system and laid the foundations of the Province Regulation of 1864.
He played an active role in the declaration of the First Constitutional Era in 1876 and the preparation of the Constitution; he chaired the constitutional preparation committee.
He served as Grand Vizier for a short time in 1877, but was dismissed and exiled after falling out with Abdulhamid II due to his reformist identity and influential personality.
After being imprisoned in Taif Castle for three years, he was strangled to death on the night of May 8, 1884. It was claimed that this assassination was carried out on the orders of Abdulhamid II, but no definitive evidence was found in later investigations.

Construction Year: 1951

Ordered by: Republic of Türkiye

Architect: Architect Muzaffer Bey

Prominent Features:

The tomb is in the form of a monumental tomb; it has a meaningful and simple design, devoid of ornamentation.
The mausoleum consists of two opposing stone walls and a grave rise in the middle.
There are relief decorations on the walls and there is a symmetrical order between the stone blocks.
A kind of monumental silence and modesty form the basis of architectural choices.
The tomb of Midhat Paşa, together with the tombs of prominent figures against Abdulhamid II in the same area, has become one of the symbolic places of the spirit of the Second Constitutional Era.