Translation and Power Dynamics: Exploring the Role of the Phanariot Families in the Ottoman Empire - A Case Study of the Mavrocordatos Family

Abstract

Translation activities have had an important place in the functioning and expansion of the state in the Ottoman Empire since its foundation. Translation works, mainly carried out for diplomatic relations, were not carried out systematically until the Tulip Era and were under the monopoly of various ethnic groups. In this study, the families of Phanariot-Greeks who were appointed to the administrative units of the state through the translation works, starting from being the translator of the Imperial Council and progressing to being the translator of the fleet and then to the voivodeships of Wallachia and Moldovia, are analysed. Within the framework of translation tradition in the Ottoman Empire since the beginning, the translation activities of the Phanariot families and their relations with the state are interpreted by putting emphasis on the Mavrocordatos family, which is one of the prominent Phanariot families. The article aims to analyse how the Mavcordatos family used translation to enhance their power and their political influence within the Ottoman bureaucracy and to show the influence and the role of this family in diplomatic negotiations with their linguistic skills. The role and importance of the Phanariot families in terms of translation tradition in the empire are revealed by focusing on Alexander Mavrocordatos (1641-1709), who became the chief translator of the Imperial Council after the Phanariot period started in the Imperial Council; and Nicholas Mavrocordatos (1680-1730), who started the era of the Phanariot families in the voivodeship administrations; and the relation between translation activities and power was explicated within the context of the Mavrocordatos family.