Samih Rifat was born in Istanbul in 1875. He received private education. He began his civil service career at the Istanbul Municipality. At the same time, he was working as a journalist.
From 1894 to 1916, he served for many years as lead writer and columnist at İkdam, Sabah, the Official Gazette, and Maarif. At the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy, he was the director of correspondence and private office in the Ministry of the Interior's editorial department. Nine months later, he was appointed acting Governor of Çanakkale. In recognition of his efforts during the 31 March Incident, he was officially appointed to the post. Two and a half years later, he was promoted to the rank of first-degree civil servant and assigned as Undersecretary of Karesi (Balıkesir), and eight months after that, he was appointed Governor of Konya. Following the dissolution of the Committee of Union and Progress, he was recalled to the center along with many other governors. Five months later, with the formation of Mahmut Şevket Pasha’s government, he became Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior.
In 1912, he was appointed Governor of Trabzon. During the mobilization period, he was transferred to the Governorship of Erzurum but was unable to assume the post. He was reappointed as Governor of Konya. After 36 months of service in Anatolia, he held positions as Head of Authorship and Translation at the Ministry of National Education and as Undersecretary of the Ministry.
He served as Member of Parliament for Biga in the second term, and for Çanakkale in the third and fourth terms.
He was married and had three children.
His identifiable works are as follows:
- Hüzzam Nefes “Hezârân Per Açıp Rengi Ziyadan"
- Uşşak Nefes “Ezelden Âşıkım Ben Muhammed Mustafa’ya"
