Ahmed Izzet Pacha el-Abed (1852-1924)

He was born in Damascus, Syria, where his father was Governor of the Beqaa Valley and President of the Council of Damascus Vilayet. He became, "one of the most powerful" statesmen in the Ottoman Empire as Under-Secretary and confidante of Sultan Abdulhamid II at Constantinople. He also acquired a substantial fortune through business and real estate, and among other projects he built the Victoria Hotel at Damascus that was then the largest tourist hotel in Syria. After the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, he moved with his family to London and then France and Switzerland before settling in Cairo where he died. His son, Muhammad Ali Bay al-Abid, was the Ottoman Ambassador to the U.S. before becoming the 1st President of the Syrian Republic.