God's Shadow

by Alan Mikhail

  181 “kill them [Jews] if they see them”: Quoted in Robert Dankoff, An Ottoman Mentality: The World of Evliya Çelebi (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 68–69. All quotes in this section, along with the story of the two young Muslim brothers, are from the writings of the prolific seventeenth-century scholar and traveler Evliya Çelebi.

  CHAPTER 12: HERESY FROM THE EAST

  186 Safavid Empire: On the emergence and rise of the Safavids, see Roger Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 1–49; Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire (London: I. B. Tauris, 2009), 13–25; Stephen Frederic Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 63–70; Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017), 31–75.

  188 He spent hours in meditation: Sholeh A. Quinn, “The Dreams of Shaykh Safi al-Din and Safavid Historical Writing,” Iranian Studies 29 (1996): 127–47; N. Hanif, Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis (Central Asia and Middle East) (New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2002), s.v. “Safi Al-Din Ardabili (1252–1334)” (F. Babinger and R. M. Savory).

  188 interpreting Safi’s visions: Quinn, “Dreams of Safi.”

  188 “Ṣafī, God has shown you”: Quoted in Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 8.

  191 A left-handed redhead: Encyclopaedia Iranica (online edition, 2012), s.v. “Esmā‘īl I Ṣafawī: Biography” (Roger M. Savory); Wall text, “Şah İsmayıl—Commander and King,” exhibition from April to December 2016, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan Historical Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan.

  192 Ismail supposedly directed that a ram be killed: Wall text, “Şah İsmayıl,” exhibition, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.

  192 “I am the faith of the Shah”: Quoted in Dale, Muslim Empires, 68.

  193 “I am Very God”: Quoted in Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 23.

  194 “infidel dog”: Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 23. See also “Letters from Selîm and Ismâ‘îl,” in The Islamic World, ed. William H. McNeill and Marilyn Robinson Waldman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 338–44.

  CHAPTER 13: ENEMIES EVERYWHERE

  198 30 percent of the annual income of some Black Sea cities: Halil İnalcık, “The Ottoman State: Economy and Society, 1300–1600,” in An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Halil İnalcık with Donald Quataert, 2 vols. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 1:283.

  198 “I am making a raid”: Selim’s call to arms, the account of the Georgian raid, and Selim’s speech to the troops are from Celia J. Kerslake, “A Critical Edition and Translation of the Introductory Sections and the First Thirteen Chapters of the ‘Selīmnāme’ of Celālzāde Muṣṭafā Çelebi” (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975), 49a–52a.

  199 ten thousand Georgian women and children destined for slavery: H. Erdem Çıpa, The Making of Selim: Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 36.

  203 major crisis fanned the flames: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 43–48; Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 98–104.

  204 Şahkulu: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 98.

  204 sent letters as far as Greece and Bulgaria: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 44.

  204 “majestic and strong commander”: Quoted in Çıpa, Making of Selim, 35.

  204 April 9, 1511: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 98.

  205 notching important victories against Ottoman forces: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 45.

  205 some twenty thousand strong: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 99.

  205 “destroyed everything”: Quoted in Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 99.

  205 within two days: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 99.

  206 beheaded him and burned the body: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 45.

  206 Bayezit turned to his grand vizier: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 45–46.

  206 confronted the rebels near . . . Sivas: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 46.

  207 resettled most of them in the Peloponnese: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 100.

  207 suggesting that he died either in the battle at Sivas or during the march to Iran: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 46.

  207 benefited from Şahkulu’s rebellion: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 46–48.

  208 refused on the grounds that he was not personally leading them into war: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 47–48.

  208 Murad . . . had defected to the Safavid side: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 47.

  208 distinctive red helmet of the Kızılbaş: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103–04.

  CHAPTER 14: SUMMER IN CRIMEA

  211 “the straight-grown sapling”: Celia J. Kerslake, “A Critical Edition and Translation of the Introductory Sections and the First Thirteen Chapters of the ‘Selīmnāme’ of Celālzāde Muṣṭafā Çelebi” (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975), 53a.

  211 Selim had tried (and failed) to have him named governor: H. Erdem Çıpa, The Making of Selim: Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 34.

  213 “The protected city of Kaffa”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 54a.

  214 ornate palace in western Crimea: Wikipedia, s.v. “Bakhchisaray Palace,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhchisaray_Palace (accessed February 11, 2019).

  214 short, stocky: For an image of Mengli and his son Mehemmed, see Wikipedia, s.v. “Mehmed I Giray,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_I_Giray#/media/File:Mengli_bayezid.jpg (accessed February 11, 2019).

  215 Between 1450 and 1586: Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 3rd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 106.

  215 10,000 gold ducats: Leslie Peirce, Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2017), 21.

  215 Mengli who had gifted Hafsa: Peirce, Empress of the East, 20.

  215 “firm and honest”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 54b.

  215 “[Mengli] came to meet him”: The account of Selim’s visit to Mengli’s court comes from Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 54b–59b.

  217 “even if Gabriel descended”: Quoted in Çıpa, Making of Selim, 38–39.

  221 Mengli Giray Khan ramped up his support: Hakkı Erdem Çipa, “The Centrality of the Periphery: The Rise to Power of Selīm I, 1487–1512” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2007), 42.

  221 “For such a long time”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 58a.

  222 “My lord . . . have you come”: This exchange is from Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 59a.

  CHAPTER 15: BOUND FOR ISTANBUL

  224 By the end of July, Selim had begun his march southward: H. Erdem Çıpa, The Making of Selim: Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 40–41.

  225 Hasan Pasha: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 41.

  225 They negotiated a rapprochement: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 41–42.

  226 He wrote an angry letter: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 42.

  226 Selim procrastinated: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 42.

  226–227 “[fierce as] lion-hunters”: Celia J. Kerslake, “A Critical Edition and Translation of the Introductory Sections and the First Thirteen Chapters of the ‘Selīmnāme’ of Celālzāde Muṣṭafā Çelebi” (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975), 72a.

  227 Selim himself was almost killed: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 50.

  227 Selim’s soldiers sneaked him off the battlefield: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 73b.

  227 “such vessels . . . the right way”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 73b.

  227 wary of becoming too beholden to them: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 51.

  228 He sent word for Ahmed: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 74a–74b.

  228 “the hope of acceding”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 74b.

  229 he mo
bilized quickly: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 52–54.

  229 treasonous dogs: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 52.

  229 “[This] vast company”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 77a.

  231 seethed with rage: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 77b–78b.

  231 “His disposition”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 78a.

  231 “become an independent sovereign”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 78a.

  231 invasion and capture of the important city of Konya: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 53.

  232 “his thought and discernment”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 78a.

  232 Ahmed now aimed his torrent of violence against Korkud: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 79a–79b.

  232 “I came because I was afraid”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 79b.

  233 commander-in-chief of the Janissaries: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 54.

  234 “the dust of his happiness-promoting feet”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 80b.

  CHAPTER 16: ONE AND ONLY SULTAN

  235 The decisive weapon: Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, trans. Ralph Manheim, ed. William C. Hickman (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 80–94.

  236 “in a tent whose height”: Celia J. Kerslake, “A Critical Edition and Translation of the Introductory Sections and the First Thirteen Chapters of the ‘Selīmnāme’ of Celālzāde Muṣṭafā Çelebi” (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975), 82b.

  236 “with thousands of manifestations”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 82b.

  236 “excellent kindness”: The account of Selim’s confrontations with Bayezit comes from Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 82b–83b.

  237 For about a week, they continued their meetings: H. Erdem Çıpa, The Making of Selim: Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 55.

  238 “everyone was flying . . . at the news”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 84a.

  238 “The most brilliant sun”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 84a.

  239 Selim’s actions amounted to an unlawful coup: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 56–58.

  239 what to do with his reviled father: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 84a–84b.

  239 Dimetoka—“a charming town”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 84b.

  239 At dawn, in what must have seemed: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 84b; Fatih Akçe, Sultan Selim I: The Conqueror of the East (Clifton, NJ: Blue Dome Press, 2016), 36–37.

  240 “the provisions for the remainder”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 85a.

  240 Bayezit’s death seems suspicious: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 56–58.

  240 “paradise-like in form”: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 85b.

  240 exquisitely adorned mausoleum: Kerslake, “ ‘Selīmnāme,’ ” 86a.

  242 Korkud had made repeated requests: Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 103.

  242 They would strangle him: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103.

  242 He cut deals with local power brokers: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 58.

  242 many of Ahmed’s backers grew nervous: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 58–59.

  243 Ahmed had sent his second son: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 59; Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 102.

  243 executing him along with the sons of some of his other half-brothers: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 59.

  244 Selim devised a plan to trap Ahmed: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103.

  244 Ahmed was captured alive: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103.

  245 Selim had Ahmed strangled: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103; Çıpa, Making of Selim, 60.

  245 forces streamed into eastern Anatolia: Çıpa, Making of Selim, 59–60; Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 103.

  246 Machiavelli esteemed Selim: Giuseppe Marcocci, “Machiavelli, the Iberian Explorations and the Islamic Empire: Tropical Readers from Brazil to India (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries),” in Machiavelli, Islam and the East: Reorienting the Foundations of Modern Political Thought, ed. Lucio Biasiori and Giuseppe Marcocci (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 136.

  CHAPTER 17: “THEIR ABODE IS HELL”

  250 Babur . . . had reached out: Naimur Rahman Farooqi, “Mughal–Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986), 22–25.

  250 “fair, handsome, and very pleasing”: Quoted in Encyclopaedia Iranica (online edition, 2012), s.v. “Esmā‘īl I Ṣafawī: Biography” (Roger M. Savory).

  250 His mustache: See for example “Şah İsmayıl—Commander and King,” Exhibition from April to December 2016, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan Historical Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan, images 7 and 8.

  250 “as brave as a game cock”: Quoted in Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Esmā‘īl I Ṣafawī: Biography” (Savory).

  251 Ismail also enjoyed poetry, song, and dance: Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Esmā‘īl I Ṣafawī: His Poetry” (Roger M. Savory and Ahmet T. Karamustafa).

  251 refused to observe the standard early sixteenth-century diplomatic protocol: Adel Allouche, The Origins and Development of the Ottoman–Ṣafavid Conflict (906–962 / 1500–1555) (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1983), 107.

  251 Isfahan: Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Isfahan: Geography of the Oasis” (Xavier de Planhol).

  251 Shah Ismail mocked Selim’s envoys: Allouche, Origins and Development, 109–10.

  252 Selim’s envoys departed Isfahan: Allouche, Origins and Development, 106–10.

  253 Selim turned to the empire’s religious establishment: Allouche, Origins and Development, 110–12.

  253 Hamza Saru Görez stated unequivocally in his Ottoman Turkish fatwa: Reproduced in M. C. Şehabeddin Tekindağ, “Yeni Kaynak ve Vesîkaların Işığı Altında: Yavuz Sultan Selim’in İran Seferi,” Tarih Dergisi 17 (1967): 53–55.

  253 worse than Jews and Christians: Tekindağ, “Yavuz Sultan Selim’in İran Seferi,” 53–55; M. Sait Özervarlı, “Between Tension and Rapprochement: Sunni–Shi‘ite Relations in the Pre-Modern Ottoman Period, with a Focus on the Eighteenth Century,” Historical Research 90 (2017): 541.

  253 set out from Edirne on March 20, 1514: Allouche, Origins and Development, 112.

  254 two hundred thousand soldiers: Roger Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 40.

  254 Selim also moved to squeeze the Safavids economically: Allouche, Origins and Development, 113.

  254 Selim reached Istanbul on March 29: Allouche, Origins and Development, 116.

  254 drove the Safavid economy and supported nearly every facet of the state: Rudolph P. Matthee, The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600–1730 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 15–32; Edmund M. Herzig, “The Volume of Iranian Raw Silk Exports in the Safavid Period,” Iranian Studies 25 (1992): 61–79.

  255 Selim sent an envoy to Cairo: Allouche, Origins and Development, 114. On the letters exchanged between Selim and al-Ghawri, see Celia J. Kerslake, “The Correspondence between Selīm I and Ḳānṣūh al-Ğawrī,” Prilozi za Orijentalnu Filologiju 30 (1980): 219–34.

  255 Selim also dispatched one of his most trusted naval commanders: Abbas Hamdani, “Ottoman Response to the Discovery of America and the New Route to India,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 101 (1981): 326.

  255 letter to . . . ‘Ubayd Allah Khan: Allouche, Origins and Development, 115; Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Ottoman–Persian Relations: Under Sultan Selim I and Shah Esmā‘il I” (Osman G. Özgüdenli).

  256 Selim marched out of Istanbul: On Selim’s troop levels, see Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Ottoman–Persian Relations” (Özgüdenli).

  257–258 “slayer of the wicked . . . face of the earth”: “Letters from Selîm and Ismâ‘îl,” in The Is
lamic World, ed. William H. McNeill and Marilyn Robinson Waldman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 338–42.

  258 “age seven to seventy”: Quoted in Tekindağ, “Yavuz Sultan Selim’in İran Seferi,” 56. See also Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 105.

  259 Selim and his troops arrived there on July 1: Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 41.

  259 the army started toward Erzincan: Allouche, Origins and Development, 118–19.

  259–260 Ismail began his message . . . “always falls”: “Letters from Selîm and Ismâ‘îl,” 342–44.

  260 the accoutrements of a Sufi: Allouche, Origins and Development, 118.

  260 Ismail answered the challenge: Elizabeth Fortunato Crider, “The Foreign Relations of the Ottoman Empire under Selim I, 1512–1520” (M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, 1969), 20.

  260 a Shiite uprising had broken out: Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Ottoman–Persian Relations” (Özgüdenli).

  260 wear a chador (veil) instead of armor: Allouche, Origins and Development, 118.

  260 sacked and burned everything before making their retreat: Finkel, Osman’s Dream, 105.

  261 His soldiers were weary: Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Ottoman–Persian Relations” (Özgüdenli); Fatih Akçe, Sultan Selim I: The Conqueror of the East (Clifton, NJ: Blue Dome Press, 2016), 59.

  261 solar eclipse: Akçe, Sultan Selim, 67; “Total Solar Eclipse of 1514 August 20,” NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Eclipse Web Site: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=15140820 (accessed February 13, 2019).

  262 anticipated and even influenced later theories by the likes of Nicolaus Copernicus and Tycho Brahe: George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007).

  262 reached the valley on August 22: Allouche, Origins and Development, 119; Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 41.

  262 his forces far outnumbered those of the Safavids: Allouche, Origins and Development, 119–20; Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 41–42.