Müftîzâde Ahmed (Müftīzāde Aḥmed) was a bright and highly regarded member of the Ottoman judicial bureaucracy. He participated in the military campaign against Russia in 1772 as judge-advocate of the field army (ordu qāḍīsī) and continued to rise in the judicial hierarchy. He was appointed to the prestigious post of qadi of Istanbul in October 1782. This was a period of turmoil in foreign policy as the Ottoman Empire came to the brink of war with Russia and Austria over various issues. The chief of scribes, Mehmed Hayrî, who was responsible for conducting these negotiations, saw the gravity of the issues at stake and feared making any mistakes, and as a result, wanted other members of the bureaucracy to be present. Despite the enormous judicial and municipal responsibilities of his position, due to his vast knowledge and experience, he was instructed to join the Ottoman delegation conducting these negotiations with the Russian ambassador. After completing his one-year tenure in that post in October 1783, he was not given any office, but he received a promotion and continued to represent the empire in the negotiations. In all treaties and protocols of the period, he had his signature as a member of the delegation consisting of three government officials. After serving first as chief judge (qāḍī-ʿasker) of Anatolia, in February 1786, he reached the highest rank of grand mufti (shaykh al-Islām). He supported a war against Russia and issued his legal opinion (fatwā) to that end in the summer of 1787. However, shouldering that great responsibility, he later regretted his decision and went into a nervous breakdown after Austria joined the war in alliance with Russia, and unable to fulfill his duties, he was removed from his post. He never had any office afterward, but he was forced to reside outside the imperial capital like other former grand muftis due to the government’s fear of criticism about the conduct of the war, which shows that former grand muftis’ opinion carried weight in the bureaucratic circles. This paper will use primary sources from the State Archives of Turkey and contemporary and near-contemporary sources of the era to construct his career and highlight the jurists' role in formulating and legalizing foreign policy decisions apart from their more traditional roles.