Seliktar Agassi, Equerry to the Sultan (Supreme Weapon-Bearer)

The silahdar agha carried the sultan's sword. When the sultan rode out, he followed close behind with the weapon resting on his shoulder, the way this figure holds it, and inside Topkapı Palace he was one of the officers closest to the sultan's person. That closeness made the post a place to be noticed. Çorlulu Ali Pasha held it under Mustafa II and went on to be grand vizier from 1706 to 1710. Another Ali, who kept the word silahdar in his name, married a daughter of Ahmed III and became grand vizier in 1713. Three years later he was killed at Petrovaradin, leading the Ottoman army against the Habsburg commander Prince Eugene of Savoy.

The small canvas comes from Vanmour's workshop in Istanbul. A Dutch inscription calls the man Wapendrager van den Groten Heer, weapon-bearer of the Great Lord, and his number in the set is 12.