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

86 honored by the glory of islam

Rumelian side and Kale-i Sultaniye [Sultanic Citadel] on the Anatolian shore).^25

According to Karaçelebizade, “Noticing infi del ships anchored where the can-

nons of [Ottoman fortresses] could not reach, which hindered the imperial navy

from passing, she exerted herself with manly zeal and endeavored to build two

large citadels near where the strait empties into the sea.”^26

Constructing fortresses was important, but it was natural disaster that af-

forded Hatice Turhan the opportunity to have a physical impact on Istanbul by

building a mosque complex in Eminönü, the most meaningful of her monu-

mental public works and a lasting sign of her and her son’s Islamic virtue. Her

response to cataclysmic fi re in 1 660 served as the fi rst opportunity to observe

Mehmed IV’s court in action at the beginning of the crucial part of his reign—

his majority—when the dynasty began to assert itself.

In selecting the area in which to erect her mosque and choosing which

groups would be moved from the area Hatice Turhan acted on dynastic prec-

edent. The mosque was to be built in a prominent area at the port and near

the palace. When a previous valide sultan, Safi ye Sultan, like Hatice Turhan

a Christian convert raised in the palace, commanded the head of the imperial

architects, Davud Agha, to begin the foundation for a mosque in Eminönü in

late summer 1 597, she had taken advantage of the anger voiced by both Mus-

lim and Venetian traders against Jewish merchants and tax farmers.^27 They

claimed that Jews monopolized the textile and other trades and set untenable

conditions on foreign traders and Muslims who wished to enter the market.

Muslims petitioned the sultan, claiming that Jewish collectors of customs taxes

behaved in an unbecoming manner toward Muslims. They requested that Jews

be prohibited from collecting the tax, and their wish was granted. Safi ye Sultan

then expropriated property from Jewish merchants and residents and began

to construct the mosque. Following the loss of their property, the Jews of Em-

inönü began migrating to other parts of the city.

Although the architects had completed its massive foundations, a number of

factors stood in the way of the structure’s completion. These included criticism

of the project in some palace circles, the death of Davud Agha in 1 598, the dif-

fi culty of placing a large building at that location, and the death in 1 603 of both

Sultan Mehmed III and his mother, Safi ye Sultan.^28 The unfi nished mosque was

nicknamed “Oppression” (Zulmiyye) since many complained about the great ex-

pense of an imperial building that the Ottomans were unable to complete.^29

Zulm originally meant in Arabic “acting in whatsoever way one pleases in the

disposing of the property of another.”^30 There was thus criticism that it had not

been fi nanced in a proper manner. Shortly thereafter, Jews began to resettle in

Eminönü and quickly made it again their primary residence and commercial

zone, what Evliya Çelebi called a “weird” situation.^31 The mosque remained in a