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

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 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.