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

130 honored by the glory of islam

Ottoman writers depict this aspect of God in the way the sultan handled Shab-

batai Tzevi’s punishment.

It was long-standing Ottoman practice, moreover, to co-opt rebels. An ex-

ample from this period is Abaza Hasan Pasha, an Anatolian commander turned

rebel who was given a military governor position. By bringing men such as

Abaza Hasan into the system authorities hoped to control their actions and turn

their ambitions, energy, and arms away from the empire and toward its en-

emies. This was true for prophetic and messianic claimants as well as ordinary

rebels. Approximately one year after Shabbatai Tzevi arrived in Istanbul, a Kurd-

ish dervish from southeast Anatolia, Sheikh Seyyid Abdullah, proclaimed his

son Seyyid Mehmed the redeemer or rightly guided one and raised a Kurdish

army in Diyarbekir in rebellion.^23 The two were captured and brought before the

sultan in the environs of Vize near Edirne, where he was on the chase. When the

boy was questioned about his status, he denied the call to being the redeemer.

Because Seyyid Mehmed was descended from Muhammad, the Kurdish boy-

redeemer was awarded a palace gatekeeper position, like Shabbatai Tzevi. After

being interrogated in Arabic and Kurdish by Vani Mehmed Efendi and the

sheikhulislam, his elderly, learned father was provided with a wool cloak and

sumptuous garments and a Sufi lodge in Istanbul even though he had under-

taken armed insurrection. It is presumed that the dervish lodge was not of an

order that was targeted for its innovative practices. Authorities intended to keep

an eye on them, and creating martyrs would only lead to worse problems. This

also may have motivated them to bring Shabbatai Tzevi into palace service.

The transformation of another prophet or redeemer into a person who

served the interests of the sultan has some striking parallels with the narrative

of Shabbatai Tzevi’s conversion. The Jewish rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi, the Kurd-

ish descendant of Muhammad, Seyyid Mehmed, and his father, Sheikh Seyyid

Abdullah, were religious men who proclaimed divine callings far from the

center of power. But when Shabbatai Tzevi, who set out from Izmir, and the two

Kurds, who appeared in Diyarbekir, were made to appear before the imperial

council, offi cials made them explain the claims that had been made about them.

Both Shabbatai Tzevi and the Kurdish boy denied what others had proclaimed

and received cloaks and coins in reward. The father of the proclaimed redeemer

of the age, also cloaked in new garments, was even awarded a Sufi lodge closer

to the sultan, where he could continue his religious practices. Both the rabbi

and the descendants of Muhammad were accused of sedition, and the latter had

actually engaged in armed rebellion. Despite this, Shabbatai Tzevi, and not the

two eastern rebels, was threatened with execution. Perhaps the fact that Vani

Mehmed Efendi and many of the Kadızadelis hailed from Kurdistan militated

against harsher treatment of the two religious Muslims from the region.