Mehmed Ferid Paşa

Mehmed Ferid Pasha (, , ; 1851, Yanya, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Ioannina, Greece) – 1914, Sanremo, Kingdom of Italy) was an Ottoman-Albanian statesman. He served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 15 January 1903 until 22 July 1908,

Biography Mehmed Ferid Pasha was born in Vlorë in the year 1851, back then it was in the Ottoman Empire, today in Albania. He was descended from the distinguished wealthy landowning Vlora family that had much influence in Southern Albania (up to Preveza) and Central Albania and provided the Ottoman state with senior officials for more than four centuries. His brother Syrja Vlora served as economic advisor to Sultan Abdul Hamid II and other family members included the modern Albanian state founder Ismail Qemal bey Vlora. During his youth, Ferid attended the Greek high school Zosimea in Yanina for his education and learned Greek, French, and Italian. In the late 1870s, Ferid Pasha had been involved with the Society for the Publication of Albanian Letters.

Ferid Pasha was appointed as Grand Vizier (sadrazam) by Abdul Hamid II in 1903, after the sultan had defeated the League of Peja movement and closed down all Albanian schools in Albania. He brought to the job solid bureaucratic experience and a network of ethnic Albanian connections from a strategic and important area of the empire. As the newly appointed Grand Vizier, Ferid Pasha wanted strong precautions taken against the Young Turk movement to thwart any possible coup d'état attempts on the sultan. In February 1904, Ferid Pasha ordered Necib Efendi, mutasarrif of Elbasan to be transferred from his post, due to charges of bad morals and impotence.

In March 1906, a revolt broke out in Erzurum over high taxation and Ferid Pasha refused the demands of the rebels stating that taxation rates were the same throughout the empire without exceptions.

Geopolitics and the Albanian question were a focus of Ferid Pasha who expressed concerns during May 1906.

During the Young Turk Revolution (1908), the Grand Vizer's office instructed Hilmi Pasha to send an official to investigate the reason for the gathering at Firzovik and disperse the Albanian crowd without force. The sultan sacked Ferid Pasha on 23 July 1908 and replaced him with Mehmed Said Pasha after he failed to prevent the Young Turk Revolution and keep Albanians loyal to the state of which some were involved in those events. His time as Grand Vizier for five years, six months, and eight days would be the third longest during the reign of Abdul Hamid II, representing the sultan's reliance on Albanian Muslims. In 1912, with the Albanian revolt and deteriorating situation in Kosovo, sultan Mehmed V asked Ferid Pasha to become interior minister and member of a new government.

His third son Jalaluddin Pasha married Princess Atiyetullah Khanum Efendi, the oldest daughter of Abbas II of Egypt.