Marius Michel Pasha

[1] Following a shipwreck accident in the eastern Mediterranean he was involved in, he wrote to the French Emperor Napoleon III (reigned 1848-1870), suggesting a network of lighthouses along the coasts of the Ottoman Empire.

Shortly before the end of the Crimean War (1853-1856) in 1855, the French ambassador at the Sublime Porte, Antoine Thouvenel convinced Sultan Abdülmecid I (reigned 1839-1861) to construct lighthouses along the Bosphorus.

The high profits, making 73% of the revenues with an average FF 3.6 million in the period from 1862 to 1913, were shared between the company owners and the Ottoman state.

While Collas put his assets in the project of Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, Michel invested in a seaside resort at the French Riviera.

Michel Pasha also made a donation to help biologist Raphaël Dubois, discoverer of the chemical nature of bioluminescence to found a marine biology station in Tamaris.