Koca Ragıb Paşa

Died in 1763

Mehmed Râgıb was born in Istanbul in 1698, the son of a clerk in the registry office. Trained in the bureaux rather than in the madrasas, he served as secretary and financial officer in Baghdad and in Persia, took part in the negotiations of Belgrade in 1739 and became head of the chancery. Governor of Egypt, then of other provinces, he was appointed grand vizier in 1757 and remained so until his death, keeping the Empire out of the Seven Years' War. He founded a library in Istanbul, opened in 1763, which today holds 1,274 manuscripts. He died in office on 8 April 1763.

In the catalogue 1

PoetryDîvânKoca Ragıb Paşa · 1760not translated into EnglishLiterature