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

138 honored by the glory of islam

The list of physicians who were licensed to practice in Istanbul in 1 699 dem-

onstrates that Orthodox Christians became the predominant group.^57 Only one

Jew, a Venetian, made the list. Whereas Christian physicians practiced their

trade in Eminönü, the location of Hatice Turhan’s mosque, an area formerly

heavily populated by Jews, the Venetian Jewish physician had an offi ce in

Galata, across the Golden Horn. A century earlier Jewish physicians treated

the sultan and were trusted by him to negotiate international treaties, but by

the late seventeenth century this role was taken by Orthodox Christian physi-

cians.^58 Their careers serve as good examples of the new power and infl uence

of Orthodox Christians. Whereas a century earlier Venetian Jewish physicians

had represented the Ottomans in international diplomacy, at the end of the sev-

enteenth century Orthodox Christians represented the Ottomans and Venetian

Jews served Venice.^59

Just as the construction of the Valide Sultan Mosque complex was couched

in the language of the conquest and conversion of Jewish space, so too is there

a subtle reference to the same theme in the articulation of Hayatizade’s con-

version. He was said to have distinguished himself with the banner of Islam.

Though merely literary fl ourish, this phrase suggests a link between conversion

and conquest: the banner of Muhammad was the standard that accompanied

the Ottoman military on campaign.