Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Aarifi Pasha
AARIFI PASHA (his Excellency), was born at Constantinople in 1830, being the son of Shekib Pasha, a distinguished diplomatist. At the age of fifteen he was employed as a supernumerary in the offices of the Divan, and in 1847 he accompanied his father on a mission to Rome. Subsequently he went with his father to the Embassy at Vienna, where he resided for two years. On his return to Constantinople he applied himself assiduously to the study of languages; and he was employed in various capacities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some years later he accompanied Aali-Pasha to Vienna as First Secretary, and a year afterwards he went to discharge the same duty at Paris. His knowledge of the French language led to his appointment as First Translator at Paris to the Sublime Porte, and afterwards as First Interpreter to the Divan. The latter office he held till 1872. Subsequently to that date he occupied several important posts in Turkey, being successively Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Surveyor of Ordnance, President of the Executive Chamber of Justice, and President of the Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation. He next resumed his diplomatic career as Ambassador at Vienna; and in 1873 he returned to the office of First Interpreter to the Divan, and held it for about a twelvemonth. In 1874 Aarifi Pasha was nominated Minister of Public Instruction; three months later. Minister of Justice, and then, again, Ambassador at Vienna. On the establishment of the new Ottoman Constitution he was appointed President of the Senate, and soon afterwards received the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. He was accredited Ambassador of the Sublime Porte at Paris Nov. 5, 1877, in succession to Khalil Sheriff Pasha. On July 28, 1879, the Sultan issued a decree abolishing the post of Grand Vizier and appointing Aarifi Pasha Prime Minister, with Safvet Pasha as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The new ministry, however, had but a very brief tenure of office.