A threat to the young Ottoman state even more serious than Timur’s invasion came in the form of Bedreddin, a Turkish sheikh, judge, and mystic. It was important to the Ottomans to create a unified state by enforcing Sunni Islam as the official religion, even in areas that had traditionally been Christian. Those places could remain Christian, of course, by paying the jizya tribute-tax and sending boys to the devşirme levy for the Janissaries. But it mattered a lot to their strategy and identity that all religions were not equal. We know that this strategy prevailed, and we’ve seen the Middle East as Ottoman strategy shaped it. It’s worth looking at the philosophy that almost derailed it.
Bedreddin was born near Edirne, around the time when the Ottomans began to rule on both sides of the Aegean Sea. His father was the Turkish ghazi, or independent military commander, while his mother was the Greek daughter of the local Byzantine fort commander. Bedreddin’s formative years were the same years when the Ottomans really began to be a small Empire, not just another beylik. It’s interesting that he was equal parts Turkish Muslim and European/Greek, though his own religion was always officially Islam. It clearly shaped his view of the world, which was much less black and white than most of the Muslims he was around.
Bedreddin served as a sort of chaplain/judge, a marching Qadi, to an Ottoman contingent, then studied theology formally in Konya—-you’ll recall that Konya was Rumi’s hometown and had become the center of “whirling dervish” practice. Doubtless, Bedreddin picked up a strongly mystical tone in Konya. After some years of study in Cairo, he went east to Iran, to an area ruled by Timur. In Ardabil, he learned a type of Sufi mysticism and probably unlearned some Ottoman loyalty.
Bedreddin seems to have reconnected with Ottoman politics through one of Bayezid’s warring sons, Musa, the one who was carried off as a prisoner by Timur. Bedreddin may have been his personal sheikh during the years Musa was at times a ruling co-Sultan of southern Turkey, and at other times, a guerrilla war leader. The other guerrillas in the network were ghazis, like Bedreddin’s father, so he was well suited to fit in. As the Qadi, he had some power to distribute land to these ghazi soldiers. Musa’s strategy may have been to gain support of the ghazi network by undoing some of the centralization installed by his father. Bedreddin was a key figure in his efforts.
Bedreddin’s rogue theology had developed in Ardabil to where he was a universalist; he believed that Allah was manifest in nature and all religions could save. A believer just needed to clear away all obstacles to becoming one with God. Social hierarchy and land-based wealth were among the obstacles; Bedreddin was a radical egalitarian and land redistributionist.
When Sultan Mehmet defeated his brother Musa in 1413, Bedreddin was exiled and all of his land gifts were undone. For three years, he lived at the margins of the Ottoman Empire, taught his disciples, and gathered strength within the ghazi independent-military network. In 1416, he and his disciples began preaching a radical doctrine of communal land ownership and equality of Muslims and Christians. Turkish nomads, Christian peasants, dispossessed ghazis, and interested madrasa students joined him.
Bedreddin himself was in Bulgaria, in the region of Dobruja, when the revolt began. His two top disciples were in Turkish cities. They went beyond preaching, to start coordinated attacks on Ottoman government buildings. Sultan Mehmet and his leading pashas had to act quickly. One Turkish revolt was ended fairly easily, with Bedreddin’s disciple killed, but the other put up a lot of resistance. To end Bedreddin’s revolt, the Ottomans had to choose a policy of merciless slaughter. Thousands of peasants and nomads died with Bedreddin and his disciples. In the underground, however, Bedreddin’s ideas were kept alive in Dobruja until at least the 1500s.
After that, the Ottoman strategy of strict Sunni Islam with suppression of dissent had been proven necessary. Mehmet and his successors made no apology about keeping non-Muslims in subjection, and probably the devşirme policy, which allowed officials to track non-Muslim children while removing the strongest ones, became more acceptable. The Ottomans developed the old Arabic idea of the dhimmi, the conquered person living under Muslim protection, into a full legal system. Non-Muslim religious sects declined under Ottoman rule, of course.