ABSTRACT
In a portrait, doubtless painted toward the end of his life, Ahmad Rasim Pasha looks out from behind a full white beard and long moustaches. Portly, and dressed in the long frockcoat of nineteenth century Turkish officialdom, Ahmad Rasim also wears a red fez. A multicolored ribbon crosses his chest, setting off several orders and decorations of large dimensions. Smiling slightly, the Pasha wears an expression of assured benevolence, that of a man satisfied by a long career in the Ottoman civil service. Indeed, Ahmad Rasim had good reason to be proud of his achievements; even now, he is gratefully remembered by some of the older inhabitants of the Libyan capital. Here he served as Veli (governor), his last post before his retirement to Istanbul in 1896. He died the following year at the age of 72, and is buried in the Kayalar Cemetery on the European side of the Bosporus, across the harbor from the centre of Istanbul.1
