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

158 honored by the glory of islam

was necessary to be successful, and he wanted to see their effort increase many-

fold.

The sultan followed the siege efforts closely from mainland Greece. His

journey from Edirne to Dimetoka, Gümülcine, Serres, Salonica, Yenişehir, and

Eğriboz was considered an effort to exalt Islam based on the resolve and in-

tention of ghaza.^66 He was praised for leaving aside his normal comfort and

instead inviting hardship as he passed through cities, alighting in his imperial

tent facing the fi eld before which rebellious offi cials from far-fl ung parts of the

empire were executed. It was a journey of justice littered with the bodies of the

unjust.

In June 1 669, over two years after the siege of Candia had begun, Ottoman

forces launched a massive battle to take the fortress. As Hasan Agha writes hy-

perbolically, “Never before had anyone seen such a tremendous battle and use

of treasure and never will anyone see it again.”^67 The Ottomans sacrifi ced more

than thirty thousand Janissaries alone in the fi nal siege efforts, which is to say

more than one thousand per month, and used several thousand tons of am-

munition, bombs, and hand grenades.^68 Other sources estimate the total losses

during those two years at more than seventy-fi ve thousand soldiers.^69 Despite

the losses, the sultan still wanted to conquer the citadel. Because he demanded

its conquest ever more fervently, his military was urged to act as manly braves,

to strive even more to conquer it, so that the soldiers would be blessed on Earth

and in the hereafter, the martyrs to go to paradise and the living to see its con-

quest.^70 The sultan pressed the grand vizier, and the grand vizier pressed the

commanders to show greater effort. Fazıl Ahmed Pasha served his command-

ers coffee despite its recent ban and sent them back to continue the siege.

An omen of conversion presaged the fortress’s fall. In September 1 669, the

chief physician Salih Efendi died. After converting, Hayatizade was appointed

in his place and ordered to appear before the sultan. Then came the good news

that fi nally Candia was conquered. The commander and ministers again wept

when they kissed the skirt of Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. The grand vizier rubbed his

face in the black earth. Relieved, exhausted, ecstatic, and thankful, he fi nally

cried uncontrollably and continued to weep day and night for ten days.^71 He

may have had a secret weapon, his pious mother, who mirrors the pious Hatice

Turhan. The next day he went to a nearby citadel and met with his mother,

kissed her hand, and the two cried together before she set off for the hajj.^72 The

grand vizier called for massive celebrations in the citadel and in the harbor,

with the army blasting their cannons from within the fortress and the navy

fi ring its guns over the water. The grand vizier then composed a summary re-

port submitted to Mehmed IV that the jihad was successful: “For twenty-seven

years the Muslims’ honor had been trodden underfoot, but now, because of the