Halet Efendi

Mehmet Sait Halet Efendi (1761–1822) was an Ottoman diplomat and politician, ambassador to Paris from 1803 to 1806^[1] and later the favourite and Inner Minister of the Sultan Mahmud II.^[2] He was ambassador to the court of Napoleon I until 1806,^[3] and was succeeded in this role by Muhib Efendi, who was ambassador from 1806 to 1811.^[4]

Turbaned Ottoman ambassador Halet Efendi in The Coronation of Napoleon in 1805, by Jacques-Louis David (detail).

In 1819, Halet Efendi brought the attention of Sultan Mahmud II to the power-grabbing activities of Ali Pasha in Ottoman Europe. As Mahmud II sent an army against Ali Pasha, the latter responded by encouraging a rebellion against Ottoman power in Greece. These event led to the catastrophic Greek insurrection in 1821. Considered by the Sultan as contributing to the rebellion, Halet was banished from the court before being assassinated in Konya, present-day Turkey, in November 1822. He was strangled and beheaded.^[1][5]

The "Halet Efendi Faction" (a group of conservative elites) actively worked to undermine early Tanzimat policies before being purged by Sultan Mahmud II. While the Tanzimat is often portrayed as a top-down reform movement, there was significant resistance from within the Ottoman bureaucracy. Some conservative officials formed secret committees to oppose reforms, particularly those that threatened their privileges.^[6]

See also

• Franco-Ottoman alliance