Theoharis Stavrides has produced an exhaustive study of one of the founding fathers of the Ottoman grand vizierate, the “second-in-command” and deputy to the sultan, an office that acquired most of the duties and obligations that characterized its imperial version with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The work is divided into three parts, consisting of ten chapters, as well as an Introduction, a brief Conclusion, extensive footnotes, three appendixes, a bibliography (pp. 418–32), and an index.