Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha

Halil Rifat Pasha was a slave, protégé and later rival of Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha. He first served as the ambassador to Russia from 1829 to 1830.[1] He then served as grand admiral for four times from 1830 to 1832, 1843–1845, 1847–1848 and 1854–1855,[2] as well as chairman of the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances ("Meclis-i Vâlâ") from 1842 to 1845 and 1849–1850. He also served as serasker from 1836 to 1838 and 1839–1840. This placed him in a good position to build and maintain a conservative group, usually in corporation with Hüsrev Pasha.[3]

His first wife was Saliha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mahmud II and Aşubcan Kadın. The marriage took place on 24 May 1834 in the Beşiktaş Waterfront Palace.[4] The wedding ceremony was covered in the first official Ottoman newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi.[5] The couple owned the Neşatabad Palace located in Ortaköy Defterdarburnu and the Fındıklı Palace.[6] The two together had a son, Sultanzade Abdul Hamid Bey, born on 22 March 1835, and who died young in 1837.[7][8][9]

After Saliha's death in 1843, he married Ismet Hanım.[10] The two together had one daughter, Ayşe Sıdıka Hanım,[11][12] and one son, Damat Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha. He married three times. His first wife was Hacer Hanım, with whom he had a son Halil Rifat Bey. His second wife was Iffet Hanım, with whom he had two sons, Ali Fuad Bey and Âsım Bey.[13] His third wife was Seniha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I, and the granddaughter of Mahmud II, with whom he had two sons, Sultanzade Sabahaddin[14] and Sultanzade Lutfullah Bey.[13]

Ayşe Sıdıka married Server Pasha,[11][12] and had two daughters, Azize Hanım, who married Hariciyeci Suad Bey, and was the mother of Ziya Songülen, and Fatma Hanım, who married Fehmi Bey, son of grand vizier Mehmed Esad Saffet Pasha, and had one son Halil Bey and a daughter Belkis Hanım.[15]

Hali Rifat Pasha died in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey) on 3 March 1856.[16]

• List of Kapudan Pashas