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

210 honored by the glory of islam

for the siege of Vienna while overlooking the articulation of conversion and

conquest in the writing of Vani Mehmed Efendi and the role it may have played

in the fateful campaign. The religious scholar was at the height of his infl uence

and popularity. After writing this text he had many opportunities to preach its

thesis to eager audiences of military leaders and viziers during Friday prayers

and in private audiences with the sultan. Fitting for his advocacy of war and

the conversion of Christians and Christian places, Vani Mehmed Efendi was

named campaign preacher during the siege of Vienna in 1 683 so that he could

exhort troops at the battlefront as he had on the Russian campaign.

The Second Ottoman Siege of Vienna

Not since Suleiman I, who attempted to take the seat of the Habsburg throne

in 1 529 at the beginning of his illustrious reign, did an Ottoman sultan at-

tempt such a bold undertaking. To take Vienna, the “Golden Apple” of the age,

would have meant conquering central Europe, and western Europe might

not have been able to resist the Ottoman advance. In short, most of Europe

would have become another Ottoman province, or at least a tribute-paying re-

gion of the last great Islamic empire. Two portraits of the sultan were made in

1 683, the fateful year of the siege, by Musavvir (Painter) Hüseyin, the only Ot-

toman portraits to have survived from the period between 1 666 and that year.

The fi rst today is in Ankara, the capital of the Republic of Turkey, the much

truncated successor of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed IV, who appears with

his predecessors Murad IV and Ibrahim, is labeled “Sultan Mehmed Khan

Ghazi.”^6 He sits tensely on his throne, gripping it with his right hand. Rising

behind the throne and perfectly enframing the sultan is a large golden orb that

calls to mind the sun. The star of the sultan seems to still be rising. Indeed, the

miniaturist also included the chronogram from the sultan’s birth year refer-

ring to him as a light.

The second miniature ended up in Vienna as part of the defenders’ war

booty.^7 There are also three miniatures on one page, from top to bottom:

Murad IV, Ibrahim, and Mehmed IV. The uppermost representation is of

Murad IV, labeled “Sultan Murad Khan Ghazi,” who appears battle-ready.

He wears jeweled armor as well as a jeweled quiver of arrows on his left hip,

clutches a jeweled sword in his right hand, and forms his left hand into a fi st

placed over his chest. The middle miniature is a depiction of Ibrahim. The art-

ist has given him a sumptuous fur-lined, billowing, red velvet cloak over a pink

garment. The lowermost miniature on the page presents Mehmed IV and is

labeled “Sultan Mehmed Khan Ghazi.” Also referred to as “the shah and sultan