The Refuge of the World and His Animal Kingdom: Rulership,Justice, and Animal Stewardship in Ottoman Accounts of theHunting Expeditions of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687)

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between Ottoman sovereignty and animal actors as presented by members of the Ottoman imperial court (dergāh-ı ʿālī) reporting on Sultan Mehmed IV’s (r. 1648-1687) hunting expeditions. Upon a close reading of accounts penned by the storyteller and world traveler Evliya Çelebi (c. 1611-1683), the historian Abdurrahman Abdi Paşa (d. 1692), and the court chronicler Mustafa Naima Efendi (1655-1716), I argue that their descriptions of Mehmed IV’s participation in the imperial hunt reveal a shared conception of sovereign character based on engagement with animals. In each narrative examined, the emperor and his actions are judged based on his ability to see the workings of God in the animal world, to competently legislate life and death according to the merit of individual animals and entire animal species, or to justly defend the Ottoman realm and its biodiverse inhabitants. By virtue of their references to the slaughter of deer that behave like “rebels”, rabbits deserving of mercy, cows of divine guidance, and birds that require protection because of their harmlessness, I maintain that these authors present Mehmed IV’s interactions with animals as an indication of his quality as ruler.