Sheikh Bedreddin's Vâridât from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic: A Literature Review
Abstract
The Varidat of Bedreddin Simavi (d. 823/1420), containing the Sufi views of the first martyred sheikh in the Ottoman Empire, has been a controversial subject up to our present day. It is composed of varids or “intuitive revelations” of Simavi’s understanding of Sufism. While the text was perceived as a striking and direct expression of Sufi metaphysics in the Ottoman Empire, it was also used as a tool for ideological instrumentalization in the post-Republican era. In the Ottoman period, the text was translated by Muhammed b. Ahmed and Şeyhülislam Kazım. Moreover, others such as Molla ‘Abdullah Ilahi, Sheikh Yavsi, Nureddinzade, Muhammed Nur al-’Arabi and Haririzade had written commentaries (sharhs) on the Varidat. Since the Republican era, there has been an increase in both the translations of the text and studies conducted on it. In this article, both categories will be evaluated, including those by Şerefeddin Yaltkaya, Mustafa Rahmi Balaban, Bezmi Nusret Kaygusuz, Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı, Cemil Yener, Necdet Kurdakul, İsmet Zeki Eyüboğlu, Vecihi Timuroğlu, Müfid Yüksel, Esad Korkmaz, Şaban Er and Ahmet Güner Sayar. A brand new chronological bibliography of works on Sheikh Bedreddin and Varidat is provided in the addendum, and the distribution of these studies are presented in a chronological graph.
Keywords: Sufism, Ottoman Empire, Republic, Sheikh Badraddin, Varidat.
Semih Ceyhan - Muhammed Akif Koç
