Yusuf Ziya Paşa

Yusuf Ziya Paşa was born in Istanbul in 1849 and entered government service as a boy. After joining the Foreign Ministry, he served in Berlin, Vienna, Athens, and St. Petersburg, then headed the consular department. His later assignments included Belgrade, Rome, and Paris, alongside ministerial responsibilities at home. He also translated the international law work of Swiss jurist Johann Kaspar Bluntschli. ¹

Before becoming ambassador, Ziya visited the United States as a special envoy in 1909, conveying Sultan Mehmed V’s greetings and meeting President William Howard Taft. He encouraged American interest in Ottoman railway and electrical concessions. Appointed to Washington in 1910, he continued to seek American investment, although the proposed Chester railway project did not materialize. ²

During the Italo-Turkish War, Ziya defended Ottoman policy in the American press and asked Washington to respond to reports of Italian atrocities in Tripoli. He welcomed the possibility of American mediation but disputed press accounts that his government had formally requested it. American officials received his representations without intervening in the war. ²

Music occupied much of his life outside diplomacy. Trained in the Mevlevi tradition, he played the kanun and oud, hosted musicians at his Nişantaşı home, and composed in classical Ottoman forms. In 1917 he became the first director of Dârülelhan, the new official music school. His compositions helped revive the nişaburek mode. He remained a member of the Ottoman Senate until 1922 and died in 1929; his son Suphi Ziya Özbekkan also became a composer. ¹