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

converting the jewish prophet and jewish physicians 135

By narrating the circumstances behind the physician’s conversion, Kurdish

Preacher Mustafa, who links Hatice Turhan’s conversion of place (Eminönü)

and people (Jewish physicians) in Istanbul, provides the context sorely lacking

in the archival record. In the midst of his history of the Valide Sultan Mosque in

Eminönü he juxtaposes two stories about Jews in palace service. After discuss-

ing Safi ye Sultan’s fi rst attempts to build the complex in the late sixteenth cen-

tury, he launches into a tirade against Esperanza Malki, referred to by the Greek

term kira, meaning “lady.”^44 Like others before her, such as Sultan Murad III’s

mother Nurbanu’s lady-in-waiting Esther Handali, Esperanza Malki served as

purveyor of goods and services to the harem and an intermediary with foreign

embassies in the late sixteenth century.^45 She established a close relationship

with Safi ye Sultan, the favorite of Murad III and mother of Mehmed III. Kurd-

ish Preacher Mustafa claims that “strangers and foreigners” mixed in the af-

fairs of the valide sultan and stirred insurrection. The most dangerous among

them was an evil, malicious, “accursed Jewish woman,” Esperanza Malki, who

“unjustly caused many people to be oppressed and transgressed.”^46 Having re-

course to the holders of offi ce had no effect.^47 Ultimately, her wealth, infl uence,

and control of the Customs Offi ce led to her murder on the staircase of the

house of the Istanbul deputy of the grand vizier Halil Pasha at the hands of

rebellious sipahis, who blamed her for their pay of debased coins in 1 600.^48

She was the last Jewish agent to serve the harem. Kurdish Preacher Mustafa

narrates her harmful exploits but does not include the detail of her murder.

Following a riff concerning the danger of Jews in palace service, Kurdish

Preacher Mustafa segues into a moral tale about how the dynasty should best

treat such servants. Before returning to his narration of the history of the Valide

Sultan Mosque, he praises the piety of Hatice Turhan, the valide sultan who

completed the mosque in the author’s day. To illustrate the “advanced degree”

of her uprightness and piety, he explains that she did not permit Moses son

of Raphael Abravanel, another Jew in palace service, to remain as physician to

the sultan until he became a Muslim.^49 The reader does not expect this sudden

juxtaposition of bad and good Jews and is not prepared for the abrupt change

in the narrative. Suddenly the reader learns that

at the present time the uprightness and piety and forebearance and

protection of her excellency the valide sultan [Hatice Turhan], God

grant her long life, are such an advanced degree that when the noble

temperament of his excellency the sultan [Mehmed IV], the refuge of

the universe, became disturbed, and his subtle element became weak

and languid, he who is now the head privy physician, known as Haya-

tizade [the former Moses son of Raphael Abravanel], distinguished