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

76 honored by the glory of islam

the pale in their sermons, inciting riot, inspiring bloodshed, using weapons

to promote good and prohibit evil, and gathering men and weapons at Fatih

mosque, preparing for a general assault on Halveti Sufi s.^65

Chronicle writers concluded that the Kadızadelis faced an insurmountable

foe in the person of Grand Vizier Köprülu Mehmed Pasha. Solakzade noted

that since the three leaders of the group were exiled, “the names were forgot-

ten like the renown of liars.”^66 The Kadızade affair of 1 656 serves as one of the

last events narrated in Solakzade’s history. This placement at the end of his

text leaves the reader curious about whether the movement was stamped out

so easily.

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha’s actions against the Kadızadeli preachers and reli-

gious scholars illustrate some of the successful policies he implemented, which

have earned him fame for ushering in a period of relative stability in the empire.

Sultan Mehmed IV appointed the Albanian Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who had

risen from a cook serving Murad IV to a vizier in Ibrahim’s Divan, to be grand

vizier by agreeing to the latter’s condition that he receive unlimited freedom to

enact even unpopular and draconian policies, that he would make all appoint-

ments, and that no one could challenge his independence.^67 Evliya Çelebi accu-

rately refers to him as an “independent grand vizier.”^68 Köprülü Mehmed Pasha’s

policies soon put an end to the serious troubles affl icting the empire, in part

through spilling blood in purges and mass executions of alleged troublemakers,

including rebels, viziers, governors general, provincial offi cials, and religious

scholars, which allowed him to achieve remarkable political control within a

short period of time. According to Ahmed Dede, his bloodbath “terrorized and

frightened everyone”; as Silahdar notes, “He restored health to the constitution

of the state with the elixir of the sword.”^69 In his fi rst year in offi ce, the grand

vizier apparently killed as many as ten thousand rebels and outlaws and had the

severed heads of the ringleaders sent to the capital.^70 He is credited for wiping

out bandits and banditry, rebels and rebellion in Anatolia, and even the families

of outlaws, and seizing their wealth. He collected nearly one hundred thousand

muskets of commoners and sent them all to the armory in Istanbul, pacifying

the countryside. Because he had total authority concerning the administration

of state, opponents were silenced, and when executed their wealth accrued to

the treasury. He wiped out all opposition, beginning with Janissaries who had

immediately gathered at the Hippodrome when he became grand vizier, sipahis

settled in Istanbul, and any other rebels in the empire that he could fi nd.^71

Mehmed Halife argues that the new grand vizier had to brandish his sword

and strike terror into the heart of the Janissaries because between the execution

of Ibrahim in 1 648 and 1 656 they had rebelled nine times. The Janissaries had

unjustly killed countless people, looted the wealth and property of the viziers,