Mehmed Şevket Paşa
Profile summary
Highlights
Born in Rabi al-Awwal 1239 (November 1823), Mehmed Şevket Paşa is described in his inscription as one of the viziers and as “Şeyhülharem-i Hazret-i Nebevî.” Şeyhülharem was the title given in the Ottoman administration to the high-ranking official who represented the sultan in Medina and was responsible especially for matters related to the Prophet’s Mosque.
The family line continued to be connected with Ottoman bureaucratic and intellectual circles in later generations. His daughter Şerife Hatice Refia Hanım married Müşir Mehmed Sadeddin Paşa; from this marriage was born Orhan Sadeddin, one of the late Ottoman intellectuals and the first teacher in Turkey to hold a doctorate in philosophy.
Mehmed Şevket Paşa died on 22 Dhu al-Qa‘da 1308 (29 June 1891) and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.
Epitaph
He is the Immortal, the Living. This is the grave of Mehmed Şevket Paşa, one of the viziers and the official responsible for the protection and administration of Medina and the Prophet’s Mosque. A Fatiha for his soul. Birth: November 1823 / Death: 29 June 1891. Written by the calligrapher Aziz Efendi.
O person who sees and discerns with the eye of the heart, do not pass this grave without looking carefully; what you see at its head is not merely a stone, but a stone curtain reminding you that the world is transient. Please gladden the soul within it with a Fatiha, for your own end too is this dark earth. Neither strong youths nor helpless elders escape the hand of the executioner of fate. "We belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return when the time comes." (Bakara 156).
A Fatiha for his/her soul