Abstract:

An important factor that affected political, religious, and social life during the period of Ottoman history called the “Ottoman Interregnum” was Sheikh Badr al-Dīn ibn Qāḍī Samāwnā’s (d. 823/1420) ideas and activities that resulted in a rebellion. Sheikh Badr al-Dīn, who managed to come to prominence in each position that he held, received the highest level of edu-cation. In addition to his scholarly identity, he officially served as qāḍī ʿaskar (judge of the army), an important bureaucratic rank for the state. Finally, as a Sufi, he attracted many supporters in a short time. Although several studies have examined his life and ideas, a considerable number of these studies were written for ideological purposes. A Sufi scholar, Sheikh Badr al-Dīn has been unrighteously and incorrectly accused of being a pio-neer of atheism, pantheism, anarchism, communism, and materialism in Ottoman times. The main reason for these inaccurate accusations is that his work al-Wāridāt has not been regarded as a mystical text. In this pa-per, I will attempt to address his controversial ideas at the mystical level, demonstrating the similarities and differences between his thoughts and those of earlier Sufis. The first commentaries written on al-Wāridāt are the main sources for the paper.

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