The Reis Effendi, Head of the Chancery

Of all the officials in this series, this is the one the Dutch ambassador Cornelis Calkoen would have met most often. The reis efendi headed the chancery of the grand vizier's office, where the empire's letters and treaties were drafted, and in practice he was the man foreign diplomats dealt with, something close to a foreign minister.

The back of the canvas names him, Mehemet Reis Effendi. He is Mehmed Efendi, in office from 1718 until the revolt of 1730, a native of Istanbul whom his contemporaries counted among the great scholars of the day. His byname, Üçanbarlı, means "of the three warehouses", after property he owned. He was in his mid-fifties when Vanmour painted him, and he died about two years after losing his post.

Vanmour shows him at work, sitting on the ground behind a low writing desk with papers spread all around him.