This paper is part of a larger project trying to explore the social and intellectual life of 17th century Istanbul, and the construction and subversion of communal boundaries through the life, literary production and autobiographical writings of Eremya Chelebi Komurcuyan of Istanbul (1637-1694). His works vary over a large span of genres from poetry to history, from religious pamphlets to his long diary and to polemical works against Jewish Messianism of the period. By situating the set of pieces he left within the larger social and intellectual web of networks, I intend to show how different subjectivities might have been formed in different confessional groups in the Ottoman society. The written works left by Eremya Chelebi Komurcuyan and his personality offer an excellent opportunity to come up with new questions and explore new terrains in the field of Ottoman studies. As part of the 17th century Ottoman and Armenian intellectual elite, Eremya Chelebi, with his life and works, has hardly attracted sufficient attention in modern historiography. Leaving aside the reasons behind this lack of interest, we have valid reasons to call for attention to him. Firstly, he was a prolific author in Armenian and Ottoman languages, producing works in many different genres of literature (poetry on secular and religious themes, historical, geographical and calendrical writings, and translations into Armenian and Ottoman Turkish). Secondly, he maintained close connections with Armenian religious and lay circles, and Ottoman and European political elites of his period that might have provided him with an intellectual outlook far beyond the usual limitations of his time. The set of pieces at hand offers significant insights into the realities of the time concerning the functioning of the Ottoman political establishment, social life in Constantinople, Armenian community and the church life, relations between different communities in the Ottoman society and many other minor issues. Beyond the fruitfulness of this set of works in these aspects, I will be focusing on the construction of the ‘self ‘ in its relationship to the respective communities that helped to shape that ‘self’. I will, in particular, use his diary, personal letters and polemical works to find ways of getting at how the voice of the individual comes to being and how we can hear it with its connection to the larger world around it.