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13
In Search of the Sultan’s Heart
By SYEDA AFJALINA WASI
In 1913, the priest of Szüz Maria Church on
the Turbek Hill – around 3 kilometers
northeast of Szigetvar fortress, claimed the
existence of the shrine there. But without
any sound evidence, to many experts, this
seemed more of a political propaganda as the
Austro-Hungarians were an ally of the
Ottomans back then during the World War I.
Turkish scientists have recently stumbled
upon historical documents that point to a
mosque complex in Szigetvar, Hungary, that
is believed to be the place where the internal
organs and the heart of the sultan remains
buried in a garden near the dervish lodge of
the Suleyman Mosque in Szigetvar.
However, this research took an unexpected
turn when investigations from Dr. Norbert
Pap, leading the latest research and a
professor of political geography at the Pecs
University, led his team to a hillock about 3
miles north of Szigetvar where no excavations
had been carried out before. Though the
Hungarian researchers couldn’t find anything
relevant near the church, but buried beneath
the soil of vineyards of Zsibot, they found
what looked like ruins of ancient Ottoman
settlement-that the team anticipated to