Yahya - Justice and Tolerance in the Qur'an (2003)

PEACE IN SOCIETIES WHERE TRUE JUSTICE PREVAILS
65
No one will oppress the patriarch: no one will ever bother him,
regardless of his identity. The patriarch and the great priests in his
service will be excused from all forms of services for an indefinite
period of time. 47
Right after the conquest, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
set about dealing with the judicial rights of minorities,
appointed Gennadius as the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch and
signed an agreement with them. Another agreement he made
with the People of the Book living in Galata (a district of
Istanbul), confirmed that the churches in Galata would not be
confiscated or turned into mosques, and that the People of
the Book would not be forced to convert to Islam. 48 Another
agreement made in the same period entitled the spiritual
leaders known as "metropolitans" to carry out their services
as usual. 49
Apart from the rights of Christians, Sultan Mehmed also
paid attention to the rights of Jews. They were also granted
the right to have their own synagogues and rabbis and to
carry out their religious services freely. Sultan Mehmed
invited Rabbi Moses Kapsali to the palace, the first rabbi of
the Ottoman period, complimented him and granted him an
imperial edict to judge cases involving Jews. 50
These developments that occurred following the
conquest of Istanbul by Sultan Mehmed also characterised
the reigns of the succeeding Ottoman sultans. The Ottoman
army extended its borders as far as Vienna. They conquered
the Balkans entirely. Serbia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Wallachia and Moldavia passed to the Ottoman Empire and
Hungary was taken under its protection. Ottoman influence
was also felt in lands bordering on the sea. The Black Sea