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

32 honored by the glory of islam

six hundred thousand and three quarters of a million, including an estimated

350,000 to 450,000 Muslims, Sunni, including those who were members of di-

verse Sufi orders, and Alevi (members of a heterodox offshoot of Shi‘ism) of all

ethnic backgrounds, from southeastern European to central Asian; 200,000 to

250,000 Christians, Armenian, Assyrian, Catholic, and Orthodox; and 50,000

to 60,000 Jews, Ashkenazi (central European), Karaite (those who do not rec-

ognize the “oral law” of other Jews), Romaniot (Greek-speaking, rooted in the

Byzantine era), and Sephardi (Spanish and Portuguese).^33 As the royal family

boarded the vessel their gaze would be directed up the European side of the

Bosporus, where they would see Beşiktaş, a town located on the straits within

sight of Topkapı Palace, which had a mixed population and was known for the

octagonal tomb of the sixteenth-century admiral of the Ottoman navy and con-

queror of much of northern Africa, Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, built by the fa-

mous Ottoman architect Sinan on the coast upon a foundation of ruins of the

Byzantine columns located in the same area; the seaside mansions, gardens,

and vineyards of Ottoman men and women of state and royalty; and the Mev-

levi dervish lodge on the coast overlooking the Bosporus, a Sufi center known

for its rituals, which incorporated prayer with dance and music.^34 Beşiktaş was

also the staging ground where ships built at the imperial dockyards would

dock to board soldiers for campaign in the Mediterranean. Further along the

Bosporus were the villages of Ortaköy, “chock full of infi dels and Jews,” which

boasted hundreds of taverns, along with gardens and vineyards, and wealthy

Jews who were seaside mansion owners; Kuruçeşme, also noted for its sea-

side residences of notables, numerous gardens and vineyards, and Jewish

inhabitants; Arnavutköy, all of whose inhabitants were Orthodox Christians

from the Black Sea (renowned for their hard biscuits) or Jews (famous for

being soft, pleasure lovers and musicians); İstinye, site of a well-known harbor

with an ample bounty of fruits and vegetables from the many gardens and

fi sh from the Bosporus, a predominantly Orthodox Christian village chosen by

Sheikhulislam Yahya Efendi for his waterside mansion; and Yeniköy, known

for pastrami made from elk and roe meat captured by Janissary hunters and

cured for the sultan, biscuits made in over a hundred stores, taverns such as

Little Priest and Son of the Priest, its “fabulously rich” Orthodox Christian

merchants from Trabzon and anti-Jewish Laz who made sure Jews never set

foot there.^35

Gazing across from where they embarked, the royal family would have ob-

served Galata, the district directly across the Golden Horn from the peninsula

of Istanbul. It was also the main city view from the royal vantage point in the

outermost Baghdad Kiosk built by Murad IV in the fourth courtyard of the pal-

ace. Galata’s most imposing landmark remains a thirteenth-century Genoese