202 | Policing Morality
strangled by the Chief Black Eunuch Div Süleyman Agha. He did it by twist-
ing her braids around her neck. So that gracious benefactress was martyred.
When the Istanbul populace heard of this they closed the mosques and the ba-
zaars for three days and nights. There was a huge commotion. Several hundred
people were put to death, secretly and publicly, and Istanbul was in a tumult.Like Naima, Evliya Çelebi praised the senior valide sultan for her philanthropy
and underlined her popularity among the residents of Istanbul and the Janissar-
ies. The former mourned her death for three days, and the latter became even
more rebellious after her murder. He blamed the new grand vizier, Siyavuş Pasha,
for plotting to get rid of Melek Ahmed Pasha and inciting the Janissary rebel-
lion. A few years later, another Janissary rebellion broke out in Istanbul in March
1656, led by disgruntled troops who demanded their back pay upon return from
the Cretan War, the removal of several high officials, and the death of Valide
Turhan Sultan. Sultan Mehmed IV, still in his youth and in a state of shock from
the rebellion, spared his mother’s life despite her role in the regicide but ordered
the execution of the chief black and white eunuchs and Meleki Hatun, the slave
who had betrayed Kösem Sultan’s plot. Their corpses were thrown over the palace
walls to the rebels, who hung them on trees as symbols of their triumph.
With Turhan Sultan and Sultan Mehmed IV’s faction now in control, the Ka-
dizadelis had greater influence on government policy and practice. As mentioned
above, they were successful in imposing sumptuary laws against Jews and Chris-
tians and outlawing many Sufi practices and marginalizing Sufi groups that had
enjoyed access to power and dynastic patronage. Religious tensions continued
for several decades as the Kadizadeli influence in the court grew and overlapped
with the Sabbatai Zevi movement, thus targeting religious minorities and those
who crossed communal sexual boundaries. The stoning to death of a Muslim
woman and Jewish man accused of adultery in 1680 exemplifies this sexual vio-
lence and disciplining and its links to Ottoman dynastic intrigue and even the
regicide of Kösem Sultan.
The Strange Event of Stoning to Death (Rejm)
The wife of a boot maker, Abdullah Çelebi, was caught in the act of making
love to a Jewish draper in the neighborhood of Aksaray near the imperial pal-
ace. An imperial order was issued for a religious ruling in accordance with the
sharia, which required an investigation by the kadi in the Islamic court. Since
it was difficult to obtain eyewitnesses to this kind of accusation, the chief kadi
could not issue the hadd (maximum) punishment. The chief military judge of
Rumelia, Beyazizade Ahmed Efendi, however, issued the ruling for their ston-
ing to death despite suspect witnesses and flimsy evidence. A ditch was dug in
front of the Sultan Ahmet Friday mosque. Because of the spread of the news of
this strange event, the sultan himself came to the Fazlı Pasha Sarayı together
with a large crowd of young and old who had gathered in the square. They took