inauspicious enthronement 29fi ght them “like battling polytheists and enemies of the religion.”^15 They were
told, “The one killed is a martyr, the one who kills is a ghazi.”^16 The outcome
was predictable. Mid-seventeenth-century miniatures depict sipahis with body
armor and shields but only swords and arrows for weapons; Janissaries have
long rifl es.^17 Because the sipahis would not disband, the Janissaries marched
on those gathered in the Hippodrome, who fi red on them with arrows and
withdrew. The Janissaries charged with swords and used muskets to fi re on
those inside the mosque. The heads of hundreds of bearded men and beard-
less youth fi lled the Hippodrome. They turned the bloody ground into the
place where the resurrected are said to assemble on the Day of Judgment.^18
The surviving sipahis withdrew into the Ahmed I Mosque or fl ed to board
boats heading toward Üsküdar; one of these sank because it was overfi lled
with terrifi ed cavalrymen. The Janissaries showed no mercy. They attacked the
sipahis taking refuge in the mosque sanctuary and minarets, massacring them
before the pulpit and prayer niche, riddling the delicately beautiful decorated
doors and windows with bullets, which “rained down on them.”^19 Contrary to
Sunni Islamic custom, prayers were not said over the dead sipahis and their
corpses were dumped into the sea.^20
As battle raged, “weak and thin” seven-year-old Mehmed became the sul-
tan of the Ottoman dynasty.^21 The little boy, who had not yet even been cir-cumcised, was seated on the throne set up before the Gate of Felicity for the
oath-swearing ceremony and kissing of the sultan’s skirt. As was customary,
all the ministers took their oaths of allegiance before him. The sheikhulislam
wore a white fur. The grand vizier was dressed in a white satin coat covered
in sable fur and wore a thirty-fi ve-centimeter turban composed of a cylin-
der-shaped base around which he wrapped a white muslin cloth ornamented
by a red cloth at the tip.^22 All other ministers were cloaked in a sable fur
covered in silver brocade, with the same turban as the grand vizier.^23 But so
little Mehmed would not be scared or frightened, hundreds of others, such
as the Janissaries with their oversized handlebar mustaches and high caps,
were hindered from taking the oath lest he be overwhelmed by the crowd.^24
Their customary shout, “Let us meet at the Golden Apple,” or the capital of
the Christian world, which at that time referred to Vienna, was silenced.^25
After the subdued ceremony, the sun king then took a nap in the royal ward
guarded by harem eunuchs.^26
One could imagine a prodigal son being entertained by court jesters, fools,
and midgets, living a quiet life of luxury and ease, as in a contemporary Ot-
toman miniature portrait circa 1650 by an anonymous Ottoman painter. It
depicts a tiny, chubby child with a thick neck wearing a pink, fur-lined cloak
over an orange garment clutching the arms of the throne as he half sits, half