Alexander Mavrocordatos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Count Alexander Mavrocordatos, Greek: Αλέξανδρος Μαυροκορδάτος, Aleksandros Mavrokordatos, Romanian: Alexandru Mavrocordat, Turkish: Aleksandro Mavrokordato; ca.1636-1709) was a member of the Greek Mavrocordatos Phanariote family and dragoman to Sultan Mehmed IV in 1673 - notably employed in negotiations with the Habsburg Monarchy during the Great Turkish War.

His father Nicolas Mavrocordatos had been merchant from Chios, a member of the numerous Mavrocordatos clan there, and settled to Istanbul. Young Alexander studied at several schools inside and outside the Ottoman Empire, and was promoved Doctor of philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna. He then launched a career in Ottoman administration.

Alexander Mavrocordatos was the person who drew up the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699). He became a secretary of state and was created a Reichsgraf of the Holy Roman Empire. His authority, with that of Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha and Rami Paşa, was supreme at the court of sultan Mustafa II, and he did much to ameliorate the condition of Christians in the Ottoman Empire. He was disgraced in 1703, but was later recalled to court by Sultan Ahmed III.

He started a princely branch of the Mavrocordatos family, through his marriage with a Moldavian princess, Sultane Chrysokoule (Chrysovelounis) of Wallachia, who was a granddaughter of Prince Alexandru Iliaş and Moldavia (a member of the Muşatin family).

Alexander also wrote several historical, grammatical, and other treatises. His son, Nicholas Mavrocordato, rose to be ultimately appointed grand dragoman to the Divan (1697), and, in 1708, became Prince of Moldavia by order of the Ottoman sultan.