According to the law of Mehmet II (1451–1481), the nişancı was a member of the divan (Ottoman government).
Beginning in the mid-18th century, the post lost its former importance, and in 1836, it was abolished.
[1] The nişancı was responsible for sealing the precepts of the sultan and the grand vizier.
The nişancı was also responsible in supervising the divan's archives and keeping the records of the timar system (lands granted and taxation authority by the Ottoman sultans to bureaucrats and sipahi soldiers in return for their services).
However, during the reign of Mehmet IV (1648–1687), reisülküttap (literally "the chief of clerks"), a post previously subordinate to that of the nişancı, replaced nişancı as the Ottoman Empire's foreign ministry.