Mustafa Şekip Bey

Mustafa Şekip Bey belonged to the Ottoman diplomatic establishment and married the youngest daughter of Egypt’s Khedive Ismail. He became minister in Washington in 1901 and reached the senior bureaucratic grade of ûlâ first class in 1904. American records usually render his name as Chekib. ^{1, 3}

His Washington assignment was unusual because he conducted diplomatic business without completing the normal presentation of credentials. Historian Sinan Kuneralp attributes the withheld credentials to Abdülhamid II’s displeasure over American representations concerning Armenians. The distinction remained visible in official correspondence: the State Department’s published record of his July 1905 condolence message after John Hay’s death calls him the appointed Turkish minister. ^{2, 3}

He also served as commissioner-general for Ottoman participation in the 1904 St. Louis exposition. Financial constraints prevented an official Ottoman pavilion, so his commission instead advised private exhibitors who were Ottoman subjects. Its other members were consular officials Hermann Schoenfeld and George Eli Hall. ⁴

In June 1906 he asked Washington to reject powers of attorney issued by ecclesiastical authorities in the Ottoman Empire, arguing that only sharia courts and notaries could authenticate them. Acting Secretary Robert Bacon replied that the request had been passed to the American embassy in Constantinople. After Washington, Şekip served as Ottoman commissioner in Sofia. The reorganization following recognition of Bulgarian independence moved him to Stockholm in 1909, where he served through 1915. ^{5, 6, 7, 8}