Sheikh Bedreddin Mahmud bin Israel bin Abdulaziz (; 1359–1420) was an influential mystic, scholar, theologian, and revolutionary. He is best known for his role in a 1416 revolt against the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, in which he and his disciples posed a serious challenge to the authority of Sultan
Mehmed I and the Ottoman state.
Early life
Many details of Bedreddin's early life are disputed, as much of it is the subject of legend and folklore. He was born in 1359 in the town of
Simavna (Kyprinos), near
Edirne. His father was the ''
ghazi'' of the town, and his mother was the daughter of a Byzantine fortress commander. He was born in a family with political and intellectual prominence. His grandfather was a high-ranking
Seljuk officer.
Notably, Bedreddin was of mixed
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
and
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
parentage, with a Christian mother and a Muslim father; this contributed to his
syncretic religious beliefs later in life. Turkish scholar
Cemal Kafadar argues that Bedreddin's ghazi roots may also have contributed to his commitment to religious coexistence. In his youth he was a ''
kadi'' to Ottoman warriors on the marches, which gave him ample experience in
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...
, a field of study in which he would become well-versed. Bedreddin was exposed to a variety of different cultures during his education, traveling far from his birthplace in
Thrace
Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...
. He studied theology in
Konya, and then in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, which was the capital of the
Mamluk sultanate. After this, he traveled to
Ardabil, in what is now
Iranian Azerbaijan. Ardabil was under the control of the
Timurids, and was home to the mystic Safavid order. Surrounded by mystics and far removed from the religious norms of the Ottoman Empire, Bedreddin was in an excellent place to cultivate his unconventional religious ideology. There he found an environment sympathetic to his
pantheistic religious beliefs, and particularly the doctrine of "
oneness of being". This doctrine condemned oppositions such as those of religion and social class as interference in the oneness of God and the individual, and such doctrine ran contrary to increasing Ottoman efforts to establish
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...
as the
state religion. By adopting it, Bedreddin further established himself as a subversive.
During the
Ottoman Interregnum after the defeat of sultan
Bayezid I
Bayezid I (; ), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt (; ; – 8 March 1403), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He adopted the title of ''Sultan-i Rûm'', ''Rûm'' being the Arabic name for the Eastern Roman Empire. In 139 ...
by
Tamerlane in 1402, Bedreddin served as the
kadiasker, or chief military judge, of the Ottoman prince Musa as Musa struggled with his brothers for control of the Ottoman sultanate. Along with the frontier bey Mihaloglu, he was a chief proponent of Musa's revolutionary regime. While kadiasker, Bedreddin gained the favor of many frontier ghazis by distributing ''
timars'' among them. Through this he aided these unpaid ghazis in their struggle against centralization, a clear indication of his subversive side.
Revolt of 1416
After
Musa's defeat by
Ottoman sultan Mehmed I in 1413, Bedreddin was exiled to
İznik, and his followers were dispossessed of their timars. However, he soon decided to capitalize on the climate of opposition to Mehmed I following the disorder of the still-fresh interregnum. Leaving his exile in Iznik in 1415, Bedreddin made his way to
Sinop and from there across the Black Sea to
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...
. In 1416, he raised the standard of revolt against the Ottoman state.
Most of the revolts that ensued took place in regions of
İzmir
İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
,
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; or ''Dobrudža''; , or ; ; Dobrujan Tatar: ''Tomrîğa''; Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and ) is a Geography, geographical and historical region in Southeastern Europe that has been divided since the 19th century betw ...
, and
Saruhan. The majority of his followers were
Turcomans. The rest included frontier ghazis, dispossessed ''
sipahis'',
medrese students, and Christian peasants. The first of these rebellions was kindled in
Karaburun, near İzmir. There,
Borkluje Mustafa, one of Bedreddin’s foremost disciples, instigated an idealistic popular revolt by preaching the communal ownership of property and the equality of Muslims and Christians. Most those who revolted were Turkish nomads, but Borkluje's followers also included many Christians. In total, approximately 6,000 people revolted against the Ottoman state in Karaburun.
Torlak Kemal, another of Bedreddin’s followers, led another rebellion in
Manisa, and Bedreddin himself was the leader of a revolt in Dobruja, in contemporary northeastern Bulgaria. The heartland for the Dobruja revolt was in the
Deliorman region south of the
Danube Delta
The Danube Delta (, ; , ) is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. Occurring where the Danube, Danube River empties into the Black Sea, most of the Danube Delta lies in Romania ...
. Bedreddin found disciples among many who were discontent with sultan Mehmed; he became a figurehead for those who felt they had been disenfranchised by the sultan, including disgruntled marcher lords and many of those who had been given timars by Bedreddin as Musa's kadiasker, which had been revoked by Mehmed.
These uprisings posed a serious challenge to the authority of Mehmed I as he attempted to reunite the Ottoman Empire and govern his Balkan provinces. Although they were all eventually stifled, the series of coordinated revolts instigated by Bedreddin and his disciples was suppressed after only great difficulty. Torlak Kemal's rebellion in Manisa was crushed and he was executed, along with thousands of his followers. Borkluje's rebellion put up more of a fight than the others, defeating first the army of the governor of
Saruhan and then that of the Ottoman governor Ali Bey, before it was finally crushed by the Vizier
Bayezid Pasha. According to the Greek historian
Doukas, Bayezid slaughtered unconditionally to ensure the rebellion's defeat, and Borkluje was executed along with two thousand of his followers. Sheikh Bedreddin's own Dobruja rebellion was a short-lived one, and came to an end when Bedreddin was apprehended by Mehmed's forces and taken to
Serres. Accused of disturbing the public order by preaching religious syncretism and the communal ownership of property, he was executed in the marketplace.
Thought and writings
Sheikh Bedreddin was a prolific writer and religious scholar, and a distinguished member of the Islamic religious hierarchy. He is often regarded as a talented voice in religious sciences, particularly for his thoughts on Islamic law. For his works on jurisprudence he is classed among the great scholars of Islamic thought. On the other hand, many condemn him as a heretic for his radical ideas on religious syncretism. Bedreddin advocated overlooking religious difference, arguing against zealous proselytism in favor of a utopian synthesis of faiths. This latitudinarian interpretation of religion was a major part of what allowed him and his disciples to instigate a broad-reaching popular revolt in 1416, unifying a very heterogeneous base of support.
Bedreddin's religious origins were as a mystic. His form of mysticism was greatly influenced by the work of
Ibn al-‘Arabi, and he is known to have written a commentary of al-‘ Arabi's book ''Fusus al-hikam'' (The Quintessence of Wisdom). Through his writings, he developed his own form of mysticism. His most significant book, ''Varidat'', or ''Divine Inspirations,'' was a compilation of his discourses which reflected on his ideas about mysticism and religion. Bedreddin was a
monist, believing that reality is a manifestation of God's essence, and that the spiritual and physical worlds were inseparable and necessary to one another. As he writes in ''Varidat'', he believed that "This world and the next, in their entirety, are imaginary fantasies; heaven and hell are no more than the spiritual manifestations, sweet and bitter, of good and evil actions."
Bedreddin's
pantheistic beliefs greatly influenced many of his political and social ideas, particularly the doctrine of "oneness of being." This doctrine condemns oppositions which its adherents believe hinder the oneness of the individual with God, including oppositions between religions and between the privileged and the powerless. This belief system is reflected in the beliefs of Bedreddin and his disciples, who, among other things, preached that all religions are essentially the same, as well as that ownership of property should be communal. Such ideas appealed greatly to those who felt marginalized in Ottoman society, and this egalitarian ideology played a major role in inspiring popular revolt in 1416.
Sheikh Bedreddin clearly had ambitious political aspirations when he began his rebellion. According to the 15th-century Sunni historian Idris of Bitlis, Bedreddin considered himself the
Mahdi, who would bring about God's unity in the world by distributing his lands among his followers.
Although Idris' account is partial, Bedreddin's ambitions as a political and religious leader are apparent. He even went so far as to claim that he was descended from the
Seljuk royal house, undoubtedly to bolster his legitimacy as a potential ruler. It is plausible that he aspired to win the sultanate.
Impact
Sects of Bedreddin's followers continued to survive long after his death. His teachings remained influential, and his sectarians were considered a threat until the late sixteenth century. Known as the Simavnis or the Bedreddinlus, a sect of his followers in Dobruja and
Deliorman continued to survive for hundreds of years after his execution. Unsurprisingly, the Ottoman government viewed this group with great suspicion. In the sixteenth century, they were regarded as identical to the
Qizilbash, and persecuted along with them. Some of Bedreddin's doctrines also became common among some other mystic sects. One such sect was the
Bektashi
Bektashism (, ) is a tariqa, Sufi order of Islam that evolved in 13th-century western Anatolia and became widespread in the Ottoman Empire. It is named after the wali, ''walī'' "saint" Haji Bektash Veli, with adherents called Bektashis. The ...
, a dervish order commonly associated with the Janissaries.
Sheikh Bedreddin continues to be known in Turkey, especially among socialists, communists, and other political leftists. In the twentieth century, he was brought back into the spotlight by the communist Turkish writer
Nâzım Hikmet, who wrote ''The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin'' to voice opposition to the rise of fascism in the 1930s. Hikmet's work popularized Bedreddin as a historical champion of socialism and an opponent of fascist tyranny, and his name has remained well known to those on the left of the political spectrum. His bones were exhumed in 1924, but his devotees were so fearful of a backlash against Bedreddin's newfound political significance by the Turkish government that he was not buried until 1961. He was finally put to rest near the mausoleum of
Mahmud II
Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...
, in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
.
References
Notes
Works cited
*
Finkel, Caroline. ''Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923.'' New York: Basic Books, 2005
*
Hikmet, Nâzım, ''Poems of Nazim Hikmet.'' . Tr. by Randy Blasing and
Mutlu Konuk. New York: Persea Books, 1994.
*
Imber, Colin. ''The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650''. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
*
İnalcık, Halil. ''The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Empire 1300-1600.'' New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
*
Kafadar, Cemal. ''Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
*
Lowry, Heath. ''The Nature of the Early Ottoman State.'' Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.
Further reading
* Cemil Yener : Varidat, İstanbul : Elif Yayınları, 1970.
*
Erol Toy : Azap ortakları, 1973.
* Vecihi Timuroğlu : Şeyh Bedrettin Varidat Ankara : Türkiye Yazıları Yayınları, 1979
* İsmet Zeki Eyüboğlu : Şeyh Bedreddin Varidat, Derin Yayınları, 1980
* Cengiz Ketene: Varidat: Simavna Kadısıoğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Simavi, 823/1420; trc. Cengiz Ketene, Ankara : Kültür Bakanlığı, 1990.
* Seyyid Muhammed Nur : Varidat şerhi . Simavna Kadısıoğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Simavi, 823/1420; Haz. Mahmut Sadettin Bilginer, H. Mustafa Varlı, İstanbul : Esma Yayınları, 1994
* Radi Fiş: Ben De Halimce Bedreddinem Evrensel Basım Yayın.
* Nazım Hikmet: Şeyh Bedrettin Destanı YKY.
* Mine G. Kirikkanat, Gulun Oteki Adi (The Other Name Of The Rose)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedreddin, Sheikh
1359 births
1420 deaths
15th-century people from the Ottoman Empire
Kazasker
15th-century Muslim theologians
14th-century Muslim theologians
Ottoman period in Anatolia
People of the Ottoman Interregnum
Ottoman Sufis
People executed by the Ottoman Empire by hanging
Rebels from the Ottoman Empire
Pantheists