Governor of Baghdad In 1910, Nazım Pasha was chosen to become the governor of
Baghdad and became well known for his many projects to rehabilitate the city. Due to this, he was given the Iraqi
laqab "
Midhat Pasha II" in reference to
Midhat Pasha, who's considered the most progressive Ottoman Pasha to rule over Baghdad. Nazım Pasha gained a positive reputation in Iraq as an ambitious reformist leader, since Baghdad was extremely neglected during the Ottoman period. Among Nazım Pasha's achievements were establishing the first modern road in Baghdad which became known as "al-Nahr Street", cleaning Baghdad's alleyways and roads, releasing stray dogs back into the wild, paying Ottoman military officers in Baghdad who used to raid Baghdadi Souks due to lack of working salary, establishing a dam on the
Tigris River, and organizing rules during Ramadan. Ottoman officers monitored the souks to ensure no one would eat during the day. Those who were arrested received ten lashes and a one-month prison sentence. Nazım Pasha also established the first modern school in Baghdad called "Al-Huquq School" which was located on
Zuqaq al-Sarai. Due to Nazım's establishment of education, jurists under the Pasha issued fatwas against
Arab Bedouin tribe conflicts and raids. Trenches were dug around Baghdad to keep the city safe from raids. Nazım Pasha would also establish a trading center where many companies and the
Ottoman Bank worked. Nazım Pasha eventually moved out of Baghdad and his position was taken over by
Djemal Pasha.
Army career . Nazım was a staunch supporter of the French Offensive Doctrine, developed primarily by
Ferdinand Foch, his instructor at the
Saint-Cyr Military Academy and later supreme commander of Allied forces on the
Western Front of World War I. Following his appointment as a Chief of Staff, Nazım Pasha made immediate changes to Ottoman military doctrine which had been created by
Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha), the German officer who had been in charge of the reorganization and training of the
Ottoman Army. Goltz Pasha's doctrine dictated that, in case of war with Balkan states, Ottoman forces would remain on the defensive, both on the western (
Vardar) and eastern (
Thracian) approaches. Nazım Pasha abandoned Goltz Pasha's defensive (and probably realistic) doctrine and, though the Ottoman army had severe problems in mobilizing its troops (assembling fewer than half of the expected 600,000 troops), developed a bold offensive plan, including offensive operations on both fronts. Because the Serbian army was, after its defeat in the
Serbo-Bulgarian War, considered a weaker opponent even by Western observers, Nazım Pasha planned to attack it first and render it operationally incapable. Nazım Pasha would then attack Bulgaria (considered the strongest link in the Balkan alliance) from both the Macedonian and Thracian directions. His underestimation of Serbian strength led to the complete failure of his operational plan and the catastrophe that followed.
Death Nazım Pasha was assassinated by the
Committee of Union and Progress on 23 January 1913 during the
1913 Ottoman coup d'état. The assassination came as a shock to the capitals of the world. The assassin, a young Ottoman-Circassian infantryman named
Yakub Cemil who was a member of the party, was later arrested in 1916 after his plot to overthrow the government was discovered. Cemil was executed on 11 September 1916. In retaliation, one of his relatives avenged his death by assassinating the CUP's Grand Vizier,
Mahmud Shevket Pasha, on 11 June 1913. == Personal life ==