conclusion 251
effort to instill right belief and strengthen support. Both sultans invested in
a recharged dynastic mythology and actively converted people—whether mar-
ginal or mainstream Muslims, Christians, or Jews—to what was considered an
acceptable version of Islam.^15 Instead of compelling or facilitating conversion
on the hunt or campaign trail, as had Mehmed IV, Abdülhamid II sent pious
religious teachers as missionaries throughout the empire to correct the beliefs
of Muslims and convert Muslim heretics (Alevi, bedouin, and Shi‘ia) especially
in the eastern half of the empire, to Sunni Hanefi Islam.^16 While the targeted
population and geographical region of the conversion efforts may have been
different, for Mehmed IV was oriented toward the western provinces, Abül-
hamid II’s revival of piety also occurred during a period of crisis and was also
linked to conversion. As he faced the crisis of territorial contraction, this sultan
tried to purify the lands and people still remaining in his possession.
Abdülhamid II followed a strategy of domination based on legitimacy,whereas the rule of recent Middle Eastern leaders, such as Hafi z al-Asad of
Syria, has been based on compliance. Citizen compliance during the al-Asad
era in Syria was achieved “through enforced participation in rituals of obei-
sance.” Like his modern counterpart, Mehmed IV engaged in spectacles that
had voluntary participants, such as religious conversion ceremonies to repre-
sent his power and dominance. Spectacles in which those around him were
re-dressed from head to toe in clothes theoretically the sultan’s own mobilized
bodies for political obedience and made his power plain and obvious.^17 Such
body-centered spectacles demonstrated how he exercised power to control
his subjects’ behavior. By reasserting order through their bodies, the sultan
sought to defuse the tension of the period and create an image of stability.^18
Mehmed IV also revised meaningful symbols, such as the ghazi, so as to com-
municate current political messages, including demonstrating real personal
leadership, piety, military prowess, and male virtue in an era when the sultan
was expected to be a ceremonial fi gure of little signifi cance.