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

112 honored by the glory of islam

The preacher stayed by the sultan’s or the grand vizier’s side during mili-

tary campaigns. This included traveling with the sultan on the second campaign

against the Commonwealth of Poland in 1 673, for which the commissary general

was ordered to provision Vani Mehmed Efendi with foodstuffs, and accompany-

ing the grand vizier to the front in Çehrin in 1 678 and Vienna in 1 683.^22 Attesting

to his value to the sultan, he may have received as much as 1 ,000 akçe per diem

from the state treasury.^23 Sultan Mehmed IV’s powerful mother, Hatice Turhan,

also had close relations with the Kadızadeli leader: she had included a lodge for

him in her new mosque in Eminönü, and when she journeyed from Istanbul to

Edirne she was accompanied by the preacher.^24 The preacher also was appointed

the fi rst teacher of Prince Mustafa (285b–286a), and then Prince Ahmed (4 1 4a);

his son-in-law Fayzullah Efendi continued in this position (295b). His family also

became intimately connected with the palace and earned many benefi ts from this

relationship. His wife spent most of her time in the harem socializing with the

royal ladies; his sons and sons-in-law became university professors in Bursa.^25

Before Vani Mehmed Efendi became the sultan’s personal preacher, Meh-

med IV was on good terms with some orders of dervishes. He especially fa-

vored the Mevlevi, although he was later to ban Mevlevi practices, including

whirling to music and repeatedly reciting God’s names. As late as 1 665 the sul-

tan visited the Sufi lodge of Nefes Baba near Edirne ( 171 b) and gave pensions

to dervishes he came across in his travels, such as the “dervish free from care

and worry” he met in Thrace in 1 668. From 1 667 until the end of his reign,

Mehmed IV employed Ahmed Dede, a Mevlevi, as his chief astrologist, a man

who opposed the Kadızadeli movement.

Yet the sultan’s relations with Sufi s changed as dynastic attitudes toward

Sufi s generally refl ected Kadızadeli interests after 1 660 (26 1 a–b). As had other

Kadızadeli leaders before him, so too did Vani Mehmed Efendi aim to eradi-

cate what he considered illicit Muslim behavior and to strengthen the rule of

Shariah and the way of Muhammad against innovation. His wrath primarily

targeted “innovating” Sufi s. Allying with the sultan, whom he viewed as the de-

fender of the Muslims against the threat of heresies, he aimed to suppress the

political power and religious infl uence of Sufi s, especially Bektashis, Halvetis,

and Mevlevis, the three orders that historically had had close ties with the mili-

tary and the dynasty.^26 Kösem Sultan had been supported by these orders and

the Janissaries; Hatice Turhan sided with the Kadızadelis against them when

Fazıl Ahmed Pasha acted to dampen Janissary power. Whereas Murad IV’s

alliance with Kadızade was a marriage of convenience, Vani Mehmed Efen-

di’s theological arguments concerning the danger of Sufi s and innovative reli-

gious practices swayed the opinion of the religious scholar and statesman Fazıl

Ahmed Pasha.