islamizing istanbul 101Rabia Gülnuş Emetullah Sultan, Sultan Mehmed IV’s favorite and mother
of Sultan Mustafa II and Sultan Ahmed III, transformed the Saint Francis
Church into the Valide Sultan Mosque in 1 696–97.^95 An early eighteenth-
century Ottoman historian gave credit to her pious deed of being “fi rmly re-
solved” to build a royal mosque in Istanbul upon the ruins of an important
Catholic church and permitting only Muslims to reside in the formerly Chris-
tian neighborhood.^96 Another wrote, “Originally, there was a church on the siteof this mosque. Later, when it burned, legal permission for its reconstruction
was not given and a vacant plot of land remained. Subsequently, this mosque
was built. [This is] a chronogram for its completion: ‘May the place of worship
of the valide sultan be an abode of pious acts!’ 11 09 [ 1 697–98].”^97 From the
mosque in Galata one could see its namesake in Eminönü.^98 Thus two succes-sive mothers of the sultan built mosques that mirrored each other’s magnifi -
cence by locating them across from each other on the Golden Horn.
Islamization policies refl ected the intersection of religion and politics in
a specifi c historic context. Restrictions on church and synagogue building
depended on contemporary interests and religious piety. Rulers could carry
out these restrictions when they desired to be viewed as pious, to gain politi-
cal strength, or to distract the population from internal social pressures, hard
times, calamities, or foreign debacles. Without considering the intentions
of the leading political actors and the historical circumstances in which they
found themselves, one could not predict the behavior of Ottoman authorities
or the outcome of reconstruction plans following the 1 660 fi re. Islamization in
Eminönü and Galata was neither preordained nor based on interpretations of
Islam alone. There were other alternatives. The valide sultan could have built or
repaired a mosque elsewhere, as Fazıl Ahmed Pasha’s predecessor suggested,
and Jews could have again thrived in Eminönü and Catholics in the heart of
Galata. Yet in a period of crisis, Islamization of areas inhabited by Christians
and Jews in Istanbul served as a visible sign of the authority of the dynasty and
religion that Hatice Turhan represented.
To demonstrate the uniqueness of this period, it is crucial to point out that
during the reign of Ibrahim, offi cials acted very differently concerning new
churches. Christians built new churches in the fi rst Ottoman capital of Bursa
in 1 642.^99 The magistrates of the city were indifferent, despite the open fl out-
ing of Islamic law. However, a new magistrate, Hojazade Mesud Efendi, later
the sheikhulislam, rejected the laissez-faire attitude of his predecessors and,
after providing evidence that it was indeed newly built, locked a church on
his own initiative. But because he did so without the grand vizier’s authoriza-
tion, he was punished and dismissed from offi ce. A Muslim mob, angered by
his dismissal, destroyed that church and three others. Numerous people who