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Küçük Mehmed Said | |
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محمد سعيد | |
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| Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire | |
| In office 18 October 1879 – 9 June 1880 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Arifi Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Kadri Pasha |
| In office 12 September 1880 – 2 May 1882 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Kadri Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Abdurrahman Nureddin Pasha |
| In office 12 July 1882 – 30 November 1882 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Abdurrahman Nureddin Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Ahmed Vefik Pasha |
| In office 3 December 1882 – 24 September 1885 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Vefik Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Kâmil Pasha |
| In office 9 June 1895 – 3 October 1895 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Cevad Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Kâmil Pasha |
| In office 13 November 1901 – 15 January 1903 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Halil Rifat Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Mehmed Ferid Pasha |
| In office 22 July 1908 – 6 August 1908 | |
| Monarch | Abdul Hamid II |
| Preceded by | Mehmed Ferid Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Kâmil Pasha |
| In office 30 September 1911 – 22 July 1912 | |
| Monarch | Mehmed V |
| Preceded by | İbrahim Hakkı Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Ahmed Muhtar Pasha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1838 |
| Died | 10 January 1914(1914-01-10) (aged 75–76) |
| Nationality | Ottoman |
Mehmed Said Pasha (Ottoman Turkish:محمد سعيد پاشا; 1838–1914), also known asKüçük Said Pasha (Turkish:Küçük Sait Paşa; "Said Pasha the Younger") orŞapur Çelebi or in his youth asMabeyn Başkâtibi Said Bey, was anOttomanTurkish monarchist, senator, statesman and editor of theTurkish newspaperCerîde-i Havâdis.[1] He served as grand vizier for nine years in total, seven times during the reign ofAbdul Hamid II and twice during theSecond Constitutional Monarchy. He was known for his opposition to the extension of foreign influence in theOttoman Empire.[1][2] He was among the statesmen who were disliked by theCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP).[3] However, in his last two grand vizierships, Said Pasha was supported by the CUP in theChamber of Deputies, and his last grand vizierate ended in1912 with a military memorandum against the Unionists.
Mehmed Said was born inErzurum. His father was Ali Namık Efendi, a foreign minister. According to his contemporaryPetre Kharischirashvili, he was ofGeorgian descent.[4] His education was in themadrasa, which started in Erzurum and continued inIstanbul. There he learned French. He joined theKalemiye in Istanbul, and soon the petty civil service.
He returned to Erzurum for his first civil service assignment in 1853 where he worked in theeyalet's bureau of commutations (tahrirat kalemi). In 1857 he joined the Anatolian army's bureau of communications. Said went back to Istanbul, where he was the deputy clerk of theSupreme Council (Meclis-i Vâlâ halife kâtip). He then became chief of theArchipelago Vilayet municipal council (Adalar Bölgesi Belediye Dairesi reisi) and chief clerk of theRumeli Inspection Committee (Rumeli Teftiş Heyeti başkatibi) following which he became the chief clerk of the government printing office (Matbaa-i Amire başkatibi). After a brief stint as chief clerk of theCourt of Cassation (Dîvân-ı Ahkâm-ı Adliyyemuhakemat başkatibi) he became director of communication of theMinistry of Trade (Ticaret Nezareti mektupçusu) before taking on the same role in theMinistry of Education.[5]
Mehmed Said contributed to the provincial reform by writing the Regulation on the General Administration of Provinces (İdare-i Umumiye-i Vilayet Nizamnamesini). This caught the attention ofMehmed Emin Âli Pasha.[6]
He becamefirst secretary to SultanAbdul Hamid II shortly after the sultan's accession, and is said to have contributed to the realizations of his majesty's design of concentrating power in his own hands; later he became asenator,minister of the interior,minister of finance,royal treasurer, then governor ofAnkara and thenBursa,justice minister, finally reaching the high post ofgrand vizier in 1879.[1] It is not known what his role was in the1876 coups d'état.
He was grand vizier seven times underAbdul Hamid II, and twice under his successor,Mehmed V.
October 1879 can be accepted as the date when the political uncertainties of the beginning of Abdul Hamid's reign ended and the power without question passed to the palace. During Said Pasha's first grand viziership, he mostly dealt with financial and economic measures and tried to reduce government expenditures. He was dismissed from the position of grand vizier in June 1880.
He began his second term as Grand Vizier on September 12, 1880. The most important events of the premiership were the trial ofMithat Pasha inYıldız Palace. Ottoman debts were then collected through the establishment ofOttoman Public Debt Administration with theMuharrem Decree. In 1881, France declared Tunisia aFrench colony a briefmilitary campaign while in EgyptUrabi Pasha lost hisnationalist struggle against the Europeans. Due to these events, Mehmed Said Pasha did not succeed in measures to reduce state debts and provide stability. He was dismissed as grand vizier on May 2, 1882, due to the direct intervention of the British in the Egypt issue.
However, two months later, the new grand vizierAbdurrahman Nureddin Pasha was dismissed as Grand Vizier since Abdul Hamid did not share his concern on the European attempts to invade Egypt, which started with thebombing of Alexandria in July. Mehmed Said Pasha was appointed grand vizier for the third time on 12 July 1882. This period began when Egypt came under British control. He was dismissed two months later on 30 November 1882 due to clashes between himself and the sultan. He was arrested three days later.
He was brought back to the grand viziership for the forth time on 3 December 1882. This time his ministry lasted for two years and two months. In this period, there was civil service reform. Recruitment, appointment, promotion and retirement of civil servants were reformed and reorganized. He also brought about educational reforms. First of all, importance was given to the opening of a large number of new schools in the country. However, he wanted to suppress the Bulgarian nationalist revolt that broke out inEastern Rumelia, but Sultan Abdul Hamid thought that these troops could use them against him, so he vetoed the operation. On September 18, 1885, Eastern Rumeliawas annexed by Bulgaria. He was dismissed from office a week later. For ten years he was without a job.
During the height of theHamidian massacres, Western states demanded reforms. In order to implement these reforms, Said Pasha was brought to the grand viziership for the fifth time on 8 June 1895. This time, he was at odds with the Sultan because of the Armenians demonstrating in Istanbul. Said Pasha claimed that the War Mınıster Nazım Pasha was negligent in his duties of quelling unrest and demanded that he be removed from office. However, Abdul Hamid did not agree to this and dismissed Said Pasha after less than three months.
Two months later the took refuge at the British embassy in Constantinople, and, though then assured of his personal liberty and safety, remained practically underhouse arrest with his son for six years.[1]
In November 1901, he was appointed grand vizier again after he wrote to the Sultan that he would serve as a Grand Vizier like a bailiff.[7] However this new interpretation of his role in government was too much for him and he complained that the premiership was reduced to being like a scarecrow.[8] After two years in this post, he had a disagreement with the War MinisterMehmed Rıza Pasha about the problems in the Rumelian army. He gave an ultimatum to the Sultan that if he did not arrest Rıza, he would resign. Said was instead dismissed one month after this resignation threat.
He came into temporary prominence again during therevolution of 1908.[1] On 22 July he succeededMehmed Ferid Pasha as grand vizier, and mediated the declaration of theSecond Constitutional Monarchy. However, in the first two weeks, disagreements arose within the government delegation over who would be the minister of war and who would be the minister of the navy. Said Pasha was uneasy about the sultan's intervention in the establishment of this government. For this reason, he resigned on 6 August 1908, after two weeks of vizierate, citing the Sultan's interference in the cabinet list, and he was replaced by the more liberalKâmil Pasha,[1] at the insistence of theYoung Turks.
Also during 1908, Mehmed Said Pasha bought the famed Istanbul arcade in theBeyoğlu district, today known asÇiçek Pasajı ("Flower Passage"). The modern name became common in the 1940s; during Mehmed Said Pasha's ownership in the 1900s and 1910s, the arcade was known asSait Paşa Pasajı ("Said Pasha Passage").[9]
Following the resignation ofIbrahim Hakkı Pasha in the wake ofItaly's declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire in 1911, he was again called to the premiership. He attempted to resign on New Year's Eve 1911 on disagreements with his cabinet on whether to dissolve parliament, but he was reappointed the same day. His time as Grand Vizier was under the de facto rule of theCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the War MinisterMahmut Şevket Pasha.
In the "election of clubs" held inFebruary 1912, he allowed the CUP to seize theparliament through egregious voter fraud and intimidation. However, withMahmut Şevket Pasha's departure from government and anotherAlbanian revolt, a military clique known as theSavior Officers who backed the defeatedFreedom and Accord Party forced him to resign from the grand viziership for the last time.[10]
Following his departure Said Pasha became head of theCouncil of State and then as the head of theOttoman Senate.
Just before the start ofWorld War I, he developedbronchitis and died on 1 March 1914 inIstanbul. He was buried at the entrance ofEyüp Sultan Mosque.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Said Pasha".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1008.Sultan Abdülaziz ve Abdülhamid devirlerinde İstanbul Gürcü Katolik Cemaati'nin lideri rahip Petre Charischiaranti notlarında Said Paşa'dan kesin bir dille "Gürcü asıllı Sadrazam" olarak bahsetmektedir[Priest Petre Charischiaranti, the leader of the Georgian Catholic Community in Istanbul during the reigns of Sultan Abdulaziz and Abdulhamid, speaks of Said Pasha unequivocally as the "Grand Vizier of Georgian origin" in his notes.]
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1879–1880 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1880–1882 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1882 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1882–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1895 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1901–1903 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1908 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1911–1912 | Succeeded by |
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