Ahmed Muhtar Pasha (;‎ 1 November 1839 – 21 January 1919) was a prominent Ottoman field marshal and Grand Vizier, who served in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish wars. Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as Grand Vizier in July 1912 at age 72, largely due to his prestige as an old military hero. Biography Early life and military career Ahmed Muhtar was born on 1 November 1839 to a Turkish family in Bursa in the Ottoman Empire and was educated in the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul. His father was merchant Halil Efendi. He eventually became professor and then governor of the school. In 1856, he served as an adjutant during the Crimean War. In 1862, he was a staff officer in the disastrous Montenegrin campaign. Between 1870 and 1871, he quelled rebellions in Yemen. He gained the titles of Pasha and Marshal and, in 1873, was made commander of the Second Army Corps, holding the position until 1876. During the 1875 uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he assumed control of the Turkish forces there. On the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, he was sent to take charge of operations in Erzurum. Although the Russians ultimately defeated the Ottomans in the war, Muhtar's victories against them in the eastern front won him the title Gazi ("The Victorious"). In 1879, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed the commander of the Ottoman Empire's frontier with Greece, before being sent in 1885 to serve as the Ottoman High Commissioner in Egypt. Later life and premiership ("Great Cabinet") Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as Grand Vizier in July 1912 at age 72, largely due to his prestige as an old military hero. His premiership was a result of the Savior Officers () forcing the dissolution of the previous Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) government under Grand Vizier Mehmed Said Pasha. The Savior Officers were partisans of the opposition Freedom and Accord Party (also known as the Liberal Union or Entente) who felt cheated after the infamous 1912 elections, known as the "Election of Clubs" (), in which the CUP had employed electoral fraud and violence to gain 269 of the 275 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (, the popularly elected lower house of the national General Assembly) while leaving only 6 to the opposition. The non-party, independent cabinet formed by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was known as the "Great Cabinet" () because it included