Honored by the Glory of Islam. Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe

108 honored by the glory of islam

the Bee, 1 6:90), which calls to mind the structure of the phrase “Enjoin good

and forbid wrong,” which served as the motivating idea for the Kadızadeli

preachers.

Chroniclers and commentators noted the sultan’s religiosity. According to

Abdi Pasha, Mehmed IV celebrated the birthday of Muhammad each year be-

ginning in the early 1 660s. He would wipe his face before the cloak of Muham-

mad during the reading of the prayers recited for Muhammad on his birthday

( 1 86b– 1 87a, 223b). Whether traveling or at his favorite palace in Edirne, Meh-

med IV did not neglect his Friday prayers ( 1 97a–b). Mehmed Halife concurred.

Describing the sultan’s hunting expeditions, he claims that Mehmed IV would

not go on the hunt if it meant skipping Friday prayers and the Friday sermon and

admonition.^4 Abdi Pasha claims that although he traveled a great deal to hunt,

Mehmed IV never postponed a single prayer time and would render prayers with

other Muslims. With his preacher and sheikhulislam the sultan frequently dis-

cussed the fi ner points of Islam, ranging from people close to God (228b) to

religious knowledge (234a) and Islamic law and custom (262b–263a, 268a–b).

Whether on the hunt or on a military campaign, the sultan often invited his

preacher to join him in the imperial tent for prayers and to expound upon the

meaning of the Qur’an (237a). The two discussed Beyzavi’s popular Qur’anic ex-

egesis together with the sheikhulislam a couple of times a week.^5 Mehmed IV

even ritually cut the throats of two animals with a sharp knife while saying

“God is great” for Id al-Adha, the feast of sacrifi ce.^6

Kurdish Preacher Mustafa’s narrative of Mehmed IV’s reign provides in-

sight into the piety and religious practices of the sovereign and his court. He

described the sultan as the “refuge of religion.” On Fridays Kurdish Preacher

Mustafa served as the sultan’s imam.^7 He had to be present along with the

sultan’s servants and palace pages in whichever mosque the mobile sultan de-

cided to visit. He had to be prepared to give a sermon and then listen to Vani

Mehmed Efendi and his disciples give commentary on Hadith and the Qur’an,

and preach and admonish.

The following is an example of Kurdish Preacher Mustafa’s interaction with

the sultan that demonstrates the way writers depicted his piety. One Friday night

in the spring of 1 664, Kurdish Preacher Mustafa saw the sultan sitting on a

bejeweled throne at a fountain in a rose garden in Edirne, leading him to com-

pare Mehmed IV’s splendor favorably to that of fabled non-Islamic sovereigns,

the emperor of China and the Sassanid shah. He then quickly returned to the

ruler’s Islamic credentials. The sultan was holding a Qur’an in his hands and

was reading and chanting from it. After having a brief conversation with the

preacher, the sultan said, “Let us draw an augury from the Qur’an.” He “opened

the Qur’an and after looking at the leaf, sheet by sheet he counted nineteen