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

hunting for converts 187

upon a cow giving birth, and while watching the spectacle, in my

presence Islam became divinely facilitated to that fellow. Therefore,

that is a cow of divine guidance.” He ordered that they purchase the

cow with its suckling calf, and place it in the palace’s privy garden.

( 161 a– 1 62b)^23

The narrative combines two sultanic processions, one riding in state and the

other pursuing game. The fi rst, from Edirne to the village, could not have failed

to stir notice among the populace as the sultan and his retinue made a showy

procession through the area with their magnifi cent horses and carriages and

lavish outfi ts. The sultan often rode in state in a red velvet and sable fur cloak.

On the return to Edirne the sultan engaged in the hunt. These two trips com-

bine two dimensions of this sultan’s persona that would endear him to the

populace and promote his image as a strong ruler: the fi rst, the display of his

majesty; the second, the demonstration of his martial skills and generosity.

The main thrust of the narrative involves wildness, loss, shock, and won-

der followed by confusion and ultimately a resolution satisfactory to all parties.

The cattle drover failed at fi rst to understand before whom he was standing.

Even more surprising, if we consider the way sultans of the period are usually

described, Mehmed IV spoke to the man without an intermediary. He neither

communicated through sign language nor passed on his wishes to an aide, but

came face-to-face (although it is improbable that he would have dismounted)

with the lowly commoner. Given what we know of how the sultans’ near sacred

status generally required that they wrapped themselves in a cocoon of silence,

this was a signal departure from the norm.^24

The sultan is depicted as one capable of seeing in mundane daily life and

endlessly repeated events the miraculous fi nger of God. Mehmed IV appears

as a sensitive, gentle man, concerned about all creatures, the same sultan de-

scribed elsewhere as being touched by the beautiful song of nightingales in a

valley in Thrace. In other parts of his chronicle, Abdi Pasha juxtaposes the sul-

tan’s witnessing of an execution outside his imperial tent with his protection of

a swallow and its young when the bird built a nest on a column inside the impe-

rial tent (236b). The sultan apparently refused to strike the tent until the young

birds could fl y. This is another occasion for Abdi Pasha to invoke the motif of

the sultan’s compassion and generosity. Mehmed IV also appears in this narra-

tive of the converted commoner as being so pious that even while deep in the

forests of Rumelia he can think of no more important question to ask the man

before him than whether he has been called to the true faith. Considering the

ruling circle’s turn to piety it is not surprising that he personally attempted to

convert the Christian.