Halet Efendi

{{Short description|Ottoman diplomat and politician}}

File:Jacques-Louis David The Coronation of Napoleon Halet Efendi detail.jpg in 1805, by Jacques-Louis David (detail).]]

Mehmet Sait Halet Efendi (1761–1822) was an Ottoman diplomat and politician, ambassador to Paris from 1803 to 1806Mongan, p. 102–103. and later the favourite and Inner Minister of the Sultan Mahmud II.H.Tonnet He was ambassador to the court of Napoleon I until 1806,Karsh, p.14 and was succeeded in this role by Muhib Efendi, who was ambassador from 1806 to 1811.[https://books.google.com/books?id=cjbYxqoJyZoC&pg=PA228 by Virginia H. Aksan, Ottoman Wars 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged], Longman/Pearson, 2007, p. 228.

In 1819, Halet Efendi brought the attention of Sultan Mahmud II to the power-grabbing activities of Ali Pasha in Ottoman Europe. As Mahmud II sent an army against Ali Pasha, the latter responded by encouraging a rebellion against Ottoman power in Greece. These event led to the catastrophic Greek insurrection in 1821. Considered by the Sultan as contributing to the rebellion, Halet was banished from the court before being assassinated in Konya, present-day Turkey, in November 1822. He was strangled and beheaded.Aksan (2007), Ottoman Wars, p. 288.