Alexander Mavrocordatos


Alexander Mavrocordatos was a member of the Greek Mavrocordatos family, a doctor of philosophy and medicine of the University of Bologna, and Dragoman of the Porte to Sultan Mehmed IV in 1673 — notably employed in negotiations with the Habsburg Monarchy during the Great Turkish War.
Mavrocordatos drafted the Treaty of Karlowitz. 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 Mehmed Pasha, was supreme at the court of 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 also wrote several historical, grammatical, and other treatises. In 1689, Alexander Mavrocordatus became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. His son, Nicholas Mavrocordatos, succeeded him as Dragoman in 1697 and in Nov 1709 was appointed hospodar of Moldavia.