Said Halim Pasha (1865–1921) 147

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Chapter 11 Said Halim Pasha (1865–1921)

Life

Said Halim was born in Cairo at the palace of Shubra on 28 January 1865. He was the grandson of Muhammad Ali, the founder of modern Egypt. In 1869, Said Halim’s father, Prince Halim Pasha, was forced to leave Egypt in the wake of a dispute with the ruling khedive, Ismail Pasha (r. 1863–1879), over the matter of succession. In 1866 Prince Halim, the youngest son of Muhammad Ali, had been deprived of his right to assume the khedivate by a ferman (imperial edict) issued by the Ottoman sultan, Abdülaziz (r. 1861–1876), suzerain of Egypt. The new law of succession was based on primogeniture, thereby depriving the other male members of the khedive’s family of any claim to the throne. The real motive behind this exclusion was Khedive Ismail’s desire to secure the Egyptian throne for his own son Tawfiq (r. 1879–1892). The khedive won the support of the sultan for his case by means of some fiscal concessions. Reacting to this change, which excluded him from the line of succession to the Egyptian throne, Prince Halim attempted a coup d’état in order to overthrow the khedive. The coup was aborted and Prince Halim was exiled.1 After leaving Egypt, Prince Halim and his four-year-old son Said Halim moved to Istanbul. Upon arriving in the Ottoman capital Halim Pasha bought a yalı (seafront mansion) in Balta Limanı. Halim Pasha also erected a smaller residence on the edge of the forest facing his property, which was named Süngerli Köşk (Sponge Pavilion) because of the texture of its marble walls. Halim Pasha also constructed a hunting lodge in Alemdağ, a hill near the Asi- atic shore of the Bosphorus. Sultan Abdülhamid immediately built a gendarme station just outside the boundaries of Halim Pasha’s property in order to watch him. In his father’s mansion, the young Said Halim learned Arabic, Persian, French and English, among other subjects, from his tutors. In 1880, when he was fifteen, Said Halim was sent with his younger brother, Abbas Halim, to Geneva to further pursue his education. Said Halim remained in Switzerland for five years, where he studied political science.2

1 Ahmet Şeyhun, Said Halim Pasha, Ottoman Statesman Islamist Thinker (1865–1921), Istanbul: Isis Press, 2003, p. 45 (hereafter cited as Şeyhun, Said Halim). 2 Şeyhun, Said Halim, p 46.

After returning to Istanbul in 1885, Said Halim and his brother Abbas Halim were presented by their father to the sultan with the words, “I raised two slaves for your majesty.” Sultan Abdülhamid decorated Said Halim with the second rank Mecidi Order, and bestowed upon him the title of pasha on 13 May 1888. On 21 May 1888, he was appointed to the State Council. This was followed by a series of honors and decorations awarded by the sultan. In February 1889, he received the order of âli -i Osmani, second rank (ikinci rütbeden nişan-i âli -i Osmani); on 23 April 1892, the order of âli -i Osmani, first rank (birinci rütbeden nişan-i-âli-i Osmani); and on 17 November 1899, the jeweled medal of Sultan Mecid (Murassa Mecidi nişan-i zi sani). On 22 September 1900, Said Halim Pasha was promoted to the rank of Governor-General of the European prov- inces of the empire (Rumeli Beylerbeyi). All of these awards and honors were bestowed upon Said Halim by the sultan to assure the pasha’s loyalty and to prevent him from joining the opposition. In 1894 Said Halim’s father, Halim Pasha, died. The following year Said Halim Pasha married Princess Emine Tosun Hanım, and from this marriage Said Halim fathered two sons: Prince Mehmed Abdel Halim Bey Turkhan (1896–1960) and Prince Ömer İbrahim Halim Bey (1898–1954). Disturbed by this suffocating atmosphere, Said Halim lost interest in public affairs and began to neglect his duties on the State Council and to withdraw to his mansion on the Bosphorus. There he devoted most of his time and energy to the study of Islamic history and institutions and began to reflect on the crisis that afflicted the contemporary Muslim world. Even these intellectual activi- ties did not pass unnoticed by the vigilant censors of an autocratic regime, which was intolerant of any activity that raised the suspicions of the sultan. Consequently, upon a report by a jurnalci (an informant for Abdülhamid’s in- telligence service), Said Halim’s residence was searched and he was forced to leave the country. First, in the winter of 1905, Said Halim went to Paris, where he officially be- came a member of the CUP. Later he went to Egypt where he had a palace built on Champollion Street by Italian architect Antonio Lasasciac. There he be- came the biggest shareholder of the Société Belgo-Egyptiénne de Ezbekié, founded in 1899 in Cairo’s Azbakeya district. He also established direct close relations with the Young Turk movement and provided financial support for the journal Osmanlı. Said Halim took on the job of inspector of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in 1906. Presumably Said Halim had already been in contact with the Young Turks while living in Istanbul. After the restoration of the Constitution on 24 July 1908, Said Halim and other expatriates returned to Istanbul. Although he was in exile, Said Halim’s membership on the State Council had continued, and it was only on 3 September 1908, following the restoration of the Constitution, that he was officially relieved of his position. In