Mehmed Raşid Paşa
Profile summary
Highlights
Mehmed Raşid Paşa was born in Cairo in 1830 and was the son of Hasan Haydar Paşa, a poet and statesman from the Drama dynasty.
He studied in Paris at a young age; after his return he first served in the Egyptian bureaucracy, then came to Istanbul and entered the Translation Office of the Bâbıâli. After this institution, one of the important training circles of late Ottoman diplomacy, he held posts as district governor, sanjak governor and provincial governor.
Raşid Paşa served as governor of İzmir, Syria, Herzegovina, Yenipazar, Bosnia and finally Syria. In 1873 he became Minister of Public Works, and in the same year was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He later served as envoy to Vienna and in 1875 became Minister of Foreign Affairs for a second time.
Raşid Paşa lost his life on the night of 15 June 1876 during the Çerkes Hasan Incident, which took place at a meeting of ministers in Midhat Paşa’s mansion, and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.
His daughter Faika Hanım also died seven years after him, at only 16 years old, and is buried beside Mehmed Raşid Paşa in the same cemetery.
Epitaph
He is the Living, the Eternal. A Fatiha for the soul of Mehmed Raşid Paşa, son of Hasan Haydar Paşa of the Drama family, who served for twenty-five years in important internal and external affairs of the state, became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the second time, and died as a martyr at the age of forty-seven during a meeting of the Council of Ministers; he attained Allah’s mercy and forgiveness. Friday night, 15 June 1876.
A Fatiha for his/her soul