Mehmed Nureddin Efendi

Mehmed Nûreddin Efendi, whose date of birth has not been identified, was a Hasenî sayyid belonging to the Algerian emir family. In Arabic biographical sources he is known as Nûreddin b. Hüseyin b. Muhyiddin al-Hasenî al-Cezâirî al-Dımaşkî. He was the nephew of Emir Abdülkadir al-Cezâirî, the most famous figure of the Algerian resistance. Emir Abdülkadir, regarded as a founding leader of Algeria because of his struggle against the French occupation, was an important military and political figure who lived in Bursa and Damascus after his years of exile.

Mehmed Nûreddin Efendi migrated to Damascus with his father and was educated there by the scholars of the period. He later served in various posts in the Ottoman administration, including the Istanbul education administration, the Directorate of Pious Foundations in Aleppo, the judgeship of Haifa, and administrative-judicial offices in Havran, Latakia, Tripoli of Syria, Sinop and Mosul.

His final office was the position of Nakîbüleşraf for all Ottoman lands. The Nakîbüleşraf was the head of the institution responsible for keeping the records, legal status and honour of sayyid and sharif families descended from the Prophet. When Mehmed Nûreddin Efendi came to this office, he sent letters to deputy nakîbüleşrafs in the provinces, asking that sayyid families be watched over and their rights protected.

Mehmed Nûreddin Efendi died on 3 Safar 1334, corresponding to 11 December 1915, and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.