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

68 honored by the glory of islam

end of the world, why raise a ruckus?^24 The Kadızadelis responded by saying

that those who did not voluntarily drop the habit deserved to be killed. Mus-

tafa Altıoklar’s 1 996 fi lm Istanbul beneath My Wings (İstanbul Kanatlarımın

Altında) makes an interesting attempt to convey the mood of the period. The

director places much of the blame for the severity of the era incorrectly on the

sheikhulislam. In fact, the sheikhulislam actually opposed the Kadızadelis, a

group that does not appear in the fi lm. Nevertheless, Altıoklar accurately de-

picts raids on underground coffee and wine shops and mass hangings of their

patrons, so that when the inhabitants of Istanbul awoke in the morning, they

would behold corpses hanging from trees and be terrorized enough to forgo

enjoying themselves again. Whether the director realized it or not, this de-

piction refl ects Solakzade’s complaint that because of Kadızadeli incitement,

thousands of innocent people faced the sultan’s wrath and were executed.^25

Kadızadelis and Sultans

The crucial issue for the historian is the relation of the movement’s leaders

with the sovereign and whether he fully supported encouraging or compelling

Muslims to create a more pious society. As Roy Mottahedeh notes concerning

an earlier period in Islamic history, “Kings sometimes accepted the intercession

of such men, and they did so not only because they admired men of outstand-

ing piety, but also because such men had a certain following.”^26 Murad IV was

not a Kadızadeli. He maintained personal connections with Sufi s condemned

by the movement, including the disciples of Sivasi Efendi, whom he honored,

and was often their benefactor, supporting Sufi orders throughout the empire.^27

He was a patron of Mevlevis and Halvetis. Thus Halvetis and their enemies

the Kadızadelis both benefi ted from their relation with this sultan. Murad IV

implemented only those Kadızadeli ideas, such as closing coffeehouses, that

befi tted his authoritarian rule. There was economic and political support for

the suppression of the coffee trade. When the members of the Istanbul butch-

ers’ guild complained of being placed behind the Egyptian merchants in a

procession, they criticized goods from Egypt, including coffee, which “is an

innovation; it prevents sleep; it dulls the generative powers; and coffee houses

are dens of sedition.”^28 Rycaut also considered coffeehouses abodes of insurrec-

tion, “melancholy places where Seditions were vented, where refl ections were

made on all occurrences of State, & discontents published and aggravated.”^29

Along with banning allegedly morally harmful and politically dangerous

products such as tobacco and coffee, the Kadızadeli preacher urged Murad IV

to fulfi ll his duty as head of an Islamic empire to struggle against widespread