The dream of the sultan
One day the Ottoman Sultan Murat III was a bit strange and agitated. It seemed as if he wanted to say something but didn’t venture to say it. He was neither in a good mood nor sad. The Grand Vizier asked:
“Your mood is not normal. Has anything happened?” (Is anything the matter?)
“I have had a very strange dream.”
“Hopefully it will be interpreted well.”
“We will see if the dream is good or bad.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Get yourself ready. We are going out!”
They both left the palace dressed as Mullas as (Darwishes).
The Sultan still seemed to be under the influence of the dream and knew where they had to go. They hurried to the district of Unkapani. While the Sultan was looking around his surroundings to get his bearings he suddenly saw a corpse and asked:
“Who is that?”
The inhabitants of the area said:
“Stay away from him. He was an alcoholic!”
“How do you know that?”
”Let us just know it. ´He was a neighbour of ours for at least 40 years.”
“You know“, someone said: “He was actually a very good craftsman. He worked at the Azaplar Basar (Market). He made very good shoes …. But he spent his earnings on alcohol and immoral things. He took wine and prostitutes home with him …”
One of the elderly men said furiously:
“Ask the neighbours if anyone had ever seen him in the mosque.”
The inhabitants departed and our friends dressed as Darwishes, stayed there alone. As the Grand Vizier was getting ready to go back to the palace the Sultan stopped him:
“Where are you going to?”
“I think that you should keep away from him!”
”The others can go. I can’t say anything to anyone, but we can’t go. He is one of my folk and we have to complete his burial.”
“We could send a few Imams from the palace …”
“That is out of the question. We still haven’t found out the meaning of the dream.”
“What should I do then?”
“We have to continue being Darwishes, at least until we have buried the corpse.”
“How can we do that then?”
“Why couldn’t we do it then?”
“Oh my Sultan. That is certainly not an easy thing. The corpse has to be washed, wrapped up and buried.”
“Just be quiet, I will overcome everything but first we have to find a building where we can wash the corpse.”
“There is a small local mosque.”
“No, if you were dead, where would you want to be prepared for burial?”
“Oh well, in the Hagia Sophia Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque but the Fatih Mosque would also be adequate….”
There are many state officials at the Hagia Sophia and Süleymaniye Mosque, I certainly don’t want to be recognised. But you said Fatih Mosque. Let us take the corpse there ….”
After a short time they arrived at the mosque. The Grand Vizier began to prepare the materials. He found shrouds and a coffin. At the same time the Sultan began to boil the water. They washed the corpse according to the rules. But while they were washing it they noticed that the shoemaker’s face was very beautiful and a divine light was shining on his face. His face did not resemble that of an alcoholic and it was possible to see a smile on his lips. The Sultan and the Grand Vizier began to love this man. They wrapped him and lay him in the coffin but there was still a lot of time until prayer time. The Grand Vizier approached the Sultan very oppressed and said:
“My Sultan, I believe we are doing something wrong!”
”Why?”
“In our excitement we have done everything and brought him here, but maybe he has a wife and maybe children?”
“You are right. Stay with him, I will go and look for them in the area.”
The Grand Vizier began to pray and the Sultan went to the place where the interesting story had started. He spoke to the shoemaker’s neighbours and found his house. An elderly lady opened the door. Calmly she listened to the news about her husband. She looked as if she had been expecting this news.
“My son, please forgive me because of him you have become very tired”
She sat down on the doorstep and put her hands on her temples … She didn’t cry but her eyes got narrower. She began to remember the past. After a little while she came to her senses and said: with great sorrow:
“Do you know my son, my husband was a very interesting man. He made shoes from early morning until evening but if he saw someone with a bottle of wine he bought the wine with all his money and then poured it down the toilet.”
”Why?”
“Because Muslims shouldn’t drink alcohol!”
”Very admirable!”
“He paid the prostitutes their price and brought them home and said to them: “I have paid you the money for your time.”
True? Therefore you have to listen carefully now …”
“He went out of the house and I began to read to the women religious stories and books.”
“But the neighbours spoke and thought other things!”
“The opinions and thoughts of other people were not important to him. He always went to mosques far away. He always said “I have to stand behind an Imam who can see the Kaaba at the beginning of the prayer …”
“How many such Imams are there then now?”
“For that reason he went to the district of Nishanci or Sofular. One day I said to him you do good things, but the neighbours will think you are a bad man. Believe me your corpse will remain in the middle of the road, no-one will take care of you!” He said: “yes, that’s true” and started to dig his own grave in our garden. But I wasn’t satisfied with this act: A grave is surely not enough. Who will wash you and bury you?”
“And what did he say then? …”
“At first he thought a long time. Then he said
“Allah is great” to me. At last he said:
“And the Sultan will also do something! …”
The Merciful Allah has such servants which the people don’t know about even they don’t know about their position with Allah. The shoemaker is one of Allah’s friends. His name was Muhammad Mimi. He was from Bergama, near to Izmir. He died in the year 1592 and the Sultan had prepared his funeral himself and buried him in his garden. Afterwards the Sultan erected a dome over the grave and a fountain in front of it. He also founded there a Darwish monastery, in memory of the shoemaker. The shoemaker’s tomb is in the district of Unkapani in front of the Haraczade Mosque.