Grand Viziers, Chief Ministers, and Structures of Delegated Power in Early Modern Eurasia

How did sultans, emperors, and kings in early modern Eurasia delegate power to their grand viziers, chief ministers, chancellors, and other “second persons” in their courts? How did ideas about kingship and nobility, levels of social mobility, and religious, political, and intellectual debates shape - and reshape - these systems? Could a comparative analysis of these systems and their gradual evolution from the early sixteenth to the late eighteenth century reveal historical commonalities among major Eurasian courts, or help identify distinctive features that set them apart?

On 27–29 May 2026, fifteen renowned experts representing each of the major early modern Eurasian courts, including those of Japan, China, Russia, the Mughal Empire, the Safavid Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, France, Spain, England, Sweden, and Denmark, will gather at the IHB, ÖAW to discuss these questions.

This conference is organized and sponsored by QhoD and GraViz projects. QhoD is a permanent project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. GraViz is a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, P-36216).