7

Conversion and Conquest

Ghazi Mehmed IV and Candia

Islamizing space in the imperial capital and converting false proph-

ets and errant dervishes such as Shabbatai Tzevi and people in the

sultan’s inner circle, including the physician Hayatizade, were two

ways of displaying the dynasty’s virtues. As has been seen, even

the valide sultan could engage in such practices, since by the late

seventeenth century she represented the dynasty to the populace.

Only the sultan, however, could embark on other activities necessary

to restore the reputation of the male head of the imperial household.

This chapter analyzes how Ottoman historians writing after a mature

Mehmed IV moved to Edirne depict him as a model, active sultan.

In their accounts he is a pious, strong, manly, warrior (ghazi) sultan,

who reclaimed power taken by royal women and, with his preacher

at his side, converted people and places in Ottoman Europe. The

perspective of contemporary chronicle writers allows us to revise

how scholars have depicted Mehmed IV as well as the evolution of

the sultanate and the fi gure of the sultan in the seventeenth cen-

tury. According to the authors of books of kings and conquest books

(Fethname), works written to extol the virtues of the sultans and

grand viziers who conquered infi del citadels and cities, sultans could

still matter, and Mehmed IV certainly did.

The chapter focuses on the link between conversion and con-

quest during the successful fi nal siege of Candia, Crete. The next

chapter concerns how the sultan led his troops in person on two

campaigns against the king of the Commonwealth of Poland and