In 1836, he started reading with Hacı Esref Efendi, the deputy judge of Lovech who had a son that was Ahmed Cevdet's age.

[5] Following the death of his tutor Süleyman Fehim Efendi in 1845, Ahmed completed a Turkish commentary for the Persian divan of Saib Tabrizi.

[7] In addition, he developed an interest in the science of history as a study of the human experience by means of critical evaluation of the sources.

[2] After graduation, Ahmed made a contact that would fundamentally alter the rest of his career, Mustafa Reşid Pasha, who was about to enter his first term as grand vizier.

Mustafa Reşid was seeking a member of the ulema that could teach him enough about Islamic religious law so that he could avoid immediate open conflict when introducing reforms.

[2] Ahmed Cevdet's new association with leaders of the Tanzimat exposed him to novel influences and ideas that drew him into the world of bureaucracy and politics.

[7] Even though Ahmed retained his connection with the ulema until 1866, he primarily functioned as a bureaucrat, taking a prominent role in education, language, and provincial reform.

[2] When Mustafa Reşid rose to his sixth term as grand vizier, he made Ahmed a member of the Council of the Tanzimat.

Ahmed played a prominent role in preparing laws, virtually writing the new regulations on landownership and cadastral surveys.

[7] The second part involved creating conditions which would eliminate corruption and increase efficiency, while preserving the fundamental political and social concepts upon which the Ottoman Empire was based.

Living up to this role, Ahmed attempted to settle the nomadic tribes and establish order in Kozan, located in southeastern Anatolia, in 1865.

Ahmed became governor of Aleppo Eyalet, which was formed to apply recent Tanzimat provincial reforms introduced by Fuad, the Grand Vizier.

He subsequently became the first Minister of Justice and wrote major pieces of legislation, which established the beginnings of a secular Nizamiye court system in the Empire for the first time.

In addition to this, Ahmed Cevdet led an opposition group against Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha's desire to introduce an entirely secular, French-inspired civil law for the court system.

He convinced the sultan that the new civil code should be based on principles derived from Islamic law, modernized to meet the current situation.

It was based on traditional Islamic law, but also included many important modifications with the idea of updating the sharia according to the requirements of the time.

Ahmet Cevdet Pasha's relative conservatism and experience in the ulema left him inimical towards the reformers who deposed Abdülaziz and promulgated the 1876 Ottoman constitution.

However, Abdulhamid II succeeded Murad V in 1876 and soon began to dismantle the newborn First Constitutional Era in favor of a return to absolute monarchy with himself holding sole power.

[11][12] His other daughter Emine Semiye Önasya (1864–1944) was one of the first Turkish feminists and a political activist for women in the late Empire and early Republic.