An Ottoman Governor’s Agent at the Sublime Porte

The Letters of Kuşçu Mahmud Ağa, 1652–7

Bibliographic Data

ID6440046
AuthorsChristopher Whitehead (0000-0003-1645-7286, Lecturer, Department of History, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume68
Issue1-2
Pages92-120
Publication date2025-02-27
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4995 • E-ISSN: 1568-5209
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/15685209-12341639
OpenAlexW4408356584
LanguageEN
References cited11

This article explores the critical role of the kapı kethüdası , or Ottoman governor’s agent in Istanbul, based on a collection of letters from one such figure, Kuşçu Mahmud Ağa, to the governor whom he represented, the Georgian-born Kara Murtaza Pasha. Kuşçu performed many key political and financial functions on his employer’s behalf, operating with much greater authority and autonomy than kapı kethüdası s are conventionally thought to have exercised. His letters offer a rare insider’s view of Ottoman politics in the mid-seventeenth century, shedding light on elite competition and rivalry, the era’s fiscal crisis, and the role of gift-giving in the process of appointment to office

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Asian studies · China · Governor · Sublime · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Engineering · History · Ottoman and Turkish Studies · Ottoman Empire History and Society

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