Page 10 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

By the 17th century, when their number may have
been as high as 100,000, the Janissaries had become closely a liated with the Bektashi Su dervish tariqa founded in the 13th century. The Bektashis were inclined towards Shiʿism and upheld the centrality of ʿAli b. Abi Talib, the Twelver Shiʿi line of Imams and extremist (ghulat) beliefs, and through their dervish lodges (tekkes) in uenced the educa- tion of the Janissaries, who eventually regarded the founder of the tariqa, Haji Bektashi Wali (d. ca. 1271) as their patron saint. If anything, this association with the Bektashis high- lighted the importance of the Janissaries to the Ottoman sultans, since their championing of Sunni Islam was down- played in order to ensure the support of these elite regiments.
The Sultanate of Women and
the Gates of Vienna
In the decades a er Sulayman i’s death in 1566, the extent of the Ottoman Empire made it di cult to govern and protect on all sides. In addition, Suleyman’s successors proved ine ective rulers and their authority was weakened by palace intrigues and cabals. Some sultans came to power as minors and were controlled by viziers or relatives serving as regents, while
the decline of some of the sultans’ powers encouraged royal mothers, wives and concubines to take an active role in political life, thus giving rise to the term The Sultanate of Women to describe this period in Ottoman history.
One of the most powerful regents was Kösem Sultan
(d. 1651), the wife of Ahmad i (d. 1617) and mother (a ording her the title valide sultan) of Murad iv (d. 1640). In 1638, Multan vi had managed to take Baghdad from the Safawids of Persia, but his controversial attempts to ban alcohol, tobacco and co ee, and issuing penalties of execution for those who did not obey, proved unsuccessful. His mother, who was highly intelligent and politically astute, managed to outlive and outmanoeuvre Murad and see her second son, Ibrahim (d. 1648), followed by grandson Mehmed iv
(d. 1687), ascend the throne. But Kösem Sultan was eventually killed when she was implicate in a plot to overthrow Mehmed, probably by her daughter-in-law, the mother of
Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (d. 1578), daughter of Sulayman I and his favourite wife Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana), by the Cristofano dell’Altissimo (1605), second half of the 16th century, Italy. Mihrimah Sultan had political connections and economic means and was the patron of a number of building projects including two mosques bearing her name built in Üskudar (1548) and Istanbul (1565).
Calligraphic tiles in the Valide Sultan Mosque (or Yeni Camii) built in Istanbul’s Eminönü district under the order of Sa ye Sultan
(d. 1603), the consort of Sultan Murad iii
(d. 1595) and completed in 1665 under the patronage of Turkhan Sultan (d. 1683), who served as Ottoman regent for her son Sultan Mehmed iv (d. 1693). The mosque is part of an endowed complex (külliye) that included a hospital and school as well as a market that is known today as the Spice Bazaar
(or Mısır Çarşısı), one of Istanbul’s most famous tourist attractions.
274