Rasheed Rachid of Egypt Family Tree Reunion Project

Descendants of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed رشيد باشا احمد احفاد

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Once a slave and then freed, Damitri Panzaris changed his name to Ahmed Rashed and then to Ahmed Rasheed. He became a loyal servant of the Ottoman Sultan in Turkey and was given the rank of Pasha (Turkish Lord). He married the granddaughter of Mohamed Ali, ruler of Egypt, and the title of Amir (Prince) was bestowed upon him and ever since he was known as Al Amir Ahmed Pasha Rasheed or Prince Lord Ahmed Rasheed.

One of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed’s many jobs was Minister of Finance and Public Works. Egypt then extended all the way to Ethiopia and he was responsible for continuing the reforms of Mohamed Ali and built dams along the Nile River, irrigation canals, and reclaimed swamp and other neglected lands transforming them into productive farms. He acquired large sects of property for himself up and down the Nile Valley from the Delta in the north to what is known today as the Sudan in the south. In 1882, at the age of 88, he became Prime Minister of Egypt. He passed away in April 1899, at the tender age of 105.

He found his biological family in Greece and a sister joined him in Egypt. There is an anecdotal story that goes along with how he found his family and according to Hassan T. Rashid it goes something like this:

“It was decided to reward Ahmed Rasheed with a bride. To guarantee compatibility they had a Greek girl kidnapped from his home village. Her name was Katrina. Weddings back then used to take 40 days and 40 nights. Somewhere in between they managed to sit down and have a chat. She was crying. She missed her family. Being such a compassionate man he sympathized with her, offered her his ears and asked her to tell him about her parents and what she said reminded him of his own. She turned out to be his sister.”

Katrina didn’t marry him but did marry into the Mallah family in Egypt. It is said, but unconfirmed, that another sister also joined him along with her husband and children and they retained their Greek names, religion and identity.

Ahmed Pasha Rasheed’s story goes back to the days of the Mamelouk era in the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire of Turkey that occupied Greece, Albania and Egypt. Mohamed Ali was an Albanian soldier stationed outside of Cairo when he took power from the Mamelouks in Egypt. He called upon another Albanian named Ahmed Agha, Mayor of Kavala, to serve him as Admiral of the Alexandria Naval Fleet and when Ahmed Agha arrived, it is said he had with him a slave named Daimitri Panzaris who was bought in Kavala or the Island of Crete in Greece.

The origin of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed prior to the ascent to power of Mohamed Ali was what is known today as Greece and after his ascent of Mohamed Ali, his descendants gained origins from Turkey through marriage.

Figure 1: Origins of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed from Greece through Albania and then Egypt.

>Fetouh, Agroudi, Akef, Awad, Bahgat, Bebars, Demerdash, Din, Fetouh, Ghaleb, Gulsun, Hafner, Hosni, Hussein, Ihsan, Kerdany, Korie, Kotry, Mansour, Mosharafa, Mostafa, Mourad, Nosrat, Omar, Rachid, Radi, Rahman, Rasheed, Rashid, Rostum, Sadek, Salem, Sayers, Shahin, Sherif, Shokri, Sidki, Sidky, Strasser, Tahr, Tahry, Talaat, Taymour, Teymour, Waite, Younis, Zayan, Zayat<

The Ottoman Empire

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The flags of 1800 - 1922

Ottoman Empire

Egypt (Mohamed Ali 1800)

Egypt (1900)

Egypt after the Ottoman Empire (1922)

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It is the hope of the owners of this WEB site that it be a point of Reunion for the many descendants of Ahmed Pasha Rasheed around the world. Current owners include descendants residing in the US, England, Canada, Egypt and Abu Dabi. The sur name “Rasheed” is the English version of رشيد and the French is “Rachid.”

Known Sur Names of Ahmed Pasha:

Panzaris (Greek)

Rashed (English)

Rachid (French)

Rasheed (English)

Rashid (Canadian)

Sur Names of Descendants

Agroudi, Akef, Awad, Bahgat, Bebars, Demerdash, El Din, Fetouh, Ghaleb, Gulsun, Hafner, Hosni, Hussein, Ihsan, Kerdany, Korie, Kotry, Mansour, Mosharafa, Moustafa, Mourad, Nosrat, Omar, Rachid, Radi, Rahman, Rasheed, Rashid, Rostum, Sadek, Salem, Sayers, Shahin, Sherif, Shokri, Sidki, Sidky, Strasser, Tahr, Tahry, Talaat, Taymour, Teymour, Waite, Younis, Zayan, Zayat

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Current members are from: