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

hunting for converts 193

Was the circumcision news to him as well, and if so, is that why “immediately”

he is circumcised, “right then and there”? One imagines that the Islam taught

to the convert refl ected Kadızadeli interests in promoting an Islam stripped of

what were considered evil accretions. Vani Mehmed Efendi had instructed the

ecstatic mystic Shabbatai Tzevi in the faith after his conversion at court and

accompanied the sultan and grand vizier on imperial campaigns and meander-

ings. Covel noticed something not articulated in the statute: converts stated

that God is most great, affi rming the unity of God. Although this phrase has

been a central pillar of Islam in all periods, it was emphasized in the late seven-

teenth century as practices labeled innovations were labeled polytheistic.

This brief look at the statute still leaves many unanswered questions. How

was the statute implemented? Were only Christian men converted at the court?

How often was the sultan involved? Where did the conversions actually occur?

And what type of clothing was distributed? Answering these questions will

demonstrate the necessity of reading archival documents together with narra-

tive accounts.

The most recent published accounts of conversion in the Ottoman Em-

pire are based primarily on archival documents, Islamic law court records, tax

surveys, or petitions addressed to the sultan.^28 They advance our knowledge

by presenting detailed studies based on careful reading of one type of Otto-

man documentary source. Relying on records of the distribution of cloaks and

purses of coins to new converts, Anton Minkov’s study concludes that most

converts were motivated by the hope of fi nancial reward and, to a lesser extent,

social advancement. This concurs with Heath Lowry’s thesis that Christians

converted to Islam in Trabzon in part because it was considerably cheaper to

be a Muslim than to be a Christian, since Christians paid higher taxes. Lowry

and Minkov attribute motivation to the converts based on sources composed by

bureaucrats not primarily interested in conversion. In the case of court records

they needed to make sure only that Islamic and sultanic law were properly fol-

lowed, in tax surveys recording taxable households, and in the case of petitions,

accounting for expenses of the treasury. In all such documents the offi cials

made sure to record that proper procedure was followed. Thus, in the case of

petitions, because Sunni Hanefi Islamic law stipulated that conversion must

appear to be voluntary, no matter the actual circumstances in which Christians

or Jews became Muslim, the scribes had no other choice but to record that it

was so.

Minkov takes the documents at face value and tautologically claims that

because there is no indication in the petitions of involuntary conversion to

Islam, the Christians voluntarily converted, as they stated.^29 Minkov can come

to this conclusion only because he did not read narrative sources together