Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha


Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha, was a Georgian statesman of the Ottoman Empire.

Career

Halil Rifat Pasha was a slave, protégé and later rival of Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha. He first served as the Ambassador to Russia from 1829–1830. He then served as grand admiral for four times from 1830–1832, 1843–1845, 1847–1848 and 1854–1855, as well as chairman of the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances from 1842–1845 and 1849–1850. He also served as serasker from 1836–1838 and 1839–1840. This placed him in a good position to build and maintain a conservative group, usually in corporation with Hüsrev Pasha.

Personal life

His first wife was Saliha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mahmud II and Aşubcan Kadın. The marriage took place on 24 May 1834 in the Beşiktaş Waterfront Palace. The wedding ceremony was covered in the first official Ottoman newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi. The couple owned the Neşatabad Palace located in Ortaköy Defterdarburnu and the Fındıklı Palace. The two together had one son named Sultanzade Abdul Hamid Bey, born on 22 March 1835, who died young in 1837.
After Saliha's death in 1843, he married Ismet Hanım. The two together had one son, Damat Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, who married Seniha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I, and the granddaughter of Mahmud II. He was the father of Sultanzade Sabahaddin. He is also the ancestor of Ziya Songülen.

Death

Hali Rifat Pasha died at Istanbul on 3 March 1856.