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An Ottoman Governor’s Agent at the Sublime Porte: the Letters of Kuşçu Mahmud Ağa, 1652–7

In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Author:
Christopher Whitehead Lecturer, Department of History, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH USA

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https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8535-0082
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Abstract

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 kethüdasıs 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.

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