Constantinople was the seat of the Sultan, as well as of the leaders of each of the Empire's millet. The first head of the Orthodox millet, George Scholarios or Gennadios, had been nominated by Mehmet II the Conqueror, and the Patriarch's seat was originally the church of Saint Apostle. In 1601, the Patriarch's seat was moved to the church of Saint George in Fanari, a neighbourhood that remained the centre and reference point of Hellenism throughout its modern history in Constantinople.
Greeks, mostly traders known as Fanariotes, gathered around the Patriarchate. Their trading activities allowed some of them to get rich and reach the highest ranks of the Ottoman society, and those of Constantinople. The highest level was reached by being appointed to administrative positions such as that of the fleet dragoumanos, a position taken by Panagiotis Nikoussios in 1661. The next stage in this social climb was to be nominated hegumen of Moldavia and Wallachia, as were a series of Fanariotes, with first Nicolas Mavrokordato in Moldavia, in 1711.