Mustafa Reshid Pasha - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MUSTAFA RESHID PASHA (1800-1858), Turkish statesman and diplomatist, was born at Constantinople in 1800. He entered the public service at an early age and rose rapidly, becoming ambassador at Paris in 1834 and in London 1836, minister for foreign affairs 1837, again ambassador in London 1838, and in Paris 1841. Appointed vali of Adrianople in 1843, he returned as ambassador to Paris in the same year. Between 1845 and 1857 he was six times grand vizier. One of the greatest and most brilliant statesmen of his time, thoroughly acquainted with European politics, and well versed in affairs, he was a convinced if somewhat too ardent partisan of reform and the principal author of the legislative remodelling of Turkish administrative methods known as the Tanzimat. His ability was recognized alike by friend and by foe. In the settlement of the Egyptian question in 1840, and during the Crimean War and the ensuing peace negotiations, he rendered valuable services to the state.