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

conversion to piety 111

The early twentieth-century scholar F. W. Hasluck, who depicted Christians

and Muslims sharing the same sacred spaces and was hostile to the antisyn-

cretistic Kadızadeli interpretation of Islam, terms Vani Mehmed Efendi “the

religious counterpart” of the Köprülü grand viziers, a preacher who “opposed

lawlessness in religion as they in politics.”^15 In fact, it is not so easy to distin-

guish religion and politics. Mehmed IV faced rebels who banded together in

militant brotherhoods with semireligious initiation formulas mirroring those

of dervishes, thus expressing lawlessness in disobedience to authority. Never-

theless, it is clear that Vani Mehmed Efendi was considered by many to be, like

Kadızade before him, “the enemy of innovators and the beloved of those who

believe in the oneness of God [Muslims].”^16

Vani Mehmed Efendi became the confi dant of the sultan, valide sultan,

and grand vizier. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Kadızadeli movement

had not disappeared with the banishment of Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi to Cy-

prus.^17 The movement reached its greatest level of infl uence under Vani Meh-

med Efendi, not his predecessor. In the early 1 660s, Mehmed IV began to rely

on, confi de in, and bestow rewards on Vani Mehmed Efendi, whose preaching

style was one of the reasons for his fame. The sultan never missed a Friday

sermon delivered by his preacher and enjoyed spending time discussing Islam

with him. The preacher had a reputation for cheering his listeners with glad

tidings, frightening them with warnings, and enlightening them through his

sermons ( 1 97a–b).^18 Invited to pray at Dimetoka in 1 667 before the sultan and

his retinue for the Ottoman army besieging Candia, Vani Mehmed Efendi as-

cended the pulpit after morning prayers at the imperial tent and “scattered

such precious jewels from the treasure of Qur’anic truth that eyes became tear-

ful and hearts fi lled with amazement” (234a–b).^19 Afterward he and the sultan

had a private conversation about the commentary. In another sermon at the im-

perial tent, his preaching, admonishing, and Qur’anic explanation again fi lled

his audience with admiration (237a).^20

His stirring preaching and relationships with the most important fi gures

in the dynasty and administration made him extremely infl uential. His bond

with the sultan was observed by contemporary Ottoman historians such as

Abdi Pasha, who relates how in 1 665 the sultan bestowed on the preacher one

hundred sheep ( 1 68b). In 1 666 he noted that Sultan Mehmed IV even honored

the preacher with a visit to his household (228a–b).^21 At the beginning of 1668

the sultan asked Vani Mehmed Efendi to pick up a bow and try his luck hitting

a target. Mehmed IV had been bestowing gifts on his servants who hit the mark

with bullets or arrows. Vani Mehmed Efendi picked up the bow and arrow and

hit a bull’s-eye, which earned him “much gold and a matchless golden bow”

(262b–263a).