GraViz: The Ottoman Grand Vizierate 1560s to 1760s, is a digital editing project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, P-36216) that researches the correspondence of six selected early modern Ottoman grand viziers with the Viennese court. GraViz lays the foundations for a larger planned project that will comparatively analyze the early modern offices of grand vizier and chief minister across Eurasia.
Yasir Yılmaz is the principal investigator of GraViz. The editing team, consisting of Dr. Nilab Saeedi and Michael Vogelsberger, MA, transcribes the originals, copies, and drafts of Ottoman, German, and Latin letters exchanged between the six selected grand viziers and the Viennese court. All transcriptions are made according to globally accepted paleographical standards in Ottoman and Habsburg studies. The grand viziers in focus are Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (1565–1579), Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (1656–1661), Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha (1661–1676), Kara Mustafa Pasha (1676–1683), Nevşehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha (1718–1730), and Koca Ragıb Pasha (1757–1763). All grand viziers were selected based on their historical significance and the availability of archival materials.
GraViz began in September 2023 and will run until August 2026. As of January 2025, the team has completed transcribing the correspondence of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. This includes 18 Ottoman letters (17 originals and one copy) sent from Constantinople to Vienna, as well as 33 German and Latin letters (all copies and drafts) addressed to Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Of these, all Ottoman letters, 11 German letters, and 3 Latin letters have been fully translated into English. By providing transcriptions and translations, GraViz helps scholars and students researching Habsburg-Ottoman relations overcome the language barriers that have long hindered source-based comparative research in this field.
Having published the Sokollu collection in January 2025, the GraViz team is currently working on the correspondence of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, and Kara Mustafa Pasha. Next batch of letters will be published later in 2025.
