Hacı Mehmed Safvet Bey

Mehmed Safvet Bey, whose exact date of birth is unknown, was the son of Şeyhülharem Şevket Paşa. Şevket Paşa lived between 1824 and 1890, and the family maintained its connection with Ottoman bureaucratic and scholarly circles in later generations.

The title Şeyhülharem referred in the Ottoman world to a high office connected with the services of the Haremeyn in Mecca and Medina. It was used for those serving in the Masjid al-Haram and the Prophet’s Mosque, or for those who held responsibility in the service and administration of these sacred places.

Mehmed Safvet Bey served as deputy in the Bâb-ı Âli Consultation Office. This office, attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was not merely a small bureau; within the Ottoman central bureaucracy it was an important unit that prepared legal opinions and performed a consultative role among state departments.

El-Hac Mehmed Safvet Bey died on 3 Safar 1318 (2 June 1900) and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.