Great dragoman of the Ottoman Empire, Alexandru Mavrocordat had a peak career worthy of a movie, being one of the outstanding personalities of the 17th century, becoming an extremely influential personality in an era full of conflicts.
Alexandru Mavrocordat painted by Jean Etienne Liotard PHOTO Wikipedia
Alexandru Mavrocordat came from the Phanariot Mavrocordat family. His father, Nikolaos, came from Chios, but moved to Constantinople, where Alexandru Mavrocordat was born in 1641.
Eager to learn and having a brilliant mind, Alexandru Mavrocordat left the Ottoman Empire and studied philosophy, theology and medicine in three Italian cities, Rome, Padua and Bologna, where he received his doctorate in the early 1660s. In 1664 and published his doctoral thesis confirming William Harvey’s 1628 theory of blood circulation.
After returning to Constantinople, Alexandru Mavrocordat taught at the school of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was doctor to several prominent Turkish families.
As Tudor Dinu says in the monumental work “Dimitrie Cantemir and Nicolae Mavrocordat – political and literary rivalries at the beginning of the 18th century” (Editura Humanitas, 2011), “Tireless and animated by the permanent ambition of affirmation, Alexandru Mavrocordat also practiced medicine, gaining great fame. In fact, thanks to this profession, he managed to create relationships in the highest Ottoman circles, preparing the ground for his future ascent. The decisive moment in Alexandru’s career, however, was the meeting with the great dragoman Panagiotakis Nikousis, who, sensing the political-diplomatic potential of the young man returned from his studies in Italy, took him on as his personal secretary. Soon, Alexandru became a famous polyglot”.
Thanks to his very good knowledge of foreign languages, Alexandru Mavrocordat was appointed grand dragoman (n. ed. – translator) of the Ottoman Empire in 1673, an extremely influential position, thanks to which he gained a great influence on Ottoman foreign policy.
Specifically, in 1673, the great dragoman Panagiotakis Nikousis died of an apoplexy attack. And, as the same Tudor Dinu states, ”the choice necessarily went towards Alexandru Mavrocordat, who, in addition, knew how to set in motion at the right time the extensive system of relationships he had created. At only 32 years old, he was becoming the most powerful Christian in the Ottoman Empire”.
Alexandru Mavrocordat was former grand dragoman of the Ottoman Empire for no less than 24 years, between 1673–1683 and between 1685–1699.
After the defeat of the Ottomans in the second siege of Vienna, he was sentenced to death, but after a year of detention he was released and rehabilitated. After a mission on behalf of the Sultan to Emperor Leopold I, Alexandru Mavrocordat played a key role in the Treaty of Karlowitz, which he signed in 1699 for the Ottoman Empire.
Between 1699–1703 he was the intimate secretary of Sultan Mustafa II.
Two of Alexandru Mavrocordat’s five children became rulers: Nicolae Mavrocordat – lord of Moldova and Wallachia and Ioan Mavrocordat – ruler of Wallachia.
Alexandru Mavrocordat died on December 23, 1709, after a career full of glory at the international diplomatic level.
