Edhem Pasha as a Ottoman statesman in the Nineteenth Century

It is one of the most difficult subjects of historiography to look at the historical events from the view of one single person. As a human himself, it is extremely difficult for the historian to be objective towards other people. In this research which was made with consciousness of this difficulty, Edhem Pasha, Ottoman statesman in the 19th century, is discussed. The main focus of the Thesis which is trying to enlighten the thick foggy atmosphere covering his place of Birth, his family and his origins by the help of various sources and archival documents is how Edhem Pasha occupies a place in the modernization process of Ottoman State and Society. In the light of domestic and foreign sources it was tried to give detailed explanations about the points of his being one of the first Ottoman students sent to Europe, his education life which lasted about 10 years of serious study in Paris and the questions of in what field and how he took advantage of his professional training when he returned home. In the Tanzimat Era Edhem Pasha stood out mostly as a bureaucrat and technocrat and he took attention with his successful performances in the field of Education and Ministry of Public Works (Nafıa). On the contrary it is not seemingly possible to say that he showed the same success during his short-term positions in politics. Partly as one under the shadow in that field, so far he has been deprived of a detailed examination of our historiography. In spite of all, in his life story of over 70 years reaching up to 1893, he was able to leave such a multi-directional and colorful life behind to become a subject for an original research.