Mehmed Rashid Pasha

Mehmed Râshid Pasha
Rashid Pasha c. 1870s
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ottoman Empire
In office November 1875 – 15 June 1876
Monarch	Abdulaziz (1861–1876)
Preceded by	Saffet Pasha
Succeeded by	Saffet Pasha
In office 15 May 1873 – May 1874
Preceded by	Saffet Pasha
Succeeded by	Ahmed Arifi Pasha
Vali of Syria
In office August 1866 – September 1871
Preceded by	As'ad Mukhlis Pasha
Succeeded by	Abdullatif Subhi Pasha
Vali of Smyrna
In office c. 1862 – Summer 1866
Personal details
Born	1824 Egypt, Ottoman Empire
Died	15 June 1876 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire

Mehmed Rashid Pasha (Turkish: Mehmed Râşid Paşa, Arabic: محمد راشد باشا, romanized: Muḥammad Rāshid Basha; 1824–15 June 1876) was an Ottoman statesman who served as the vali (governor) of Syria Vilayet in 1866–1871 and as minister of foreign affairs of the Ottoman government in 1873–1874 and 1875 until his death. Rashid Pasha was raised in Egypt where his father was an aide of the governor Muhammad Ali and was educated in Paris before joining government service in Istanbul in 1851. There he became a protege of the grand vizier Ali Pasha, a key figure in the empire-wide Tanzimat reforms. After the latter was reappointed grand vizier in 1866, Rashid Pasha was appointed governor of the Damascus-centered Syria Vilayet which extended from Tripoli and Hama in the north to Palestine and Transjordan in the south.

As governor, Rashid Pasha enacted numerous administrative reforms, including the creation of the Damascus and Beirut municipal councils, the Syrian provincial council and the Syrian parliament, while ensuring that the office of amir al-hajj (commander of the annual Hajj caravan) was only filled by a local. He launched numerous public works projects, significantly expanding Syria's road and telegraph networks. He also sought to bring order to Syria's chaotic land ownership laws and encouraged private purchases of state-owned land, which ultimately benefited the urban elite to the detriment of the peasantry. His main goal was to integrate Syria and its hinterland firmly into the Ottoman state after a long period of virtual autonomy and imperial neglect. To that end, he launched military campaigns in the Alawite-dominated coastal range, the central Syrian steppe and the southern Hauran and Balqa plains, all rural regions that long resisted Ottoman taxation and conscription. Unlike his predecessors, however, Rashid Pasha ultimately achieved the cooperation of the mutually hostile Muslim plainsmen, Druze mountaineers and Bedouin tribesmen by equitably distributing resources and duties among them while maintaining a strong military presence. He viewed his strategy as necessary for the prosperity of the region and joint resistance against increasing European commercial encroachments in the lucrative Syrian grain trade.

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.