converting the jewish prophet and jewish physicians 131
In both the Shabbatai Tzevi and Seyyid Mehmed narratives, the sameprocess overcame the threat of religious insurrection, whether in the guise of
a new prophet or the savior of the age. The rebels were brought to the palace,
interrogated by Vani Mehmed Efendi, made to deny their claims, and subse-
quently rewarded. Lavish sultanic liberality could overcome any threat and
make even powerful religious fi gures and rebels into subservient members of
the sultan’s retinue, signs of the victory of what he and Mehmed IV considered
purifi ed, authentic, rationalized Islam vis-à-vis the ecstatic eschatological ex-
cesses of Jew and Muslim alike. Moreover, it was assumed that the converted
would serve as a model of religious transformation and bring others to the
sultan’s form of piety.
Shabbatai Tzevi was renamed Aziz Mehmed Efendi, the name of the sul-tan, his preacher, and the fi nal prophet, given a salaried position in the pal-
ace, and taught the fundamentals of Islam by Vani Mehmed Efendi so that he
would in turn convert other Jews with Kadızadeli tenets. For this reason he
used a rabbinic formulation when explaining that he converted to Islam “to
permit what it permits, and forbid what it forbids,” which is a translation of
the Islamic phrase “Enjoin good and forbid wrong” so central to the ideology
of Vani Mehmed Efendi.^24 Just as the sultan’s preacher mediated the rabbi’s
transition to Islam, the rabbi became the convert maker of his wife, Sara, who
joined him in the palace as Fatma, and many of his followers. The new convert
Shabbatai Tzevi reportedly became an advocate of Kadızadeli Islam and con-
verted many Jews between 1 666 and 1 672. Western European observers noted
that after his conversion Shabbatai Tzevi strolled through the streets of Istanbul
with a large retinue of turban-wearing Jewish converts to Islam and preached
in synagogues to win more converts.^25 According to Jewish sources, Shabbatai
Tzevi, accompanied by Vani Mehmed Efendi’s men, urged Jews to convert to
Islam, and many were given turbans at the royal preacher’s residence. Jews also
wrote that Shabbatai Tzevi invited rabbis to dispute with him in the imperial
audience hall in the palace in Edirne as the sultan and his preacher observed
the proceedings. Western European and Jewish sources claim that many Jews
converted before the grand vizier.^26 On the face of it, the sultan had successfully
converted a force of disorder and sedition into a proselytizer for the truth.
Shabbatai Tzevi was made a Muslim when he was stripped of his oldclothes and enrobed in new, sumptuous garments reserved for elite Muslims.
By this act he was distinguished fi rst from other Jews and then from common
Muslims by a fur cloak. This point confi rms the centrality of clothing in con-
version and the important role that the sultan and his court played in dress-
ing new converts. A Shabbatean account of the conversion also emphasized
the importance of cloaking Shabbatai Tzevi in the dress of Muslims: “A royal