Christian Heretical Participation in the Rebellion of Börklüce Mustafa and Sheikh Bedreddin – Reappraising the Evidence

• Authors: Yuri Stoyanov

Abstracts

EN

The outbreak and Balkan and Anatolian trajectories of the rebellions of Borkluce Mustafa and Sheikh Bedreddin in 1416 still pose a series of religio-historic problems which still do not allow a satisfactory and detailed reconstruction of their chronology. Widening the investigation of the source base for these uprisings and their following remains a crucial desideratum for a better understanding of the turbulent period of the Ottoman interregnum and the Ottoman-Byzantine transition in eastern Anatolia in the early fifteenth century. Apart from the social and political features of the rebellions (which have been treated in a variety of contrasting ideological and methodological frameworks, their striking religious dimension has been also increasingly attracting scholarly and general attention. Earlier and recent research on the Ottoman interregnum period have occasionally advanced arguments for the active participation of Christian heretical groups, whether Christian dualist (Bogomil or Paulician) or radical apocalyptic insurgents of Eastern or Western Christian provenance. Drawing on new advances in research on religious trends in the late Byzantine and Balkan Orthodox and early Ottoman religious life and inter-religious contacts, the paper will offer an reassessment of the evidence of such proposed Christian heretical presence in the uprisings, while also exploring other venues for the provenance of their religious and trans-confessional underpinnings.

Keywords

EN

Islamic-Christian relations; syncretism; heresy; Christian dualism; Ottomans; Byzantium; apocalypticism; social movements and rebellions

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Studia Ceranea
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 11
• Pages: 443-461

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Yuri Stoyanov

• University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, United Kingdom

• https://orcid.org/0000000154853250

References

• Die Altosmanischen Anonymen Chroniken, pars 1, Text und Variantenverzeichnis, ed. F. Giese, Breslau 1922.
• Aşıkpaşazade, Osmanoğulları’nın Tarih, ed. K. Yavuz, Y. Sarac, Istanbul 2003.
• Bedreddin S., Varidat, ed. V. Timuroğlu, Ankara 1979.
• Doukas, Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks. An Annotated Translation of “Historia Turco-Byzantina”, ed. et trans. H.J. Magoulias, Detroit 1975.
• Doukas, Historia Turko-Bizantina, ed. et trans. J. Dayantis, Doukas, histoire turco-byzantine, Lille 2004.
• Doukas, Historia Turko-Bizantina, ed. et trans. V. Grecu, Istoria Turco-Bizantina, Bucharest 1958.
• Halîl bin İsmâil bin Şeyh Bedrüddin Mahmûd, Sımavna Kadısıoğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Manâkıbı, ed. A. Gölpınarlı, İ. Sungurbey, Istanbul 1967.
• Hoca Sâdeddin Efendi, Tâcü’t-tevârih, vol. I–V, ed. İ. Parmaksızoğlu, Ankara 1974–1979 [repr. 1999].
• Ibn ‘Arabshāh, al-‘Uqūd al-naṣīḥa, trans. A. Gölpınarlı, Simavna Kadısıoğlu Şeyh Bedreddin, Istanbul 1966.
• Müneccimbaşi Ahmet Dede, Müneccimbaşı Tarihi, vol. I–II, ed. I. Erünsal, Sahaif-ül-Ahbar fi Vekayi ül-a’sar, Istanbul 1974.
• Neşri, Kitab-ı Cihan-numa: Neşri Tarihi, vol. I–II, ed. F.R. Unat, M.A. Koymen, Ankara 1949–1957.
• Oruç Beğ, Oruç Beğ Tarihi, [Osmanlı Tarihi (1288– 1502)], ed. N. Öztürk, Istanbul 2014.
• Taşköprüzâde, Eş-Şakaik, Eş-Şakâ’iku’n-Nu‘mâniyye fî Ulemâi’d-Devleti’l-Osmâniyye, ed. O. Dili, Istanbul 2019.
• Aksut H., Harmancı H., Öztürk Ü., Alevi Tarıh Yazmında Skandal, Istanbul 2010.
• Antov N., The Ottoman “Wild West”. The Balkan Frontier in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Cambridge 2017 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316863084
• Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia. The Life and Times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878–1920, vol. I–III, ed. D. Shankland, Istanbul 2004–2013 [= Analecta Isisiana: Ottoman and Turkish Studies, 2].
• Avcıoğlu D., Türklerin tarihi, Istanbul 1978.
• Babinger F., Schejch Bedr ed-Dīn, der Sohn des Richters von Simāw, “Der Islam” 11, 1921, p. 1–106 https://doi.org/10.1515/islm.1921.11.1.1
• Balivet M., Deux partisans de la fusion religieuse des chrétiens et des musulmans au XVe siècle, “Βυζαντινά” / “Byzantina” 10, 1980, p. 363–390.
• Balivet M., Un épisode méconnu de la campagne de Mehmed 1er en Macédoine: L’apparition de Serrès (1416/819 H.), “Turcica” 18, 1986, p. 137–146 https://doi.org/10.2143/TURC.18.0.2014285
• Balivet M., Islam mystique et révolution armée dans les Balkans ottomans. Vie du cheikh Bedreddin, le “Hallâj des Turcs”, 1358/59–1416, Istanbul 1995.
• Balivet M., Textes de fin d’Empire, récits de fin du Monde: à propos de quelques thèmes communs aux groupes de la zone byzantino-turque, [in:] Les traditions apocalyptiques au tournant de la chute de Constantinople, ed. B. Lellouch, S. Yérasimos, Paris–Montréal 1999, p. 5–19.
• Barkey K., Empire of Difference. The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective, Cambridge–New York 2008 https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790645
• Beldiceanu I., Péchés, calamités et salut par le triomphe de l’Islam. Le discours apocalyptique relatif à l’Anatolie (fin XIIIe – fin XVe s.), [in:] Les traditions apocalyptiques, Lellouch–Yérasimos, p. 19–35.
• Binba I.E., Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran Sharaf al-Dīn ‘Alī Yazdī and the Islamicate Republic of Letters, Cambridge 2016 https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107286368
• Burr D., The Spiritual Franciscans. From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis, University Park, PA 2001.
• Çıpa H.E., Contextualizing Şeyḫ Bedreddīn. Notes on Ḫalīl b. İsmāʿīl’s Menāḳıb-ı Şeyḫ Bedreddīn b. İsrāʿīl’ (sic), [in:] Şinasi Tekin’in Anısına. Uygurlardan Osmanlıya, Istanbul 2005, p. 285–295.
• Cotsonis H., Aus der Endzeit von Byzanz: Bürklüdsche Mustafa. Ein Märtyrer für die Koexistenz Zwischen Islam und Christentum, “Byzantinische Zeitschrift” 50.2, 1958, p. 397–404 https://doi.org/10.1515/byzs.1957.50.2.397
• Daş M., Bizans’ta Sosyal-Dini İçerikli Bir Halk Hareketi: Bogomiller, [in:] International Börklüce Mustafa Symposium / Uluslararası Börklüce Mustafa Sempozyumu, ed. A. Kaya et al., Izmir 2017, p. 293–298.
• De Jong F., Problems concerning the Origins of the Qizilbāş in Bulgaria: Remnants of the Safaviyya?, [in:] Convegno sul tema. La Shi’a nell’Impero Ottomano (Roma, 15 Aprile 1991), Rome 1993, p. 203–216.
• Eyuboğlu I.Z., Şeyh Bedreddin ve Varidat, Istanbul 1980.
• Filipović N., Princ Musa i šejh Bedreddin, Sarajevo 1971.
• Fleischer C.H., Ancient Wisdom and New Sciences: Prophecies at the Ottoman Court in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries, [in:] Falnama. The Book of Omens, ed. M. Farhad, S. Bağcı, Washington, D.C. 2009, p. 232–243.
• Gavrilova N., Dviženieto na šejh Bedreddin Mahmud i negovite posledovateli, [in:] Bălgarskijat petnadeseti vek. Sbornik s dokladi za bălgarskata obšta i kulturna istorija prez XV v., Sofija, 19–21. X. 1992, ed. A. Minčeva, B. Rajkov, K. Ivanova, Sofija 1993, p. 93–107.
• Gibbons H.A., The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire. A History of the Osmanlis up to the Death of Bayezid I (1300–1403), Oxford 1916.
• Gölpınarli A., Simavna Kadısıoğlu Şeyh Bedreddin, Istanbul 1966.
• Gramatikova N., XIV. Yüzɩl Sonundan XV. Yüzɩlɩn Başɩna Kadar Gerçekleşen Olaylarɩn Biyografik ve Tarihsel Kaynağɩ Olarak Simavnalɩ şeyh Bedreddin’in Hafiz Halil Tarafɩndan Yazɩlan Menâkɩbname’s, [in:] International Börklüce Mustafa Symposium / Uluslararası Börklüce Mustafa Sempozyumu, ed. A. Kaya et al., Izmir 2017, p. 141–187.
• Guran P., Eschatology and Political Theology in the Last Centuries of Byzantium, “Revue des études sud-est européennes” 45.1, 2007, p. 73–87.
• Hamilton B., The Cathars and the Seven Churches of Asia, [in:] B. Hamilton, Crusaders, Cathars and the Holy Places, Aldershot 1999, p. 269–295 [repr.] https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429443671-12
• Hasluck F.W., Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, vol. I–II, Oxford 1929.
• Hopwood K., Christian-Muslim Symbiosis in Anatolia, [in:] Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia. The Life and Times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878–1920, vol. I–III, ed. D. Shankland, Istanbul 2004–2013 [= Analecta Isisiana: Ottoman and Turkish Studies, 2], p. 13–30 https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463225438-002
• Imber C., The Myth of Osman Gazi, [in:] The Ottoman Emirate (1300–1389), ed. E. Zachariadou, Rethymon 1993, p. 66–76.
• Imber C., The Ottoman Empire: 1300–1481, Istanbul 1990.
• Imber C., Paul Wittek’s De la défaite d’Ankara à la prise de Constantinople, “Osmanlı Araştırmaları” 5, 1986, p. 65–81.
• İnalcık H., The Ottoman Empire. The Classical Age, 1300–1600, London 1973.
• Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, ed. A.C.S. Peacock, B. De Nicola, S.N. Yıldız, Burlington, VT 2015.
• Kafadar C., Between Two Worlds. The Construction of the Ottoman State, Berkeley–Los Angeles–London 1995 https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520918054
• Karamustafa A., God’s Unruly Friends. Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period, 1200–1550, Salt Lake City 1994 [repr. Oxford 2006].
• Karamustafa A., Ḳalenders, Abdâls, Ḥayderîs: the Formatian of the Bektâşîye in the Sixteenth Century, [in:] Süleyman the Second and his Time, ed. H. Inalcik, C. Kafadar, Istanbul 1993 [= Analecta Isisiana: Ottoman and Turkish Studies], p. 121–129 https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463231774-009
• Karamustafa A., Origins of Anatolian Sufism, [in:] Sufism and Sufis in Ottoman Society. Sources, Doctrine, Rituals, Turuq, Architecture, Literature and Fine Arts, Modernisms, ed. A.Y. Ocak, Ankara 2005, p. 67–95.
• Kastritsis D., The Revolt of Şeykh Bedreddin in the Context of the Ottoman Civil War of 1402–1413, [in:] Halcyon Days in Crete VII, ed. A. Anastasopoulos, Rethymno 2012, p. 221–238.
• Kastritsis D., The Sons of Bayezid. Empire Building and Representation in the Ottoman Civil War of 1402–1413, Leiden–Boston 2007 [= Ottoman Empire and its Heritage, 38] https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004158368.i-250
• Keskin M., Der Aufstand Scheich Bedreddin Mahmud Isra’ils und die Toleranzidee in der anatolischen Heterodoxie, Berlin 2003.
• Kiprovska M., Byzantine Renegade and Holy Warrior: Reassessing the Character of Köse Mihal, a Hero of the Byzantino-Ottoman Borderland, “Journal of Turkish Studies” 40, 2013 (= Defterology. Festschrift in Honor of Heath Lowry, ed. S. Kuru, B. Tezcan), p. 245–269.
• Kiprovska M., The Mihaloğlu Family: Gazi Warriors and Patrons of Dervish Hospices, “Osmanlı Araştırmaları” 32, 2008, p. 173–202.
• Kissling H.J., Das Menāqybnāme Scheich Bedr ed-Dīn’s, des Sohnes des Richters von Samāvna, “Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft” 100, 1950, p. 112–176.
• Konstantinov P., Istorija na Bălgarija, Sofija 1992.
• Krstić T., Contested Conversions to Islam. Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire, Stanford, CA. 2011 https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqsdrmq
• Lowry H., Fourteenth Century Ottoman Realities. (In Search of Haci-Gazi Evrenos), Istanbul 2012.
• Lowry H.W., The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, Albany 2003.
• Mélikoff I., Hadji Bektach: un mythe et ses avatars. Genèse et évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie, Leiden 1998 [= Islamic History and Civilization, 20] https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004491434
• Mir-Kasimov O., Ummis versus Imams in the Hurufi Prophetology: an Attempt at a Sunni/Shi’i Synthesis, [in:] Unity in Diversity. Mysticism, Messianism and the Construction of Religious Authority in Islam, ed. O. Mir-Kasimov, Leiden 2013 [= Islamic History and Civilization, 105] https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004262805
• Mir-Kasimov O., Words of Power. Hurūfī Teachings between Shiʻism and Sufism in Medieval Islam. The Original Doctrine of Fad Allāh Astarābādī, London 2015.
• Ocak A.Y., Un aperçu général sur l’hétérodoxie musulmane en Turquie: réflexions sur les origines et les caractéristiques du Kizilbachisme (Alévisme) dans la perspective de l’histoire, [in:] Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East, ed. K. Kehl-Bodrogi et al., Leiden 1997, p. 195–204 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004378988_016
• Ocak A.Y., Osmanlı Toplumunda Marjinal Sufilik. Kalenderiler, XIV–XVII. Yuzyıllar, Ankara 1992.
• Ocak A.Y., Osmanlı Toplumunda Zındıklar ve Mülhidler Yahut Dairenin Dışına Çıkanlar (15.–17. Yüzyıllar), Istanbul 2013.
• Ocak A.Y., Osmanlı Toplumunda Zındıklar ve Mülhidler, Istanbul 1998.
• Parušev P., Šejh Bedredin eretika, Sofija 1982 [repr. in: Trima radeteli za mjusulmansko-hristijansko edinenieprez XV vek, ed. V. Gjuzelev, Sofija 2012, p. 142–232].
• Pertusi A., Fine di Bisanzio e fine del mondo. Significato e ruolo storico delle profezie sulla caduta di Costantinopoli in Oriente e Occidente, Rome 1988.
• Prinzing G., Doucas, [in:] Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History (1350–1500), vol. V, ed. D. Thomas, A. Mallett, Leiden–Boston 2013, p. 469–478.
• Salgırlı S., The Rebellion of 1416: Recontextualizing an Ottoman Social Movement, “Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient” 55, 2012, p. 32–73 https://doi.org/10.1163/156852012X628491
• Şeyh Bedreddin (1358?–1420), ed. A.H. Köker, Kayseri 1996.
• Siniossoglou N., Sect and Utopia in Shifting Empires: Plethon, Elissaios, Bedreddin, “Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies” 36.1, 2012, p. 38–55 https://doi.org/10.1179/030701312X13238617305617
• Stoyanov Y., Early and Recent Formulations of Theories for a Formative Christian Heterodox Impact on Alevism, “British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies” 37.3, 2010, p. 261–272 https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2010.524435
• Stoyanov Y., Modern and Post-Secular Alevi and Bektāşī Religiosities and the Slavo-Turkic Heretical Imaginary, [in:] The Experience of Faith in Slavic Cultures and Literatures in the Context of Postsecular Thought, ed. D. Sosnowska, E. Drzewiecka, Warsaw 2018, p. 128–144 https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323537175.pp.128-143
• Stoyanov Y., On Some Parallels between Anatolian and Balkan Islamic Heterodox Traditions and the Problem of their Co-Existence and Interchange with Popular Christianity, [in:] Syncrétismes et hérésies dans l’Orient seljoukide et ottoman des XIIe–XVIIIe siècles, ed. G. Veinstein, Paris 2005, p. 75–119.
• Stoyanov Y., The Other God. Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy, London–New Haven 2000 https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vm3q2
• Terzioğlu D., Sufis in the Age of State-Building and Confessionalization, [in:] The Ottoman World, ed. C. Woodhead, New York 2011, p. 86–100.
• Timuroğlu V., Varidat, Ankara 1979.
• Ülken H.Z., İslâm düşüncesi, Istanbul 1946.
• Vryonis S., The Byzantine Legacy and Ottoman Forms, “Dumbarton Oaks Papers” 23/24, 1969/1970, p. 251–308 https://doi.org/10.2307/1291294
• Werner E., Häresie, Klassenkampf und religiöse Toleranz in einer islamisch-christlichen Kontakzone: Bedr ed-Din und Börklüce Mustafa, “Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft” 12, 1964, p. 255–276.
• Werner E., Ketzer und Weltverbesserer. Zwei Beitrage zur Geschichte Sudosteuropas im 13. und 15. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1974.
• Wittek P., De la défaite d’Ankara à la prise de Constantinople, “Revue des études islamiques” 12, 1938, p. 1–34.
• Zachariadou E., Religious Dialogue between Byzantines and Turks During the Ottoman Expansion, [in:] Religionsgesprache im Mittelalter, ed. B. Lewis, F. Niewöhner, Wiesbaden 1992, p. 295–304.
• Zarcone T., Nouvelles perspectives dans les recherches sur les Kızılbaş – Alévis et les Bektachis de la Dobroudja, de Deli Orman et de la Thrace orientale, “Anatolia Moderna” 4, 1992, p. 1–11 https://doi.org/10.3406/anatm.1992.909
• Zhukov K., Börklüce Mustafa, Was he Another Mazdak, [in:] Syncrétismes et hérésies dans l’Orient seljoukide et ottoman des XIIe–XVIIIe siècles, ed. G. Veinstein, Paris 2005, p. 119–129.
• Žukov K., K istorii religioznych dviženij vostočnom sredizemnomor’e v XIV–XV vv.: novaja interpretacija vosstanija Berkludže Mustafy w Turcii (okolo 1415 v.), “Православный Палестинский сборник” / “Pravoslavnyj Palestinskij sbornik” 98, 1998, p. 84–98.

Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/2084-140X.11.22

Biblioteka Nauki

2027716