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

122 honored by the glory of islam

Chronicles reveal that Hatice Turhan’s unprecedented policies toward Jews re-

fl ect a change in the formerly favorable dynastic attitude that had allowed Jews

to hold prominent positions in the palace for over two centuries. As with the

construction of the valide sultan’s mosque in Eminönü, a link between conver-

sion and change in religious space is made: whereas at the beginning of the

1 660s Jews had a privileged position with the royal family and resided mainly

in the heart of the city, by the end of the decade the geographic position of the

Jews refl ected their fall from importance. Most Jews in Istanbul resided on the

Golden Horn and the Bosporus, and those who remained in the most impor-

tant palace positions were compelled to convert to Islam.

The chapter thus concerns the book’s themes of why people attempt to

bring others of the same religion to their understanding of that religion (Shab-

batai Tzevi converting Jews to his path to God) or try to ensure that people of

completely different religions join the tradition (the sultan converting Shab-

batai Tzevi to Islam), the link between piety and proselytization, the central

role of the mediator of conversion, and the role of changing power relations in

conversion (the decline of Jews’ power at court).

Rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi’s Competing Conversion

and Reform Movement

Prophecies about Rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi led to the eruption of the greatest Jew-

ish antinomian movement in millennia, the culmination of widespread Jewish

belief in the renewal of prophecy, a phenomenon noticed by Ottoman writers,

and the dawning of the messianic age.^1 When observing authorities’ response

to the movement in Istanbul and Egypt, two scholars have suggested that

Kadızadeli zeal and the policies of Grand Vizier Fazıl Ahmed Pasha conditioned

their reaction.^2 But how should we interpret the way the sultan reacted? Just as

the calamitous fi re in Istanbul afforded an opportunity to remake a substantial

part of the city in Islamic form, the prophetic propaganda surrounding Rabbi

Shabbatai Tzevi of Izmir provided an opportunity for the sultan and his court to

publicly articulate how one should properly express religious faith, to convert a

prominent Jewish scholar to Islam, and to instruct him in the true religion. Just

as the gaze of the valide sultan and her son from their mosque lodge in Em-

inönü was directed over a newly Islamized landscape on the historic peninsula,

and viewed converted space across the Golden Horn in Galata, the sultan’s gaze

at his palace in Edirne presided over the end of a movement led by a rebellious,

even treasonous rabbi, which also served as one of the most signifi cant factors

in the confi rmation of the changed dynastic attitude toward Jews.