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Koca Mehmet Ragıp Pasha (1698–1763) was an Ottoman statesman who served as a civil servant before 1744 as the provincial governor of Egypt from 1744 to 1748 and Grand Vizier from 1757 to 1763. He was also known as a poet. His epithet ''Koca'' means "great" or "giant" in Turkish.
He was appointed as Grand Vizier on 12 January 1757 by the sultan
Early years
His father was Şevki Mustafa, a bureaucrat in the Ottoman Empire. After completing his education, Mehmet Ragıp worked in various parts of the empire as a civil servant. He served as the chief treasurer inBaghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
(then a part of the Ottoman Empire). He was a member of Ottoman representatives in the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739. He was promoted to the post of ''reis ül-küttab
The ''Reis ül-Küttab'' ( ota, رئيس الكتاب), or ''Reis Efendi'' (), was a senior post in the administration of the Ottoman Empire. Translated as "chief of the katib, scribes" or "head clerk", the holder of the post was originally the hea ...
'' (equivalent to a modern foreign minister) in 1740. He was the governor of Ottoman Egypt from 1744 to 1748, when he was forced to step down by local troops.
As Grand Vizier
He was appointed as Grand Vizier on 12 January 1757 by the sultan Osman III
Osman III ( ota, عثمان ثالث ''Osmān-i sālis''; 2 January 1699 – 30 October 1757) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1754 to 1757.
Early life
Osman III was born on 2 January 1699 in the Edirne Palace. His father was Must ...
. When Osman III died ten months later, Mehmet Ragıp Pasha continued under the new sultan Mustafa III with whom he had very good relations. He married Saliha
Saliha ( ar, صَلْحَة), sometimes transliterated Salha, meaning 'the good/healthy place', was a Palestinian Arab village located 12 kilometres northwest of Safed.
The Franco-British boundary agreement of 1920 placed Saliha within the Fr ...
, the sultan's sister, and gained the title '' damat'' ( en, bridegroom).
Ragıp's term was during an Ottoman decline. He nevertheless enacted reforms to Ottoman administration and treasury. For the first time Ottoman revenues exceed expenditures. He was an adherent of peace policy. His term in the office almost coincides with the Seven Years' War in Europe (1756-1763). Despite the danger of war, he was able to keep the Ottoman Empire out of conflict. Upon his death, Mustafa III wrote an elegy ( tr, ağıt) expressing his sorrow for his good friend.Prof. Yaşar Yüce-Prof. Ali Sevim: ''Türkiye tarihi Cilt III'', AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, İstanbul, 1991 p 35
See also
* List of Ottoman Grand Viziers *List of Ottoman governors of Egypt
The Ottoman Empire's governors of Egypt from 1517 to 1805 were at various times known by different but synonymous titles, among them '' beylerbey'', viceroy, governor, governor-general, or, more generally, ''wāli''. Furthermore, the Ottoman ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragip, Koca 1698 births 1763 deaths 18th-century Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire 18th-century Ottoman governors of Egypt Turks from the Ottoman Empire Reis ül-Küttab Damats Politicians from Istanbul Ottoman governors of Egypt