Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi

Who was Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi?

Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi was a senior judge of the Ottoman Empire.

His father, Sheikh Yusufzâde Hâlid Efendi, was a member of the judiciary and served as Kazasker and as a minister. His mother was a member of the Kevabibiye family and a daughter of Mehmed Said Efendi.

Mehmet Cemaleddin was educated in Ottoman and Islamic law, and served in the Ottoman judiciary as Kadi of Istanbul in 1884. He was appointed Chief Judge of Anatolia in 1888 and Chief Judge of Rumelia, the European parts of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, in 1890. On 4 September 1891, at the age of 43, he was appointed Şeyhülislam, the Cabinet Minister in charge of religious and legal matters. He remained in this post for 16 years and 11 months, and was later reappointed on three other occasions for shorter periods, holding this post for a total of nearly 18 years, and becoming the second-longest holder of this post in Ottoman history, after Ali Zembilli Efendi. His son-in-law was the noted Turkish surgeon and mayor of Istanbul Prof. Cemil Topuzlu, also known as Cemil Pasha, whose name was given to a major boulevard in Istanbul, "Cemil Topuzlu Caddesi".