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

174 honored by the glory of islam

eyewitness Catholic account records, “All the dead had been dug up from the

tombs and graves and taken away from the city, and the holy images removed

from the Catholic and Orthodox churches had been laid in the mud on the

streets” on which Mehmed IV entered the city.^37 The practice had also been

followed elsewhere after conquest, such as at Chania, Crete, and was based on

a much earlier precedent.^38 According to the History of Mehmed the Conqueror,

written for its namesake by Kritovoulos, an Orthodox Christian appointed gov-

ernor of the island of Imbros, when the Ottomans conquered Constantino-

ple “the last resting places of the blessed men of old were opened, and their

remains were taken out and disgracefully torn to pieces, even to shreds, and

made the sport of the wind while others were thrown on the streets.”^39

When Mehmed IV, continuously referred to by Hajji Ali Efendi as the

“mighty sultan of Islam who causes fear and dread,” decided to enter the city

and engage in religious devotions, including Friday prayers, a church had to

be readied for the occasion.^40 The Catholic cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul was

renamed “Conquest” (Fethiye). Yusuf Nabi boasts, “Immediately on that day, in

order to convert their lofty monasteries into mosques for the community of

Islam and places of worship for the people who are the best of humankind,” a

decree was issued permitting “the fi lth of paintings of human fi gures and idols

and crucifi xes and organs to be annihilated with the tip of an axe, and gilded

statues, idols, and hanging crosses to be destroyed by illustrious swords.”^41 The

arrival of the radiant sultan, compared to the rising of the sun and the golden

rays of the sun at dawn, is juxtaposed in Yusuf Nabi’s account with the darkness

of unbelief. Christian holy space, “like the luminous heart of believers, became

free of polytheism, and those abodes of idols dark and gloomy with the dark-

ness of infi delity became, like those of fi rm religious belief, purifi ed of traces

of error and going astray. In place of crucifi xes, [they added] low reading desks

for the Qur’an; in place of organs, the sounds of the reading of the verses of the

Lord; and in place of crosses and censers, an imperial gallery [mahfi l], a niche

indicating the direction of Mecca [mihrab], and a pulpit [minbar].”^42 The author

could also have added the other “m,” minaret. The Ottoman dynasty, led by the

zealous Mehmed IV and represented by the mahfi l, and Islamic religion, led by

Vani Mehmed Efendi and manifested in mihrab, minbar, and minaret, together

transformed the main Catholic church of Kamaniça.

Vani Mehmed Efendi, the grand vizier, the sheikhulislam, and the chief

justices of Anatolia and Rumelia and other offi cials arrived in a great proces-

sion to pray together with the sultan. The sermon delivered after the prayers

“was read in the name of the mighty sultan of Islam who causes fear and dread,

the deliverer of conquest and ghaza, Sultan Mehmed Khan.”^43 Hajji Ali Efendi

writes that after “the noble mihrab and minbar became adorned with the noble