The Amiras were a powerful class of Armenian commercial, industrial, and professional elites in the Ottoman capital between the 18th and 19th centuries. They ran the treasury, mint and armaments factories, built palaces, mosques and public buildings, and operated many monopolies. Because of their unique position, they had good relations with Ottoman Sultans and administrators, and played an important role in the development of the Armenian and Armenian Catholic millets.

Carmont’s sympathetic portrayal of these intrepid Armenians is based on written sources and the author’s contacts with their descendants. Carmont (1928-2011), himself a descendant of the Armenian Amiras of Constantinople, was a French diplomat. His work, Les Amiras: Seigneurs de Arm̩nie Ottoman, originally appeared in French in 1999.