islamizing istanbul 87ruined state until the massive fi re of 1 660. The fi re excavated the foundations ofthe mosque by clearing all the surrounding buildings that had obscured them.
Hatice Turhan took the opportunity afforded by the fi re to clear the neigh-borhood of Jews and complete the mosque with her own wealth—the second
time a valide sultan had expelled the Jews of Eminönü. Although Jews offered a
bribe to nullify the decision of the valide sultan, an offer that may have been as
great as one-third the total cost of construction for the entire mosque complex,
it was refused; in addition, according to Silahdar, Jews were threatened with
death if they did not sell their property.^32 Although Jews probably attempted to
have the order rescinded in other ways, whether by infl uencing a key fi gure at
court to intervene on their behalf or through petitioning the imperial council,
no other evidence of Jewish attempts to hinder the imperial order has been
uncovered. Just under one year after the fi re was extinguished, Hatice Turhan,
using a portion of her own wealth, began construction of the mosque and com-
plex, which had not been a royal concern for over half a century.^33
Kurdish Preacher Mustafa’s treatise narrating events during the reign of
Mehmed IV “is embellished with praise of her Excellency, the valide sultan”
Hatice Turhan, and “adorned with her good moral qualities and virtues.” As
he relates panegyrically, “There is no end to the pious works of her excellency,
the valide sultan. Just as her laudable moral qualities are many, so, too, are her
works. Among them is the noble mosque whose match has not been seen and
whose peer has not been heard, which she constructed in the place known as
Eminönü in the well-protected city of Istanbul.” The writer makes obvious ex-
aggerations. After all, it was a great stretch to compare this mosque with Hagia
Sophia, as he does when he writes, “Intelligent people know that the mosque’s
foundation and edifi ce are more sound and lasting than Hagia Sophia,” or
more solid than the mosques of Ahmed I or Suleiman I which tower over the
city.^34 Nevertheless, the emphasis on the Islamic virtue of Hatice Turhan is
evident.
This Islamic virtue, which added favorably to the dynasty’s good name,
came at the expense of Jews, who were viewed at this stage as being less valu-
able and more vulnerable than Christians, including Orthodox Christians, the
largest Christian group in the city, who had a patriarch and increasing fi nancial
strength, or Catholics, who had the political, military, and economic weight of
western European powers as well as the French ambassador at Istanbul behind
them. The French were not on very good terms with the court since they, along
with the pope, had sent dozens of galleons to Crete to help Venice beat back the
Ottoman siege; still, they could convey Catholic interests at court, whereas no
European ambassador stood up for the interests of Jews. The Orthodox Chris-
tians in particular were gaining stature in the opinion of key members of the