Cretan Turks - Notable Cretan Turks

Notable Cretan Turks

(in chronological order)

• Ali Baba Giritli: May refer to two different persons who are also called under other names. One is the founder of the first Bektashi tekke in Crete in the early stages of the Ottoman conquest, and the other is an 18th century Bektashi mystic and author of several works of a Sufi nature.
• Ahmed Resmî Efendi: 18th century Ottoman statesman, diplomat and author (notably of two sefâretnâme). Turkey's first ever ambassador in Berlin (during Frederick the Great's reign). He was born into a Muslim family of Greek descent in the Cretan town of Rethymno in the year 1700.
• Giritli Ali Aziz Efendi: Turkey's third ambassador in Berlin and arguably the first Turkish author to have written in novelistic form.
• Al-Husayn I ibn Ali at-Turki - founder of the Husainid Dynasty, which ruled Tunisia until 1957.
• Giritli Hüseyin Pasha: Kapudan Pasha (Admiral of the Fleet) of the Ottoman Empire between 1789–1792
• Salacıoğlu: (1750 Hanya - 1825 Kandiye): One of the most important 18th century poets of Turkish folk literature.
• Giritli Sırrı Pasha: Ottoman administrator, Leyla Saz's husband and a notable man of letters in his own right.
• Vedat Tek: Representative figure of the First National Architecture Movement in Turkish architecture. Son of Leyla Saz and Giritli Sırrı Pasha.
• Giritli Hüseyin: 19th century Turkish painter.
• Dr. İbrahim Pertev: 19th century community leader.
• Paul Mulla (alias Mollazade Mehmed Ali): born Muslim, converted to Christianity and becoming a Roman Catholic bishop and author.
• Tahmiscizade Mehmed Macid: Memorialst
• Rahmizâde Bahaeddin Bediz: The first Turkish photographer by profession. The thousands of photographs he took, based as of 1895 successively in Crete, İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara (as Head of the Photography Department of Turkish Historical Society), have immense historical value.
• Salih Zeki: Turkish photographer in Chania
• Mustafa Karagioules: Turkish musician of Cretan folk music
• Ismail Fazil Pasha: (1856-1921) descended from the rooted Cebecioğlu family of Söke who had settled in Crete He has been the first Minister of Public Works in the government of Grand National Assembly in 1920. He was the father of Ali Fuad and Mehmed Ali.
• Mehmet Atıf Ateşdağlı: (1876-1947) Turkish officer.
• Ahmed Cevat Emre: (1876-1961) Linguist, close aid of Atatürk and a notable figure in the Turkish Language Association during the reform of the Turkish language started in the 1930s.
• Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker: (1892-1961) Turkish officer who sank HMS Ben-my-Chree.

• Writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, alias Halikarnas Balıkçısı (The Fisherman of Halicarnassus), although born in Crete and has often let himself be cited as Cretan, descends from a family of Ottoman aristocracy with roots in Afyonkarahisar, and his father had been an Ottoman High Commissioner in Crete and later ambassador in Athens. *Likewise, as stated above, Mustafa Naili Pasha was Albanian/Egyptian.