Sadrazam Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Paşa: 1832-1913
Abstract
Although there has been many documents written about Sultan II Abdülhamit of Ottoman Empire in recession period, there is no any serious study about the most important Grand Vizier Mehmet Kâmil Pasha from Cyprus. The studies about him only include some part of his political career and events. In our study, we concentrated not only on Mehmet Kâmil Pasha' s political career but also his whole life (his family, his character and scientific studies) as we thought it would be beneficial for understanding and clarifying the position of Ottoman Empire during that period. The thesis " Sadrazam Kıbrıslı Mehmet Paşa (1832- 1913)" is mainly based on the documents left to Credit Lyonnais Bank on 1913 by Mehmet Kâmil Pasha which were then given to his sons Nazım and Hilmi Bey's on 1942; which were then donated by Nazım and Hilmi Bey' s to Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives on 1989. In addition, other archives and memories related to that period as well as some printed manuscripts and periodicals are used. The interview with Mehmet Kâmil Pasha's living family members gave us the XIopportunity to obtain oral and written information regarding his life. This study is composed of 6 main chapters in addition to introduction, results, and references. In the introduction part the general condition of the Ottoman Empire in the recession period is given in chronological order up to Mehmet Kâmil Pasha, the most important political period i.e. his being the Grand Vizier. In the first chapter information about Mehmet Kâmil Pasha's family, his birth place and date, and his education is given. In the second chapter we tried to enlighten Mehmet Kâmil Pasha' s political career starting from his first official duty as the headmaster of pious foundation of Cyprus island; his accountancies, his junstinctions, his duties as the governor of some provinces. The third chapter includes his Grand Vizierate's. The important events like Şarkî Rumeli and Egypt problems, that took place in his Grand Vizierate are also investigated and clarified in this chapter. The fourth chapter includes the supporting and criticizing publications on Mehmet Kâmil Pasha and xnspecifically the publication of Sait Pasha against him; espionage's and assassinations against him. In the fifth chapter, Mehmet Kâmil Pasha' s return to Cyprus as a result of ending of his political career, his death, his property and his character is mentioned. In the sixth chapter, we tried to present Mehmet Kâmil Pasha' s literary character besides his political career and investigate the literary pieces written by him. The final chapter includes our results about Mehmet Kâmil Pasha' s political career and his whole life once again as a summary. The references are composed of three main section. The first section includes the Archive documents; the second the printed manuscripts and the third the periodicals. During our study we get an opportunity to recognize Mehmet Kâmil Pasha in detail, who was among the most important Grand Vizier' s of Ottoman Empire in recession period; and here we commemorate him with our sincere gratitutes for his services and duties in government. We apologize if we disturbed or hurt Mehmet Kâmil Pasha and/or his family members either physical or spiritual; however, our aim is not to slander anybody but. to seek and explore the truth in the light of documents. xmI would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Mustafa KAFALI for his guidance in preparation of this manuscript and to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Azmi SÜSLÜ for his invaluable, constant and vigilant guidance; for his support and encouragement throughout this study.