Epilogue

Abstract

During the entire Ottoman era, only three Şeyhülislams were executed. Usually the dismissal, and sometimes exile, of prominent ulema was deemed a sufficient punishment. Of the three executions, it appears that the most brutal and humiliating was that of Feyzullah Efendi. The Şeyhülislam had become hated by both the ruling elite, including his own peers, and the rank and file, owing to the strategies he used to establish his household in the imperial center. As a matter of fact, that alim’s behavior paralleled that of ambitious contemporary viziers and pashas, in spite of his being a member of the ulema. As a result, his contemporaries blamed him for transgressing the elite code.