Mehmed IV’s Life and Legacy, from Ghazi to Hunter

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Marc David Baer

Published:

2008

Publisher:

Oxford University PressNew York

Abstract This chapter examines Mehmed IV's life and legacy. His hunting habit overshadowed his numerous conversions. Dire straits for commoners, lawlessness in the capital, and military failure turned commoners, the military, and factions in the administration against Mehmed IV. The sultan's constant hunting earned the wrath of the religious class and united commoner and elite alike in opposition. All anyone could see was that Mehmed IV was in the environs of Istanbul, pitching his tent where he pleased and hunting; no one seemed to have appreciated his proselytizing behavior. Within a decade of Mehmed IV's death, writers reinterpreted his reign. By the turn of the 18th century, everything positive that Mehmed IV had achieved for his dynasty, empire, and religion, namely, a restored name, greatest territorial extent, and hundreds of conversions of people and places, seemed to have been forgotten.

Türkçe sayfa →