Damad Mehmed Ali Pasha

Who was Damad Mehmed Ali Pasha?

Damat Mehmet Ali Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and diplomat. He served as the Grand Vizier from October 3, 1852 to May 14, 1853, on the eve of the Crimean War. Along with Fuad Pasha and Mustafa Reşit Pasha, he was one of the main reformers of the Tanzimat era.

Mehmet Ali was born in Hemşin, a city along the Black Sea coast in modern Turkey, and was of ethnic Hemshin descent. He was the son of an Istanbul shopkeeper and worked in the translation office of the Ottoman empire before being made Ottoman ambassador to the United Kingdom at the age of 26. He married Princess Adile Sultan, the daughter of sultan Mahmud II, and thus became "Damat" to the Ottoman dynasty.