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

222 honored by the glory of islam

that failed, ending the Kadızadeli movement’s dominance at court and leading

to the dethronement of Mehmed IV.

After failure, scapegoats were sacrifi ced. When the Ottoman forces routed

at Vienna assembled at Yanık, Kara Mustafa Pasha decided to fi rst make an

example of Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, the governor-general of Buda. His forces

gained notoriety for being the fi rst defeated in battle and the fi rst to arrive at

Ya nık. When the governor-general arrived before him, apparently shaking like

a yellow leaf in the fall wind, the grand vizier called the man an accursed un-

believer and blamed him for the defeat. He had told the grand vizier that the

citadel of Vienna would be easily conquered, for it had a very small garrison,

but in the end the governor-general cut and ran.^46 He was executed. Abandon-

ing the triumphalist, pious tone of the earlier part of the narrative, and failing

to come up with any plausible explanation for why his sincere prayers were not

realized, the author of The Events of Vienna fi nds that only violent, gendered

language could express his outrage. The “bitch” known as the Tatar khan, who

did not even have as much courage as a woman, fl ed the siege of Vienna and

arrived a day earlier and alighted before Yanık. In his view, no Tatar khan had

ever engaged in such treachery. Gathering courage after ejaculating misogynist

rhetoric, the grand vizier’s secretary of protocol then had the unenviable task

of fi rst relating some more convincing reasons for the calamity of Vienna, and

then describing the execution of his patron.

The chronicler offers four moral reasons why it was God’s desire that the

Ottomans suffer such a defeat. The fi rst three had to do with the lack of religious

zeal of the troops and poor planning, the fi nal reason was a lack of piety.^47 First,

despite Vani Mehmed Efendi’s spellbinding speeches, in the end, the soldiers

were only after booty. At this point in Mehmed IV’s reign, perhaps the term

akıncı, or raider mainly concerned with obtaining booty, had become more ac-

curate than ghazi, or warrior fi ghting against the infi del on behalf of the reli-

gion, which entailed sacrifi ce. On the day of battle, when some at headquarters

began to load up goods and fl ee, soldiers at the front decided to do the same.

Second, the Ottomans gathered all their forces in one place in the trenches and

expected Tatars to fi ght like others instead of using them to harass the enemy.

In fact, the Tatars failed to fi ght because they too only considered the gains

to be made and were not willing to sacrifi ce themselves in battle. Third, the

horses of the cavalry were underfed and incapable of attack. The planners of the

campaign had failed to devise a way to provide for proper fodder. Fourth, Otto-

man soldiers failed to understand that all success and victory is proof of God’s

grace. They neglected to praise and thank God for successes small and great.

Instead, they acted ungratefully and suffered punishment as a consequence.

This sentiment clashes with the narrator’s earlier depiction of the soldiers and