Mehmed Rashid Pasha
Mehmed Râshid Pasha | |
|---|---|
Smyrna | |
| In office c. 1862 – Summer 1866 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1824 Egypt, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 15 June 1876 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
Mehmed Rashid Pasha (
As governor, Rashid Pasha enacted numerous administrative reforms, including the creation of the Damascus and
Concurrent with Ali Pasha's dismissal as grand vizier in 1871, Rashid Pasha was dismissed from the governorship of Syria. Two years later he was appointed minister of planning before a cabinet reshuffle that same year made him minister of foreign affairs. He was replaced in May 1874 and sent to Vienna as the Ottoman ambassador to Austria-Hungary. However, he was reappointed minister of foreign affairs in November 1875. Rashid Pasha continued in this office until he was gunned down by Hassan Bey, a disgruntled officer, during a cabinet meeting in the home of Midhat Pasha. Hassan's target was the minister of war, Huseyin Avni Pasha, who was also killed.
Early life and career
Rashid Pasha was born and raised in
In Istanbul, Rashid became a protege of
According to the historian Butrus Abu-Manneh, Rashid Pasha was appointed the governor of the
Governor of Syria
In the early summer of 1866,
Reorganization and reforms
The Syria Vilayet was formed in 1865, combining the eyalets of Damascus and Sidon.[6][11] The province extended from Tripoli and Hama in the north to Palestine and Transjordan in the south,[5] but excluded the autonomous Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[12] According to the historian John Spagnolo, Rashid Pasha was "intent on reinvigorating the Ottoman Empire" and was "as efficient and imaginative in the exercise of his functions as the prevailing state of the Empire permitted",[6] while Abu-Manneh noted that he "worked indefatigably for the integration of the provinces".[5] By 1868, Syria was administratively divided into the eight sanjaks (first-level districts) of Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Acre, Hama, Hauran and Nablus.[13]
Rashid Pasha established a new municipal council in Damascus and a new administrative council for the province. To elicit local support for the reorganized administration, several Damascene notables were given posts in the councils or other provincial posts. He reformed the office of
In line with the 1858 Land Code, large state-owned tracts in the Hauran plain and the Beqaa Valley were put up for auction. Rashid Pasha encouraged private investment in land and sought to speedily register deeds to bring order to the chaotic state of land ownership in Syria. In his pursuit of these goals, he often supported the interests of wealthy businessmen from the major cities against the interests of the peasantry. In general, many of the urban businessmen Rashid Pasha courted lacked adequate capital for mass land acquisition during his term, and investments in land did not accelerate until the trade depression and rural hardships of the 1870s, after he left office.[14]
Public works
Rashid Pasha launched a campaign to upgrade Syria's infrastructure.
A major expansion of the telegraph network in Syria was initiated by Rashid Pasha and telegraph offices were set up in all of the province's major towns. He also directed that European languages were able to be transmitted through the network in addition to Turkish. The 19th-century Syrian historian Muhammad Husni asserts that Rashid Pasha was infatuated with the telegraph, spending hours in the telegraph office sending and receiving messages.[17] During Rashid Pasha's rule, Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri and other prominent Damascenes lobbied the British consul of Damascus, Richard Burton, to gain British financial backing for a large railroad network in Syria.[14]
Promotion of education and literature
The Nahda (Arabic literary renaissance) in Syria dates to Rashid Pasha's governorship. According to Hudson, Rashid Pasha, as a modernist, took a "personal interest in spreading literacy and in building an educational infrastructure."[2] Primary schools were founded in Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem with his support. Under his governorship, a provincial newspaper, Suriyya, and provincial salnamas (yearbooks) were first published, while private literary journals also began to circulate.[2] In 1868 he authorized the reestablishment of the Syrian Scientific Society, a group composed of Syrian entrepreneurs and patrons of literature and the arts.[20]
Centralizing the hinterlands
Rashid Pasha viewed a prominent military presence as key to the success of his infrastructural, administrative and educational initiatives.
Northern and central Syria
Two months into his term, Rashid Pasha made campaign preparations against the
Also in 1866–1867, Rashid Pasha subdued the Bedouin tribes in the eastern countryside of Homs and Hama.
Hauran
In the Hauran, Rashid Pasha's modernization and centralization efforts partly consisted of winning the support of rural factions. The competing and often warring groups consisted of the Bedouin tribes, the Druze mountaineer sheikhs and the mostly Muslim peasant sheikhs of the plains, all of whom generally viewed the Ottoman government as an alien authority whose sole purpose was to tax and conscript their men. Rashid Pasha attempted to persuade the rural factions that the lands in which they lived possessed sufficient resources to share, and that it was mutually beneficial for the factions and the government to jointly exploit the land. He argued that a united front of the inhabitants and the state could effectively counter the increasing European interference in the region's affairs. The British consul in Damascus, Richard Wood, wrote that Rashid Pasha's efforts sought to instill in the province's inhabitants "a sense of community of material, social, and political interests—a national spirit, in fact, of which the government will be regarded as the highest expression".[25]
Rashid Pasha extended direct rule to the plain of Hauran, which was Syria Vilayet's principal grain-producing region, designating it a sanjak under Kamil Pasha, a Turkish mutassarif (governor of a sanjak). He ended the peasants' withholding of grain supplies in protest at the government monopoly set up by As'ad Mukhlis Pasha and the presence of imperial troops in the Hauran by offering the peasants tax concessions; he refused to withdraw government troops, however.
Balqa
In 1867, Rashid Pasha oversaw plans to assert state control over the
Rashid Pasha had already secured the state's authority in the Hauran and enlisted support for the planned Balqa expedition from the Hauran plainsmen, Druze sheikhs and Bedouin tribes, namely the Ruwallah, Wuld Ali and Bani Hasan.[29] Rashid Pasha personally led government expeditions in the Balqa.[14] He set off to subdue the region at the head of three infantry battalions, nine regular and irregular cavalry squadrons and light artillery. The size of this force compelled the Muslims and Christians of al-Salt to abandon their alliance with the Adwan leader, Dhiyab al-Humud, and submit to Rashid Pasha; he peacefully entered the city on 17 August and forced the Bedouin to withdraw southward to Hisban. In al-Salt, Rashid Pasha established the qadaa of Balqa with an elected council of local notables headed by an appointed Kurdish qaimmaqam from Damascus, Faris Agha Kudru. He repaired the city's fortress, which had been heavily damaged during the 1834 peasants' revolt, and turned it into an army barracks. He seized massive quantities of grain and livestock from al-Salt and its vicinity in lieu of tax arrears; the value of this confiscation amounted to three million piasters.[30]
On 30 August, he pursued the Adwan tribesmen, and in the ensuing four-hour battle the Adwan lost fifty men and retreated south toward al-Karak. Dhiyab surrendered to Rashid Pasha in Nablus in October 1867. According to the historian Eugene Rogan, Rashid Pasha's "campaign represented an unprecedented Ottoman intrusion into Jordan".[31] By 1868, the Irbid-based qadaa of Ajlun, part of Hauran Sanjak, and the as-Salt-based qadaa of Balqa, part of Nablus Sanjak, were formally recorded as administrative units.[31] Later in 1868, Rashid Pasha began efforts to establish a qadaa centered in Ma'an, a fortified oasis town south of the Balqa. He petitioned the Sublime Porte to approve the measure, which they did, but it was not implemented until 1872 during the rule of his successor, Abdülletif Subhi Pasha.[32]
In the summer of 1869, the Adwan and Bani Sakhr, traditional rivals, joined forces to challenge Rashid Pasha's assertion of state rule. They raided the village of
Southern Palestine
Rashid Pasha attempted to force the nomadic Bedouin of southern Palestine to
Cooptation of the aghawat
One of Rashid Pasha's first acts as governor was the arrest of Muhammad Sa'id Agha (son of Shamdin Agha), a powerful Kurdish Damascene agha (commander of irregulars; pl. aghawat).[25] The aghawat wielded significant influence in Damascus and dominated relations between the city and its hinterland.[35] Rashid Pasha's imprisonment of Muhammad Sa'id was a manifestation of his centralization efforts.[25] However, he ultimately decided to co-opt the aghawat by employing them to assist in the centralization of the province's hinterlands. Accordingly, in 1867, he released Muhammad Sa'id and assigned him to help direct the expedition in the Balqa. In addition to Muhammad Sa'id, other Kurdish aghawat, namely Mahmud Agha Ajilyaqin and Ahmad Agha Buzu, were also appointed roles in the Balqa expedition and were each appointed to the office of amir al-hajj at some point during Rashid Pasha's governorship. Another agha of Damascus, Haulu Agha al-Abid was appointed the qaimmaqam of Hauran in the latter half of Rashid Pasha's term.[14]
Dismissal
Rashid Pasha was recalled from Damascus immediately after the death of his mentor Grand Vizier Ali Pasha in September 1871.[36] The new grand vizier, Mahmud Nedim Pasha,[36] appointed the more conservative Abdullatif Subhi Pasha in Rashid's place.[37] According to Spagnolo, Rashid Pasha's "administration and integrity made him to be remembered as one of the best Ottoman governors of Syria".[6]
Minister of Foreign Affairs
On 11 March 1873, Rashid Pasha was appointed the minister of public works in the government of Grand Vizier Ahmed Esad Pasha.[38] Government changes during this period were characteristically frequent and on 15 May the cabinet, by then led by Grand Vizier Mehmed Rushdi Pasha, was reshuffled and Rashid Pasha replaced Saffet Pasha as minister of foreign affairs.[38] In May 1874 Ahmed Arifi Pasha was appointed foreign minister,[39] and Rashid Pasha was sent to Vienna to serve as the ambassador to Austria-Hungary.[40][41] He was reappointed foreign minister in the government of Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha in November 1875, replacing Saffet Pasha, who had been appointed in January of that year.[42]
Aceh War
During the Aceh War between the Aceh Sultanate and the Dutch East Indies, Rashid Pasha's predecessor assured the French, British, Russian, German and Austrian ambassadors that the Ottomans would not intervene in the conflict amid efforts by Acehenese politicians in Istanbul to obtain Ottoman backing.[43] At the beginning of June 1873 Rashid Pasha informed a major advocate of Aceh, Abdurrahman az-Zahir, that Aceh was too distant from the Empire to elicit intervention.[44] After public pressure to aid the Acehenese was roused by the publication of two firmans from 1567 and 1852 acknowledging Aceh as Ottoman sovereign territory, the cabinet convened on 13 June. Most of the ministers dismissed the firmans as confirmations of a religious rather than political relation or called for a statement expressing concerns about a war in Aceh. Rashid Pasha advocated an official protest against the Dutch government and imperial honor for the Sultan of Aceh Alauddin Mahmud Syah II.[45] In July Rashid Pasha obtained documents signed by the Sultan of Aceh and his deputies submitting the country to Ottoman sovereignty and calling for a governor to be appointed by the Sublime Porte. Although the letter prompted a response by Sultan Abdulaziz (r. 1861–1876), pressure from European governments limited it to a letter to the Dutch proposing to mediate the conflict and, later, an official warning against Dutch actions in Aceh, as well as an imperial honor for Abdurrahman az-Zahir in December.[46]
Yemen
In 1873 Ottoman troops from
Capitulations in Syria and Palestine
On 12 May 1874 Rashid Pasha made a formal request to the British to terminate protection of an undefined number of Ashkenazi Jews in Syria and Palestine.[49] In the 1850s, about 1,000 Jews had been given British protection, a number which continued to grow in the following decades.[50] Although generally recognizing the Ottoman imperial government to be among the most religiously tolerant in the world, Ashkenazi Jews who had settled in Ottoman territory lacked trust in local officials, who had been known to be corrupt or incompetent, and preferred European protection. Per capitulations treaties with the Sublime Porte, European governments could use force if their citizens or protégés were harmed, though in practice, consular warnings to local officials proved sufficient.[51] The Ottoman government initially favored the protection system as it increased foreigners' security and promoted trade while saving the Ottomans from security responsibilities for foreign citizens. Beginning in the 1850s, the Ottoman government began to consider the capitulations as a humiliating interference in its sovereign affairs.[52] In conveying the Sublime Porte's objectives of persuading foreign Jews to acquire Ottoman citizenship and refusing the European powers' rights of protection, Rashid Pasha informed the British that "Times have changed ... protection has become an obsolescent institution ... a fruitful source of trouble and dispute".[49]
Death
During a meeting of top cabinet officials in the Istanbul home of
Notes
- Nesrin Kadın during an abortion at the same time. In the aftermath of these events, Hassan felt he was consequently mistreated by Huseyin Avni Pasha who, believing Hassan was dangerous, assigned him to a faraway army post in Baghdad.[54]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Abu-Manneh 1992, p. 16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hudson 2008, p. 23.
- ^ Kosev 1982, p. 127, note 63.
- ^ a b Günüç 2007, p. 41.
- ^ a b c Abu-Manneh 1999, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d Spagnolo 1971, p. 160.
- ^ Clarke 1863, p. 45.
- ^ Dânişmend 1971, pp. 78, 81–83.
- ^ a b Schilcher 1981, p. 172.
- ^ a b Talhami 2011, p. 37.
- ^ Abu-Manneh 1992, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Sluglett 2010, p. 534, note 8.
- ^ Burton 1876, pp. 99–100.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Schilcher 1981, p. 174.
- ^ Spagnolo 1971, pp. 160–161.
- ^ a b Spagnolo 1971, p. 162.
- ^ a b c d e f Hudson 2008, p. 24.
- ^ Hill 2020, p. 43.
- ^ Issawi 1988, p. 12.
- ^ Hill 2020, pp. 42–44.
- ^ a b c d Rogan 1994, p. 38.
- ^ Hudson 2008, p. 20.
- ^ Talhami 2011, p. 38.
- ^ Hudson 2008, p. 25.
- ^ a b c d e Schilcher 1981, p. 173.
- ^ a b Firro 1992, p. 191.
- ^ Firro 1992, p. 192.
- ^ Rogan 1994, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Rogan 1994, p. 39.
- ^ Rogan 1994, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b Rogan 1994, p. 40.
- ^ a b Rogan 1994, p. 41.
- ^ Rogan 1994, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Palmer 1871, p. 298.
- ^ Schilcher 1981, pp. 160, 162–163.
- ^ a b Abu-Manneh 1992, p. 20.
- ^ Abu-Manneh 1992, p. 22.
- ^ a b The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1873, Volume 13. New York: D. Appleton. 1874. p. 744.
- ^ Maynard 1877, p. 601.
- ^ Manna 2000, p. 284.
- ^ Schölch 1993, p. 244.
- ^ Harris 1969, p. 156.
- ^ Göksoy 2011, p. 87.
- ^ Göksoy 2011, p. 88.
- ^ Göksoy 2011, p. 89.
- ^ Göksoy 2011, p. 90.
- ^ Farah 1998, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Farah 1998, p. 49.
- ^ a b Friedman 1998, p. 36.
- ^ Friedman 1998, p. 32.
- ^ Friedman 1998, p. 30.
- ^ Friedman 1998, p. 33.
- ^ a b c d Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1876, Volume 16. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1886. p. 761.
- ^ a b c d e f Reid 2000, pp. 312–313.
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