- Kadi Burhan al-Din
Kadi Burhan al-Din Ahmed ( _tr. Kadı Burhaneddin) was
vizier andatabeg to the Eretnid rulers ofAnatolia . In 783 AH (1381 -1382 ) he took over Eretnid lands and claimed the title of sultan for himself. [J. Rypka, “Burhān al-Dīn, kādī ahmad”, "Encyclopaedia of Islam", ed. P. Bearman (Brill, 2007).] He was also a poet who wrote primarily in Persian. [Claude Cahen, "Pre-Ottoman Turkey: A general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history c. 1071-1330" (New York: Taplinger, 1968), p. 363.] He is most often referred to by the title “kadi“, or Islamic judge, his first position under the Eretnids.Burhan al-Din justified his claim to the throne through descent from the Seljuks: his grandmother was the granddaughter of
Kaykaus II . [J. Rypka, “Burhān al-Dīn, kādī ahmad”, "Encyclopaedia of Islam", ed. P. Bearman (Brill, 2007).] The Eretnid sultanate he inherited had a large Turkmen andMongol population but also contained many of the older, established urban centers of the Seljuks of Rum and Ilkhanid Anatolia. The sultanate with its Persianized court class resembled these older states more than the Turkmen beyliks then ascendant in other parts of Anatolia. [Claude Cahen, "Pre-Ottoman Turkey: A general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history c. 1071-1330" (New York: Taplinger, 1968), pp. 362-3.]The Kadi’s eighteen-year rule was not peaceful. He challenged the Tukmen Karamanids and twice fought Kötürüm Bayezid,
Candaroğlu bey ofKastamonu . In1387 , he was defeated by the Mamluks of Egypt. The Ottoman SultanBayezid I , accompanied by his vassal the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos, campaigned unsuccessfully against Burhan al-Din in1391 . [Elizabeth A. Zachariadou, “Manuel II Palaeologos on the Strife between Bāyezīd and Kādī Burhān Al-Dīn Ahmad” "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London", Vol. 43, No. 3. (1980), p. 471.] He met his end in1398 at the hands of theAk Koyunlu and was succeeded by his son Zayn al-‘Abidin, who ruled for a short time between1398 and1399 . [Stephen Album, "A Checklist of Islamic Coins", 2nd ed. (1998), p. 114.] His türbe, or mausoleum, survives inSivas . [Bernard McDonagh, "Blue Guide Turkey", 2nd ed. (London: A&C Black, 1995), p. 585.]‘Aziz ibn Ardashir Astarbadi, a companion of Kadi Burhan al-Din, wrote a Persian language history of his rule called "Bazm-u Razm" which was edited by M. F. Köprülüzade in 1928. An analysis and commentary has been provided by H. H. Giesecke, "Das Werk des ‘Azīz ibn Ardašīr Astarābādi" (Leipzig, 1940).
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