Saffet Pasha

Who was Saffet Pasha?

Mehmed Esad Saffet Paşa was a 19th-century Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

As grand vizier to the sultan, he held absolute power of attorney and was, in principle, dismissable only by the sultan himself. He held the imperial seal and could convene all other viziers to attend to affairs of the state; his offices were located at the Sublime Porte. He has also been termed sadr-ı âlî, vekil-i mutlak, sâhib-i devlet, and zât-ı âsafî. At the period he lived in, grand viziers had come to assume a role more like that of the prime ministers of contemporary Western monarchies.