they probably did not suffer greatly in Suleiman’s time.[607] THE NISHANJI OR CHANCELLOR The chancery department of the Ottoman government seems not to have reached such a stage of development in the sixteenth century as had the treasury department; certainly it was not so conspicuous. Contemporary writers give so little information about it that it is hard to draw a reasonably complete picture of it. They mention several of the officials who were prominent in the department in later times; but evidently those of the earlier period were not under the same relationships to each other as were later ones who bore the same titles. The _Nishanji-bashi_, often called simply the _Nishanji_, was clearly the chief, but other details are not easily to be ascertained. It seems necessary, therefore, to describe the Ottoman chancery as it was two centuries after Suleiman’s death, and then to endeavor to conjecture what it was in his time.[608] In the latter part of the eighteenth century the Ottoman government had three ministers of state and six under-secretaries of state. The three ministers were the _Kiaya-bey_, the _Chaush-bashi_, and the _Reis Effendi_, the last named being by far the most important. The _Kiaya-bey_ was the substitute or lieutenant of the grand vizier, and attended especially to affairs of the interior and of war; under him were a number of officials who formed connecting links between the grand vizier and the various groups of _kullar_ in the household and the army. The _Chaush-bashi_ was at the same time second official in the grand vizier’s court of justice, minister of police, introducer of ambassadors, grand marshal of the court, and chief of the _Chaushes_. To assist him in the execution of these varied functions, he had a large number of under officers and clerks. The _Reis Effendi_, whose full title was _Reis ul-Khuttab_, “Chief of the Men of the Pen,” was minister of foreign affairs, secretary of state, and chancellor. In the first capacity he was prominent in international relations; in the second he was responsible for the preparation of the addresses and reports which the grand vizier made to the sultan; in the third, he was head of the three bureaus of the chancery. In charge of these under him were a _Beylikji_, or general director of the three bureaus, a _Terjuman Divani Humayun_, or chief interpreter, and an _Ameji_, who drew up the grand vizier’s reports to the sultan for the inspection of the _Reis Effendi_.