Kâmil Paşa were bitter rivals. Said Paşa served as
Prime Minister 9 times between 1879 and 1912, 7
of these tenures under Sultan Abdülhamid II, while
Kâmil Paşa served 4 times, between 1885 and 1913,
3 times for Abdülhamid II.
Sultan Abdülhamid II
In response to criticisms against him contained in
Said Paşa's memoirs, Kâmil Paşa wrote a personal
defense of himself and a scathing rebuke to Said
Paşa in 1911, entitled "Kâmil Paşa's Answers to
Said Paşa, President of the Chamber of Notables."
Kâmil Paşa
A section of Kâmil Paşa's book was devoted to the
fraught relationship between Abdülhamid and Said
Paşa, which Said Paşa himself recounted in his
memoirs. By thoroughly reading through Said Paşa's
two-volume memoir, Kâmil Paşa pointed out
incidents of torture and harsh treatment that Sultan
Abdülhamid inflicted on Said Paşa, as a way of
denigrating Said Paşa's character and alleging his
inveterate lust for power, even at the price of
persistent torture and humiliation by the Sultan.//
Said Paşa
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Said Paşa should realize that he cannot separate himself
from the fact of his inordinate ambition, as evidenced by
the 13 times he resigned, which he recounted in his
memoirs.
On the contrary, one can put forth hundreds of examples
of the feverish self-preservation and aloofness that
consumed him in his past activities. For instance, on page
357 of the first volume of his memoir he recounts that in
the second year following Sultan Abdülhamid’s accession
to the throne, before Said Paşa was assigned to
Hüdavendigâr province, he (Said Paşa) was followed by
two secret agents on the street; on page 31 of the same
volume, he states that 20 days after his first appointment
as Prime Minister he was subjected to a harsh reproach by
the Sultan who first attacked him with a dagger he drew
from his belt, warning him that even if he resigned it would
not be accepted.
On pages 85,86 and 87 of the same volume, Said Paşa
recounts that on the 19th of Muharrem, in the year 1300
(1884), at the time when Said Paşa was serving as
Prime Minister for the third time (sic fourth), after the
Sultan had violently screamed at and scolded him, he (the
Sultan) took a small revolver from a leather holster in his
pants pocket and pointed twice at Said Paşa’s head, after
which Said Paşa was held hostage for 18 hours in a room
between the harem and the Sultan’s office.
Lord Dufferin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire (1881-1884)
Based on the Sultan’s public and, mostly, secret reproaches
he suffered since the day he first met Sultan Abdülhamid,
Said Paşa confided to English Ambassador Lord Dufferin
that he (Said Paşa) might one day be held incommunicato
in the Palace and he asked that Lord Dufferin intercede for
him in such a circumstance.
//Ed. Note: herewith Said Paşa's account of the
incident://
"My man Ahmed Ağa was a smart military man and loyal
to me. When I was imprisoned in the Sultan’s quarters and
he learned of it he appealed to the Sultan for my release,
but in vain. His screams could be heard in the Sultan’s
quarters, as he fretted that my fate would be the same as
Çerkes Hasan’s (executed by the Sultan in 1876). Ahmed
Ağa was arrested but resisted the threats and pressure put
upon him. Because of the Sultan’s open, but mostly secret,
displays of fury against me since the day I first met him,
and based on my fear that one day I would be imprisoned
in the Palace, I informed English Ambassador Lord
Dufferin of my predicament and asked him to intercede
on my behalf should such an incident occur. In this case,
Lord Dufferin did, in fact, make an appeal to the Sultan
for me and came to my assistance."
//Ed. Note: Kâmil Paşa resumes://
"On pages 245 and 250 of the same volume, Said Paşa
stated that in 1300 (1884) and 1304 (1888) he was
subjected to surveillance and when Said Paşa wrote to
the Sultan objecting to this, he was summoned to the palace
and taken by one Mahmud Efendi to a small room on the
second floor. Said Paşa remained in this narrow place for
about an hour, at which time Said Paşa told Mahmud Efendi
that “I won’t stay here another minute! Do what you will!
Those who know me will do what they can for me!” . The
Sultan relented a bit, allowing Said Paşa to return to his
home towards dawn.
On pages 263,264, 265, 280 and 481 of the first volume,
Said Paşa wrote about the time just prior to when he was
made Prime Minister for the fifth time. Said Paşa was
summoned to the Palace, through the mediation of one Bekir
Bey, and asked to pledge his allegiance to the Caliphate.
He objected to the details of the pledge but on the 15th of the
month of Zilhicce 1312 ( 1896) he was forced to comply.
On page 329 of the first volume of his memoirs, Said Paşa
relates that one month after his 4-month service as Prime
Minister (1895), his fifth tenure in that position, he was
called back to another assignment at the palace and allowed
to reside in the Çit Köşkü (a mansion on the grounds of
Yıldız Palace). Said Paşa worked on the reform laws but
subsequently had to appeal to the English embassy for
sanctuary.
From pages 6 to 12 in the second volume of his memoirs,
Said Paşa claimed that after he returned from residing at the
English embassy, he continued to be observed and followed.
Between pages 24 and 28 of the second volume, Said Paşa
relates that one Hacı Mahmud Efendi told him that the
Sultan said ‘tonight I’m in great distress. I want Said Paşa
brought to me.’ That night the Sultan and Said Paşa
conversed about who knows what until midnight.
When one looks at these incidents, such as the Sultan
brandishing a gun at him, the imprisonment, the pressure
put upon him and who knows how many other events he
has not confessed to, it is clear that Said Paşa has given
these examples himself. No doubt there were worse things
that happened and yet , despite the fury that the Sultan
displayed against him time after time, Said Paşa served
as the Sultan’s Prime Minister seven times, confirming his
outrageous ambition and the unhealthy nature of their
relationship."
Yıldız Palace, upper left, in the 1890s.
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