Halil Hamid Paşa

The Imperial School of Engineering Muhendishane, in Tableau des nouveaux reglemens de l'Empire Ottoman by Mahmoud Rayf Efendi, Constantinople, 1789.

Halil Hamid Pasha, also Khaleel Hameed Basha (1736–1785) was the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 31 December 1782 to 30 April 1785. He was especially instrumental in inviting foreign experts, especially French ones, to the Ottoman Empire from 1784.

As a result, French missions were sent to the Ottoman Empire to train the Ottoman Navy in naval warfare and fortification building. Up to the French Revolution in 1789, about 300 French artillery officers and engineers were active in the Ottoman Empire to modernize and train artillery units.

From 1784, André-Joseph Lafitte-Clavé and Joseph-Monnier de Courtois instructed engineering drawings and techniques in the new Turkish engineering school Mühendishâne-i Hümâyûn established by Halil Hamid Pasha. Mostly French textbooks were used on mathematics, astronomy, engineering, weapons, war techniques and navigation. Secret correspondence between Selim III and Louis XVI was discovered, and a plot against the current ruler was alleged.