Holy New Martyr ’Ahmad the Calligrapher of Constantinople

Saint ’Ahmad of Constantinople

The third of May is the feast day, in the Orthodox Church, of Saint ’Ahmad the Calligrapher of Constantinople. Saint ’Ahmad is a particularly interesting case, being a convert to Orthodox Christianity from Islâm in the heart of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire. He is also a beautiful example of how conversion can happen merely at the will of God rather than at the will of man, without any obvious design or desire or missionary ideology at work, let alone any violence or coercion.

’Ahmad [Ar. ’Ahmad أحمد‎, Turk. Ahmet] was raised by observant Muslim parents in seventeenth-century Constantinople – then already called Istanbul by its Turkish conquerors. According to some hagiographical sources, his surname was Kalpes. He was well-educated enough to find employment in the government as a defterdâr دفتردار or book-keeper, and rose to the position of Scribe of the Second Rank in the Chancellery of the Sultân, working in the Great Archives.

He was not married, but according to the legal customs of the Turkish capital, he was able to take a concubine – a Great Russian woman who had been taken captive in one of the wars between the Russians and the Tatars. His concubine was attended by an elderly maidservant who was also a slave. Both of these women were devout Orthodox believers. And as seems to have been typical of ‘mixed marriages’ of this kind, he allowed the two of them to practise their Orthodox faith freely. Thus, the two Russian women of his household attended Liturgy on feast-days in particular. The old woman went more frequently, and she brought back the antidōron back from the Church for her mistress to eat, as well as holy water for her to drink.

’Ahmad would sometimes approach his woman after she had partaken of the blessed bread and holy water. When he did so, he noticed an indescribably sweet fragrance emanating from her mouth. He would ask her what she had been eating to make her smell so sweet. But the Russian woman, unaware that she was doing anything different than usual, would tell her husband that she was not eating anything out of the ordinary. But ’Ahmad continued to notice the sweet fragrance whenever he came near her after she ate the antidōron. It wasn’t long before she put two and two together, and told him that she was eating the bread that had been blessed by the Orthodox priest from the Church, which the elderly servant brought back to her from the Liturgy.

The curiosity of her husband was aroused by this revelation, and in secret he summoned a Greek priest to their home and asked him to prepare a place in the Church where he might observe in secret how this bread was baked and prepared, and distributed amongst the faithful. ’Ahmad began attending services in secret like this for some time, dressing himself in a blue turban and humble garments of dark colours, and observing all that went on in the Church. He even attended Patriarchal Liturgies, and when the Patriarch – at that time it would have been Iakōvos – was behind the altar ’Ahmad beheld him shining with light and buoyant, levitating with his feet off the floor. When the Œcumenical Patriarch came out from behind the Royal Doors to bless the people, he saw rays of light emanate from his hands and fall upon all the congregants. None of this light, however, fell upon him. This happened over several such Liturgies. In this way ’Ahmad grew to embrace the Orthodox faith. He summoned the priest again, and asked to be baptised – and the priest, seeing his sincerity, obliged him. ’Ahmad practised Orthodoxy for a time in such secrecy that only God and the priest who baptised him know which name he took for himself; that is not known to us in the present day.

Being a scribe in the Chancellery meant that his position was coveted by many – including the Scribe of the Third Rank who was below ’Ahmad in the office of the Chief Secretary. Also, it meant that his attendance was required at dinners and formal functions of the Ottoman government. At these functions, where food was plentiful and the atmosphere eventually grew relaxed as the nargileh (hookah) was passed around, the envious Third Rank Scribe would often make insinuating comments to the Secretary about the piety and suspect opinions of ’Ahmad – who of course had not come to mosque with any regularity since becoming a Christian.

It fell out that, as he and the other dinner-guests were smoking the nargileh at one of these government functions in late April of 1682, the conversation turned toward what one thing in the world was greatest. The first of the guests ventured forth the opinion that the greatest thing of all was wisdom. Another opined that the greatest thing was a fine woman. And still another offered the opinion that a well-prepared pilaf with yoghurt was of course the best thing, for was that not the food that was offered in Paradise? When the thread was passed to ’Ahmad, he could not contain his burning love for the Faith, and he proclaimed that faith in Christ was the greatest thing in the world. In a calm and reasoned voice he delivered himself of the truth that Christ had risen in the body from the dead and had conquered death – could there be anything greater? At this the other guests began to berate him and accuse him of blasphemy, and they seized hold of him and dragged him before a judge on the charge of apostasy.

The judge, or qâḍî قاضٍ, who heard his case, asked him if he had indeed apostatised from Islâm, and ’Ahmad answered truthfully that he had been baptised into the Orthodox Church and proclaimed the Faith after his conversion experience during the Patriarchal Liturgy. He hoped also that his accusers and those who envied his position would also come to receive the fullness of this Truth. This being said the qâḍî was compelled to throw him into gaol, where he was to be deprived of food and water for six whole days.

’Ahmad was hauled out from his prison and brought before the same qâḍî. But instead of finding him weakened and cowed at his treatment in the prison, they found instead that his resolve had been strengthened by his fast. They brought him before the court of the Sultân himself, and the Chief Secretary declared that the sentence for apostasy was death by beheading. ’Ahmad declared himself ready and even joyful at facing such a death. The sentence was passed down and the martyr was beheaded on the third of May, 1682. Saint ’Ahmad’s remains were committed to the sea near the Bosporus, and that place where his body washed ashore was for a week bathed in a divine light. Holy new martyr ’Ahmad, confessor of the true Faith among the Ottomans, pray unto Christ our God for the salvation of our souls!