Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi

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Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi (1848-1917) was educated in Ottoman and Islamic law and served in the Ottoman judiciary as Kadi of Istanbul (Chief Judge) in 1884, then was appointed Chief Judge of Anatolia (Anadolu Kazaskeri) in 1888 and Chief Judge of Rumelia (European parts of the Ottoman Empire) in 1890. His father, Sheyh Ahmed Halid Efendi, was also a member of the judiciary and served as Kazasker and as a Minister. His mother was a member of the noted Kevabibiye family and a daughter of Mehmed Said Efendi. On 4th September 1891 he became the Sheyhulislam, or Cabinet Minister in charge of religious and legal matters, at the age of 43. He remained in this post for 16 years and 11 months, and then was reappointed on three other occasions for shorter periods, holding this post for a total of nearly 18 years, becoming the second longest holder of this important post in Ottoman history, after Ali Zembilli Efendi. An opponent of the pro-German and war oriented policy of the Union and Progress party, he was exiled to Egypt in 1913, and died in Ramleh, Egypt, on 5th April 1917 at the age of 79. When his body was brought to Istanbul, it laid in state at the Topkapi Palace and he is now buried at the Edirnekapi Shehitlik Cemetery in Istanbul. His memoirs were first published in Istanbul in 1920, and then edited by Selim Kutsan and re-published in modern Turkish under the title "Siyasi Hatiralarim" (My Political Memoirs) by the publisher Nehir Yayinlari (Istanbul) in 1990. Reading these memoirs, one understands the secular nature of the political analysis that pervaded the leadership of the late Ottoman period.