Ali Paşa, Mehmed Emin - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Herzog, Christoph
Leiden
Brill
(640 words)
Mehmed Emin Ali Paşa (Meḥmed Emīn ʿAlī Pasha, 1815-71) was an important Ottoman official and one of the architects of the Tanzimat (Tanẓīmāt). Mehmed Emin was born in Istanbul in February 1815. His father, Ali Rıza Efendi (ʿAlī Riḍā Efendi), was a shopkeeper in the Egyptian market. After the death of his father he was forced to abandon his religious education but was able, through the mediation of one of his father's friends, to enter the secretariat of the Imperial Divan (Dīvān), where he obtained his sobriquet ( mahlas,