70 honored by the glory of islamother valuable books. Finally, as a child Mehmed IV studied with the imam
Sami Hüseyin Efendi (d. 1 658), a man of great learning referred to in contem-
porary narrative sources by the Sufi phrase “luminous spiritual teacher.”^35
In addition to a Mevlevi Sufi interpretation of Sunni Islam, the presence of
Kadızade’s successor, Arab Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi of Damascus (d. 1661 ),
illustrates the presence of the Kadızadeli religious trend at Mehmed IV’s court.
Because of Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi’s close connections with palace servants
and his intimate relationship with the sultan’s teacher, he even entered the
royal ward in 1651 and began to preach there contrary to statute, which hints
at his charisma. According to Naima, this man mediating conversion to piety
became the sultan’s sheikh and gained quite a following as he cursed dervishes
and labeled them infi dels.^36
Muslims such as Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi underwent a spiritual conver-
sion, a revitalized commitment to the faith, and spurred other Muslims to join
their religious revival. In a period in which rebels acted not only as merce-
naries, but as quasi-Sufi brotherhoods complete with a hierarchy of sheikhs
and disciples and secret rituals, an Islamic reform movement came to the fore
in the midst of crisis, upheaval, and change.^37 The leaders of this movement,
such as Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi, championed restrictions on the practices
of Muslims they labeled innovations, which had not been sanctioned by Mu-
hammad. The Kadızadelis sought to replace the Islam practiced in Istanbul
with a religion purifi ed of such innovations. This religious movement blamed
the empire’s military defeat abroad and economic diffi culties at home on the
affi liation and patronage of members of the Ottoman religious and administra-
tive establishment with Sufi orders and the moral corruption of the religious
class.^38
Enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong entails transforming oneself
and then cleaning up society. Yet how could society be returned to the right path
when the head of the religious establishment engaged in corrupt practices?
Two-time sheikhulislam Baha’i Efendi spent his time “chatting with friends and
using narcotics.” He was so immersed in them that “he gave the reins of his
decisions to the hand of narcotics.”^39 Since the “shameless pleasure-seeking”sheikhulislam was so incapacitated from hemp or opium syrup, “giving the
pen of fatwa to him abrogated time-honored law and even violated the honor of
the Shariah.” Within a couple of years, “by continually swallowing at one gulp
the deadly poison of pure soluble opium syrup and opium acquired from post-
man Ahmed and coffee seller Mehmed, he was thrown into the agony of death
putting dust into his mouth with his own hand trying to satisfy his pleasure.”^40
Üstüvani Mehmed Efendi’s followers had been the enemy of opium-eating
Baha’i Efendi, who gave a fatwa permitting tobacco.