The three-domed structure in (174b) is the Baghdad Pavilion. The three princes appear in their canopied circumcision beds along the left side of the pavilion. In the archway facing us at the right, the grand vizier is talking with the surgeon general. Behind them is a fourth boy couched in a canopied circumcision bed. This is probably Mehmed, the grand vizier’s son, who we are told (by Vehbi in (8a)) was allowed to be circumcised along with the princes as an act of the sultan’s generosity. Outside the chamber, a group of pages is lined up while three of their number are scrambling after the coins that the sultan is throwing by the handful in (175a) while still more pages "go for the gold". The structure in the lower left corner is where the sultan was seated with his sons in (174a). In the sky overhead, two flights of cranes (a motif that appears in the arrival of the sultan at Okmeydanı (13b-14a) and also in (54b-55a) and (67b-68a)) wing off into the distance.

1. Sultan’s generosity: The grand vizier's son was, of course, also Ahmed's grandson. Little Mehmed was born of the marriage between the sultan's daughter, Princess Fatma, and his grand vizier. However because of the rule of agnation governing the succession, he could have no claim on the Ottoman throne nor was he really entitled to any other privileges. His inclusion in the ceremony was indeed an act of generosity on the sultan's part-though of course his mother may have had a say in the matter. The addition (as Vehbi also tells us) of another boy–the son of Mehmed Agha, Grandmaster of the Janissaries–was an even greater gesture however, even if the boy is referred to as resembling "a horse in tow".

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