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

234 honored by the glory of islam

Mehmed IV tried to appear as if he had changed his behavior as his court

continued to suffer the withering criticism of the populace. A summary report

submitting the religious class’s complaints was sent to the sultan. This time,

seeing that the entire religious establishment had turned against him, and fear-

ing its unity and seriousness of purpose, he abandoned the hunt and attended

prayers at the highly visible mosque his mother had built. A great crowd, in-

cluding religious scholars, Janissaries, and city folk, gathered at the Valide

Sultan Mosque and surrounded Sheikhulislam Çatalcalı Ali’s carriage when it

arrived. According to Silahdar, they shouted, “The sheikhulislam does not fear

God and is not ashamed before the prophet.” Then they turned to blame him

for being vain and corrupt and abandoning his higher calling: “Because of fear

of losing your great position, you do not tell the sultan the truth. Can’t a man

be found to replace you? For fourteen years, because you humored his whims,

you defi led legal opinions and put the state in this situation. After such guilt

and sins, in order to be secluded from the commoners you have begun to come

to prayers in a carriage. How many of your predecessors did the same? Only

priests ride in carriages!” (2:246). They were ready to break the carriage into

pieces. That day Vani Mehmed Efendi’s son-in-law Mustafa Efendi gave the

sermon in which he spoke about the military campaigns, but most in the as-

sembly wanted to bring him down from the pulpit.

Soon after, word of Buda’s fall reverberated through the sultan’s court and

the empire. The army had been routed again in the heart of the Ottoman

province of Hungary, fi rst seized by Suleiman I at the beginning of his reign.

Buda was a more tragic loss than Vienna for it was an important, long-held

possession. Its loss, coupled with that of Belgrade, triggered Ottoman panic.

In consequence, Çatalcalı Ali was banished to Bursa. The new sheikhulislam,

Ankaravi Mehmed Efendi, met with the sultan at Davud Pasha and told him

to give up hunting for a few days or go to Topkapı Palace to end the gossip.

If he did not abandon the hunt, the scholar warned, scandal would increase.

Because the commoners and elites alike were brokenhearted at the military

situation, if a rebel should appear he would gain a large following and it would

be diffi cult to put down insurrection. The sultan agreed: “I have abandoned

the hunt, God willing, for a few days I will cross to the dockyard” (2:247). But

it was too late. Whatever action he took could not decrease the anger people

felt toward him.

The adverse environmental situation did not help the sultan at all. The

winter of 1 686–87 was one of the harshest in memory and refl ected its being

the little ice age. Huge snowstorms caused much hardship and diffi culty. The

weather’s unprecedented severity closed roads for up to two months, and snow

fi lled homes in many cities and villages. In Istanbul, the Flea Market was fi lled