Mahmud Pasha (1853–1903)

Damat Mahmud Jalaluddin Pasha (b. Istanbul 1853 - d. Brussels (17 January 1903) was an Ottoman statesman, poet and writer.

Biography
His father was the Ottoman naval officer Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha of Georgian descent and his mother was Ismet Hanım, his third wife (his second wife was the late Saliha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mahmud II). He lost his father at a young age and after special education and two years in the Paris embassy, improved himself and learned French. His first marriage was with Hadjer Hanim, and later he married also Iffet Hanım. By his first two wives, he had three sons. In 1876, he divorced his wives to be able to marry Seniha Sultan, the daughter of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid. They married in February 1877, and he became a Damat to the Ottoman Dynasty. By Seniha, he had two sons, Sultanzade Mehmed Sabahaddin (1879–1948) and Sultanzade Ahmed Lutfullah (1880–1973).

He was for several years Minister of Justice in the Ottoman Empire, but was critical of Sultan Abdul Hamid's governance, never missing an occasion to speak out. Eventually he had had enough of being followed and spied on, so in 1899, he took both of his sons and fled to Europe, living successively in the United Kingdom, Italy and France before he died in Belgium and was buried in Paris. His sons were able to return to Istanbul only in 1908, after the declaration of the second constitution.

He died on 17 January 1903 in Brussels. His widow survived revolution and exile of the Imperial family in 1924, and had a difficult life in France until she died in 1931.

In popular culture
Between 2017 and 2021, he was played by actor Hakan Boyav in TRT's Payitaht: Abdülhamid series.