Süleyman Faik Paşa

Süleyman Faik Paşa, born in Batum, was an Ottoman soldier of Caucasian origin belonging to the Şahinbaşoğlu/Lortkipanidze family. His father’s name is recorded as Hüseyin, and his uncle as Şahinbaşzâde Hurşid Bey. As one of the leading figures of Batum, Süleyman Faik Paşa became visible within the Caucasian military-family networks connected with the Trabzon region after Batum passed out of Ottoman rule following the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878.

He served for a long time as Commander of the Trabzon Province Gendarmerie Regiment. This duty was important for maintaining public order on the eastern Black Sea coast and around the Lazistan sanjak, for rural security, the struggle against smuggling, and the military-police side of provincial administration.

His final years passed in illness. In 1901, after staying in Manastır because of his illness, he came to Istanbul to go to Batum; he was then assigned as a guest officer to the Hüdavendigâr Province Gendarmerie Regiment Command. As his illness advanced, he was brought from Bursa to Istanbul in 1906 and treated at Hamidiye Etfal Hospital.

Süleyman Faik Paşa’s family also left a mark in the Ottoman military and civil bureaucracy. Among his sons were Alaybeyi Ömer Bey, Commander of the Lazistan Sanjak Gendarmerie Battalion; İsmail Fevzi Paşa, retired from the governorship of Denizli sanjak; the jurist Eyüp Sabri Bey; and Ahmed Avni Paşa, chief aide-de-camp of Sultan Vahdeddin and later Minister of the Navy. Later members of the family took the surname Şahinbaş.

Süleyman Faik Paşa died in Istanbul on 29 March 1908 and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery. His wife Fatma Nazlı Hanım also died the same year and was buried in the family burial plot in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.