Sheikh Badr al-Din of Simavna

Badr al-Din Mahmud ibn Isra'il, known as Ibn Qadi Simavna, was born at Simavna castle near Edirne in Murad I's time, son of its qadi, commander and conqueror. The Shaqa'iq al-Nu'maniyya traces his career through Cairo — jurist and pupil of al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani and Akmal al-Din al-Babirti, with the Mamluk sultan Faraj ibn Barquq among his own pupils — then a Sufi turn under Sheikh Sa'id al-Akhlati and years of wandering, until Musa Çelebi made him qadi 'askar and Mehmed's killing of Musa landed him in confinement at Iznik ¹.

At Iznik he began the preaching al-Sallabi describes as a call to equality in wealth and religion — a doctrine the author himself brands 'corrupt', a judgement of the historian rather than a neutral description ². His most famous disciple, Börklüce Mustafa, killed Mehmed's commander Shishman before Bayezid Pasha broke him at Qara Burnu ⁴. Backed by the prince of Wallachia, Badr al-Din gathered seven to eight thousand fighters at Deli Orman; Mehmed campaigned in person from Serres, his intelligence service delivered the sheikh captive — 'the sun pales, my lord, as it nears setting' — and a shari'a court sentenced him to death ³.