enjoining good and forbidding wrong 67Janissaries also consumed tobacco in Fatih Mosque, molested Muslims, and
“hastily yet openly engaged in fornication and sodomy” on street corners, in
addition to spilling blood and raiding palaces and homes throughout the city.
Some blamed such widespread immorality and vice for a great confl agration
that burned perhaps one-fi fth of the city; the prohibition of coffee and tobacco
and the razing of the places where they were consumed was issued soon after
the fi re since coffee, tobacco, and wine appeared to incite men to commit abom-
inable acts and sexual violence and engage in debauchery. Countless humble
coffee drinkers and tobacco smokers were executed in Istanbul and wherever
Murad IV traveled. Such an atmosphere of terror was created that everyone’s in-
tentions were considered suspect; innocent people, even young sons of imams
who stayed too late at mosque, were executed for not going about at night with
a lantern.^19 While en route to the Baghdad campaign, Murad IV had fourteen
people executed for using tobacco, including the head of the gatekeepers and
Janissaries.^20 Until he died in 1 640, tobacco was not openly consumed in Is-tanbul. Soon after the ban on coffee and tobacco was decreed, wine and opium
consumption were also prohibited.
Muslims Resist Converting to Piety
Not all Muslims desired to turn to the straight path envisioned by the Kadızadelis.
For Solakzade, writing soon after outburst of violent intra-Muslim discord in
1 656, the Kadızadelis’ pronouncing some common Muslim practices as erro-
neous shook the foundations of the world.^21 Katip Çelebi, a harsh critic of the
preacher, acknowledged that Kadızade was “famous for his knowledge and vir-
tue” and “eloquent of speech,” a preacher who taught Shariah four days a week
and preached three, educating many people and rescuing them “from the lowest
depths of ignorance.”^22 On the other hand, the author, who attended Kadızadeli
lessons numerous times, considered their preaching to be simple and mislead-
ing, as they criticized perfectly permissable acts and became the cause of much
turmoil among Muslims. He asked how they could hinder people from engag-
ing in beliefs and practices that were so popular and well-established. Silahdar,
whose history was a continuation of Katip Çelebi’s, also takes a harsh stance
against them, labeling their preaching clamorous sophistry.^23
Many Muslims opposed the suppression of pleasure-bringing habits.
Solakzade records the views of those who objected to the Kadızadelis by say-
ing that if the people are hindered from smoking tobacco, the preacher
would neither gain nor lose anything, so there was no point to the reprimand.
Furthermore, they ridiculed Kadızade: unless a little smoke would cause the