260 chapter 6
from the taxation of an item that was explicitly forbidden by the Quran and
the Sunna flowing into the treasury of the “shah of Islam.” He claimed that if
the sultan did away with this practice, the treasury would prosper again for, ac-
cording to the Prophet, when someone closes the door of the haram, God will
surely open him a door to the helal (p. 47).
The Sharia-minded take on non-Muslims included not only the zımmis liv-
ing under Ottoman rule but also other infidels living in the abode of war (daru’l-
harb). Tâcü’r-resâ’il begins with praise for the gaza, fighting for the faith, and
a fictitious account of the ransacking of Rome by the Ottomans.88 In addition
to the main section, the translation of Ibn Taymiyya’s work, Kadızade Mehmed
İlmi also considered the position of non-Muslim subjects and their rights in
Islamic history, the kharaj and jizya, and mentioned a work by Aristotle on the
arts of war and methods of fighting.89 The last prominent Kadızadeli preacher,
Vani Efendi, also expressed strong interest in the gaza, which is seen in his cor-
respondence with grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed.90 He also authored
an important Quran commentary in 1679–80 entitled Ara ’is al-Qur’an wa
nafa ’is al-furkan, in which he declared that the Turks were divinely ordained
to carry out gaza whereas the Arabs had previously failed in it.91 Vani is also
reported to have played an active role as one of the “war party” who pushed for
the siege of Vienna.92 This is important for understanding not only the ideo-
logical reasons behind the second siege of Vienna but also the motivations of
the pro-war party that continued to influence Ottoman foreign policy until the
signing of the Karlowitz Treaty in 1699 which, as shall be seen in chapters 7
and 8, brought such bellicose discourses to an end.
These ideas, promulgated by both the Kadızadelis and their opponents, no
doubt constituted the doctrinal backdrop to the strict Sharia measures of the
seventeenth century such as the public stoning incident of 1681. It is not known
if the person behind the decision, Beyazızade Ahmed Efendi, was openly a
Kadızadeli follower, but we know that later in his life he became a Nakşibendi,
an order known for its strict interpretation of the Islamic canon.93 In the same
88 Terzioğlu 1999, 321.
89 Öztürk 1981, 155.
90 Vani Efendi, Münşe’ât, Süleymaniye Ktp. Ayasofya MS 4308.
91 For a summary of this work, see Pazarbaşı 1997. Baer states that, in his summary transla-
tion of certain sections of the work, Pazarbaşı omits any references to Kurds found in the
original (Baer 2008, 206–210).
92 Terzioğlu 1999, 287.
93 He was the son of Beyazi Hasan Efendi (d. 1653) from Bosnia, who had served as the
judge of Mecca and Istanbul. Beyazızade was educated by famous ulema of the time
and got his diploma in Edirne. After serving for 20 years as müderris in various Istanbul