Selim’s general policy of maintaining the existing local order while demonstrating the virtues of Ottoman hegemony often took on a religious dimension, alongside his overriding economic, legal, and political concerns. After seizing a territory, he would make a point of praying in iconic religious sites such as the Umayyad mosques of Aleppo and Damascus, after which he would visit the shrines of local saints and the residences of living holy men to publicly express his respect.
