A very distinguished general, Reşid Mehmed fought in the Russo-Turkish War, where he was defeated by General Diebitsch at the Battle of Kulevicha. Subsequently, he was appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, a post he held from January 1829 to 17 February 1833. From that position, he orchestrated the Monastir massacre of 1830 of the Albanian beys killing hundreds. He led the Ottoman armies in Anatolia in the Egyptian-Ottoman War. He was captured by the forces of his old antagonist, Ibrahim Pasha, at the war's decisive Battle of Konya in 1832.