Sometimes it takes centuries to change the fate of an Anatolian city; and sometimes the determination of a single man can leave marks for a century in four and a half years. For Konya, the name of that second case is Avlonyalı Mehmet Ferit Pasha. Governor of Konya between 1898 and 1902, this Ottoman statesman of Albanian origin brought the city drinking water, modern roads, schools, a school of industry and a museum, and then rose to the grand vizierate. Let us get to know this great transformer of Konya.
An Albanian Bey's Rise Through the Ottoman Bureaucracy
Ferit Pasha was born in 1851 in Yanya (Ioannina), today within the borders of Greece; the epithet "Avlonyalı" comes from his father Mustafa Nuri Pasha's post as governor of Avlonya (Vlorë). On his father's side his line goes back to the grand admiral Güveği Sinan Pasha, and on his mother's to Ali Pasha of Tepelena. After finishing the rüştiye and the Greek Lyceum in Yanya, he took seven years of lessons in Arabic, French, Italian and Greek from private tutors, becoming one of those rare statesmen who spoke eight languages, including Turkish, Ottoman, Persian and Albanian. The career he began in 1867 as chief clerk of the Rethymno criminal court continued in Candia, Crete, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Diyarbekir — he grew into a bureaucrat with close knowledge of every corner of the empire.
Governor of Konya: 27 March 1898 – 30 November 1902
Ferit Pasha was appointed governor of Konya when Gazi Osman Pasha, whom he had known in Bosnia, vouched for him to the sultan; he took office on 27 March 1898 with the rank of vizier. Lasting about four and a half years, this governorship made Konya the scene of "a programme of public works the like of which the Ottoman period had not seen for a long time" — the city was all but rebuilt.
A Solution to Konya's Drinking Water Problem: The Çayırbağı Water
Ferit Pasha's most striking achievement was solving the city's centuries-old water shortage. He decided to bring the spring water of the village of Çayırbağı, some 23 km southwest of Konya, into the city: 16,000 gold lira were raised from the public, iron pipes were brought from Belgium, the water was carried first to the station district, and then a reservoir was built on Alâeddin Hill — the structure known locally as the "Ferit Pasha maksem" still stands today. From there the water was distributed across the city through a new network, and the project was opened with a great ceremony in 1902. Providing clean, continuous drinking water to an Anatolian city that had struggled with thirst for centuries changed both public health and social life fundamentally.
Investment in Education: From the School of Industry to the İdadî
One of Ferit Pasha's most lasting legacies was in education. Built on the site of Konya's historic Bedesten to a design by the provincial chief engineer Şefik Bey, the Hamidiye School of Industry opened for teaching in September 1901; this boarding craft school would produce socks and vests for the front in the First World War, host the first showing of silent film when it came to Konya in 1915, and today house the Municipal Police Department of the Konya Metropolitan Municipality. In the same period the İdadî school — the nucleus of today's Konya High School, the Stone School — was reorganised; a model girls' school, 10 rüştiye schools, a large number of primary schools and a Darulmuallimin (teacher training college) were also opened. With this drive Konya became one of Anatolia's centres of education.
Security, Administration and 500 Kilometres of Road
Finding on his arrival a city where banditry was widespread, Ferit Pasha fought it hard, going out on patrol at night to restore public order, cracked down on corruption and strengthened appointment on merit — restoring the people's trust in the state. In transport too he made an extraordinary leap for his time: more than 500 kilometres of road were built, the broad avenue between the station and the city centre known today as Atatürk Avenue was opened, and a horse-drawn tram brought from Salonica became Konya's first form of public transport. That Atatürk was welcomed at the railway station on his first visit to Konya in 1920 was a direct result of the avenue Ferit Pasha had opened.
Industry, Irrigation and Culture: From the Konya Plain to a Museum
Ferit Pasha worked to revive Konya's carpet industry and laid the foundations of flour mills. His most visionary project was the Konya Plain Irrigation Project, which envisaged irrigating the plain by canals from Lake Beyşehir; the surveys began during his governorship, the contract was awarded during his grand vizierate (1907), and the works, completed between 1908 and 1914, turned the plain into one of Anatolia's most productive farming areas. The museum he founded in the same period — the nucleus of today's Konya Archaeological Museum — began gathering and protecting the historic works of the region, and he also led the restoration of Seljuk buildings.
The Grand Vizierate and His Final Years
The governorship of Konya was a springboard for Ferit Pasha: on 15 January 1903 he was appointed grand vizier by Abdülhamid II and entered Ottoman history as the last grand vizier before the Young Turk Revolution. In office until 22 July 1908 he dealt with the Macedonian crisis and Young Turk opposition; he was dismissed with the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Era. In later years he served as a member of the Senate, as Minister of the Interior and as acting governor of Aydın; he died on 8 December 1914 in San Remo in Italy, where he had gone because of heart trouble, and his body was taken to Avlonya and buried in the family cemetery. An important note: Avlonyalı Ferit Pasha is often confused with Damat Ferit Pasha (1853–1923), the grand vizier of the National Struggle period — they are two different people.
Ferit Pasha's Legacy in Konya
Walking through Konya today it is almost impossible not to cross his path: Atatürk Avenue, the Ferit Pasha water house and fountain on Alâeddin Hill, the Hamidiye School of Industry building, the nucleus of Konya High School, the first inventory of the Konya Archaeological Museum, the foundations of the irrigation canals feeding the Konya Plain — all are the concrete legacy of a governorship of four and a half years. The more abstract legacy is that Ferit Pasha is remembered as the first governor to turn Konya from an Ottoman provincial town into a modern Anatolian city.
The Guide's Note
On your next visit to Konya, as you walk along Atatürk Avenue, drink from the water house on Alâeddin Hill or pass the stone façade of the School of Industry, stop for a moment and think: the man who first conceived and built this avenue, this water, these schools was Avlonyalı Ferit Pasha. The last grand vizier before the Young Turk Revolution, the governor who changed Konya's fate, a statesman who died quietly in San Remo and was buried in Avlonya — to know Konya is, in part, to know him.