enjoining good and forbidding wrong 69erroneous beliefs and to condemn and punish those who held them. What this
led to, however, was “dispute and fi ghting,” in the words of Katip Çelebi. In
place of reasoned critiques of superstitious practices, “stupid men” imitated
Kadızade and joined the faction of “bigoted zealots, having a passion for quar-
relling and brawling.” “Bigoted antagonism” reached such a level that, in the
view of the Kadızadelis, “massacre became canonically lawful.” The levelheaded
writer Katip Çelebi called on the sultan to not let people go too far and upset the
order of society, to prevent “men of folly” from brandishing their weapons, not
to allow any group of fanatics to appear victorious, but to “subdue, punish, and
chastise these false bigots because much sedition emerges from the strife of
bigotry,” whether it is caused by Sufi s (Halvetis) or revivalists (Kadızadelis).^30
Kadızade remained close to Murad IV. Anticipating the future exploits of
the Kadızadeli preacher Vani Mehmed Efendi, Kadızade initially accompanied
the sultan on the Armenian campaign. But after becoming ill, he turned back
at Konya, where he passed away in 1 635.^31 After Kadızade’s death his followers
maintained infl uence in the palace among the halberdiers, palace guards, sweet
makers, gatekeepers, servants of the inner palace, harem eunuchs, and arti-
sans, and in the market among merchants. Members of these well-connected
groups served as mediators, proselytizing the Kadızadeli path to piety. Child
Sultan Mehmed IV’s mother, Hatice Turhan, and the commanders of the pal-
ace supported the movement against a palace faction consisting of Mehmed
IV’s grandmother Kösem Sultan and the commanders of the military who sup-
ported such Sufi orders as the Halvetis and Bektashis.^32 The murder of Kösem
Sultan in 1651 cleared the path for greater Kadızadeli infl uence.
At fi rst the young Sultan Mehmed IV and those around him showed no
inclination to act any differently from their predecessors in matters of religion.
Mehmed IV received religious instruction from some of the leading Sufi der-
vishes of the day. Mevlevi dervishes in particular played an important role early
in his reign. Not only did the Mevlevi Mehmed Pasha participate in the girding
of Mehmed IV at Eyüp in 1 648, but the following year Sari Abdullah Efendi
(d. 1661 ) presented to the young sultan Advice to Kings Encouraging a Good Ca-
reer in an effort to teach him to keep on the straight path and avoid the errors
made by men of state.^33 Sari Abdullah Efendi was also the author of a com-
mentary on the fi rst volume of the Mesnevi, the thirteenth-century mystic Jala-
luddin Rumi’s six-volume work of rhymed couplets explaining the Sufi path of
love. The Sufi Minkari Ali Halife Efendi presented the sultan with The Spiritual
Healing of the Believer in 1 653.^34 The second chapter in the second book includessections entitled “The Virtues of Dhikr,” repeatedly invoking God’s ninety-nine
names as a form of prayer, and “The Etiquette of Dhikr.” All of these works
were presented to the young sultan and deposited in the royal treasury with