Sheikh Bedreddin

Sheikh Badraldin (1359–1420) (Ottoman Turkish: شیخ بدرالدین) was a famous muslim Sufi theologian and charismatic preacher who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in 1416. His full name was Sheikh Badraldin Mahmoud Ben Israel Ben Abdulaziz.

[edit] Early life and education

He was a son of the local muslim judge and his converted Greek wife^[1] in the Anatolian city of Simav or in the European Simavna (today Kyprinos in Greece), Badraldin's father (whose name was Israel) was the great-great son of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum Kaykaus II and Kadı of the town. His mother was Malak Hatun. Badradin began his education in this town. Later he went to Bursa and then to Cairo, where he heard lectures on astronomy, mathematics, logic, and philosophy. He studied law and other Islamic subjects. While in Cairo, he was tutor to the son of the Mamluk Berkuk, the first sultan of the Burji dynasty. He married Jazeba Hatun, a Mamluk princess.

[edit] Career

Amid the dynastic struggles following the Battle of Ankara and the death of Sultan Bayezid I, Musa Çelebi appointed Badraldin chief military judge (قاضی عسکر kazasker). When in 1413 Musa's brother and chief rival Mehmet Çelebi became sultan, Badraldin was exiled to Iznik.

[edit] Revolt and death

In 1416 he led the revolt against the sultan in the Aegean coastal region of Anatolia. The main uprising theme of Badraldin and his companions (Torlak Kemal and Börklüce Mustafa) was to share the land equally among people of Karaburun and not to pay the high taxes demanded by the local representatives of the central Ottoman government. Börklüce Mustafa, after a series of initial victories on the troops of the sultan, had to withdraw on the Karaburun Peninsula with 10,000 of his men. A final battle took place in the Valley of the Torment (located between Balıklıova village and Gerence bay) on the Karaburun Peninsula , where all his men were slaughtered. Börklüce Mustafa was crucified while Sheikh Badraldin was taken to the city of Serez where he was hung. This was the end of a remarkable uprising.

After the revolt was put down, Badraldin was hanged in 1420 at Serez and buried there. In 1961 Sheikh Badraldin's remains were transferred from Greece to the mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud in Divanyolu, Istanbul and the date mentioned on the tomb is 1418 or 820 A.H.

[edit] Books and writings

His writings were condemned by a number of Ottoman official religious scholars such as Kadızade. Others instead praise the Sheikh. His writings and especially activist understanding of justice against some local governors was interpreted by as a proto-socialist movement. Then he has been introduced as a popular figure coming from the past among Turkey's left-wing politics who were trying to nationalize their political opinions. Nazim Hikmet was jailed for inciting rebellion after encouraging military cadets to read Badraldin's work. The musicians Cem Karaca and Zülfü Livaneli composed a song based on a Hikmet's epic poem, the Odyssey of Sheikh Badraldin. In Hikmet's work, Badraldin and his companions were considered like socialist rebellions who emphasize that all things must be shared "except the lips of the beloved." Whereas, Badraldin was writing in his famous book "Varidat" that all things belonged to Allah and people will get close to Allah as much as they get free of them. Many famous Sufis such as Niyazi Misri and Muhammed Nur, who are named as the founders of Malamatiyya, wrote some books and praised Badraldin as the 2nd biggest Sufi after Ibn-i Arabi.

[edit] Books on Sheikh Badraldin in Turkish

• Cemil Yener : Varidat, İstanbul : Elif Yayınları, 1970.
• 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
• Michel Balivet : Şeyh Bedreddin Tasavvuf ve İsyan Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2000.
• 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)

[edit] References

• Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı, Melâmilik ve Melâmîler, Gri Yayın, İstanbul, 1992.
• Dr. Mesut Keskin : Das Toleranzverständnis der anatolischen Heterodoxie am Beispiel Scheich Bedreddin Mahmud Israils, 2 cilt, Berlin 1999
• Romantic Communist: The Life and Work of Nazım Hikmet By Edward Timms, Saime Göksu ,1999 ISBN 1-85065-371-2