The Albanian Bektashi

History and Culture of a Dervish Order in the Balkans

Robert Elsie

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781788315715
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Osteuropäische Geschichte

The Bektashi dervish order is a Sufi Alevite sect found in Anatolia and the Balkans with a strong presence in Albania. In this, his final book, Robert Elsie analyses the Albanian Bektashi and considers their role in the country's history and society. Although much has been written on the Bektashi in Turkey, little has appeared on the Albanian branch of the sect. Robert Elsie considers the history and culture of the Bektashi, analyses writings on the order by early travellers to the region such as Margaret Hasluck and Sir Arthur Evans and provides a comprehensive list of tekkes (convents) and tyrbes (shrines) in Albania and neighbouring countries. Finally he presents a catalogue of notable Albanian Bektashi figures in history and legend. This book provides a complete reference guide to the Bektashi in Albania which will be essential reading for scholars of the Balkans, Islamic sects and Albanian history and culture.

1

THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE ALBANIAN BEKTASHI

The Bektashi are a dervish order of Sufi Islamic inspiration, originally from Turkey. Although they were banned and suppressed in Turkey in 1925 during the modernisation of that country under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), they flourished in Albania and quietly evolved into a major religious community there – Albania’s fourth religion (after Sunni Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism). It was a community that was to play a major role in Albanian history.

Bektashi beliefs and hierarchy

A few words must be said initially on the beliefs, rites and practices of the Bektashi. Bektashism has a long history and has absorbed many influences from various sources. Among the earliest components of Bektashi doctrines and beliefs in the Middle East were Turkmen heterodoxy, the ascetic Kalenderi (Qalandari) movement of the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries inspired by Persian and Indian mysticism, otherwordly Sufic Melametism, and later the gnostic and cabbalistic doctrines of Persian Hurufism. It also evolved in close contact with Shi’ite and Alevi Islam.

As to their core beliefs, about which the Bektashi were traditionally rather secretive, they believe in Hakk (the Truth), in Muhammed and in Imam Ali, to whom a special position is accorded. Indeed, Imam Ali, his wife Fatima and their two sons Hasan and Husein are central figures of the Bektashi and Shi’ite creed. Many Bektashi families have portraits of Ali in their homes, considering him to be a manifestation of God on earth. He is invoked on a variety of occasions by believers with a ‘ya, Ali!’ or ‘Muhammed-Ali!’ The concept of Hakk, Muhammed and Ali are central. The Bektashi, like other Shi’ites, also revere the Twelve Imams, particularly Imam Ali of course, and consider themselves descendants of the sixth imam, Jafer Sadik. Naturally, they also revere Haji Bektash as the founder of the order.

As in Sufism in general, the emphasis in Bektashism is on inner meaning rather than on the adherence to outer conventions. Instead of the main worship being public prayer on Friday, the Bektashi have a private ceremony in their meydan, their private prayer room, on Thursday evenings for initiated members with their clergy – dervishes and babas. The room, the meydan, is named after the meydan, the ‘square’ in Baghdad where the Sufi al-Hallaj was martyred in 922 by the authorities.

Unlike the Sunni Muslims who are encouraged to pray five times a day, the Bektashi pray twice a day, at sunrise and at sunset, and their prayers do not necessarily involve prostration. As with other Muslims, most Bektashi refuse to eat pork and they will especially avoid hares. Some Bektashis drink alcohol, although this varies from tekke to tekke.

Bektashi women participate on an equal footing with the men in ceremonies and gatherings. The Bektashi trace this to two sources: the importance of Kadıncık, a woman who helped Haji Bektash when he first came to central Anatolia in the thirteenth century, and to the more prominent place of women in Central Asia whence arrived the people who became Bektashi in Anatolia. What other Muslims do not understand about the equality of the bacılar, or sisters, as Bektashi women are called, is that when they are initiated, the men with whom they are initiated become their brothers and protect their honour the way any brother would. Thus women who participate in secret ceremonies are always in the company of their brothers. Most books of Bektashi poetry include sections of poems by the bacılar.

The main holiday of the Bektashi is ashura. The ten days of the month of Muharrem that precede it, known as matem, are a time during which the suffering and death of Imam Husein are commemorated. During the period of matem, Bektashi come to the tekke and listen to recitations of the suffering of Imam Husein. They also have a special fast at this time, drinking only a bitter yogurt drink and eating a lentil soup. After matem follows the feast of ashura, during which a dish is served that is made of cracked wheat, dried fruit, crushed nuts and cinnamon, all ceremoniously cooked together.

The other main Bektashi holiday is Nevruz. This is a solar holiday, the Persian New Year and the birthday of Imam Ali.

An important political perspective on late nineteenth-century Albanian Bektashi beliefs is the Fletore e Bektashinjet (Bektashi Notebook), written by one of the best known writers of Albanian literature, Naim bey Frashëri (1846–1900). Frashëri, who was the author of religious, nationalist and didactic works that had an exceptional impact on the Albanian national awakening of the late nineteenth century, had hoped that the liberal Bektashi beliefs to which he had been attached since his childhood in the village of Frashër would one day take hold as a new religion for all of Albania. Since they respected both Muslim and Christian figures, the Bektashi could promote unity among their religiously divided people. Naim Frashëri supported the confessional independence of the Albanian Bektashi movement from the central pir evi (master house or motherhouse) in the village of Hacıbektaşköy in central Anatolia and proposed an Albanian baba or dede as its leader, three decades before autonomy was achieved. He also promoted Albanian terms to replace the Turkish ones previously used by the Albanian Bektashi: Albanian atë ‘father’ for Turkish baba, and Albanian gjysh ‘grandfather’ for Turkish dede, to give his Bektashi religion a national character and to unite all Albanians. The Bektashi Notebook contains an introductory profession of Bektashi faith and ten spiritual poems which provide a rare glimpse into the beliefs of the sect as Frashëri interpreted them. It begins as follows:

The Bektashi believe in the great and true God, in Muhammed Ali, Hatije and Fatima, and in Hasan and Husein. The twelve Imams are Ali, Hasan, Husain, Zein-el-Abidin, Muhammed Bakir, Jafer Sadik, Musa Kiazim, Ali Riza, Muhammed Teki, Ali Neki, Hasan Askeri and Muhammed Mehdi. The father of all the Bektashi is Ali and their mother is Fatima. They believe in all the virtues of present and past. In particular, they believe in goodness and worship it. In addition to these, they also believe in Musa [Moses], Merjeme [Mary], Isa [Jesus] and their servants. Foremost among them is Jafer Sadik and their forefather is Haji Bektash Veli who is of the same family. All the above-mentioned have said: ‘Do good and abstain from evil’. These words are the essence of the Bektashi faith. Truth, justice, wisdom and all virtues reign in this faith. The faith of the Bektashi is a broad path leading to enlightenment: wisdom, brotherhood, friendship, love, humanity and all virtues. This path is covered on the one hand by the flowers of wisdom and on the other hand by the flowers of truth. No one can be a genuine Bektashi without wisdom, truth and brotherhood. For the Bektashi, the universe is God himself. In this life, man is a representative of God.¹

Despite such pantheism and universality, Naim Frashëri’s Bektashi beliefs have a decidedly nationalist flavour:

They are brothers and one in soul not only with other Bektashi, but with all mankind. They love other Muslims and Christians as they do their own souls, and they strive for good relations with all mankind. Yet above all, they love their country and their countrymen. This is the finest of all virtues … May they strive day and night for that nation that calls them father and swears by them. May they work together with the notables and the elders for the salvation of Albania and the Albanians, for knowledge and culture for their people and their fatherland, for their language and for all progress and well-being.²

As a religious community, the Bektashi have a hierarchical structure, the main ranks of which are the following:

The ashik, Turkish aşık, literally ‘lover,’ is a Bektashi believer or faithful who has not been initiated. This is a person who has been drawn to a particular baba and has become devoted to him. The muhib, also meaning ‘one who loves, sympathiser,’ is a spiritual member of the Bektashi community, i.e. an individual who has received some initiation involving a ritual purification and a profession of faith during a ceremony held at a tekke.

After a trial period of 1001 days, a muhib may become a dervish. The dervish receives a white headdress called a taj, Albanian taxh from Turkish tac, as well as other special garments, and usually lives full-time at a tekke. He is in a sense the equivalent of a Christian monk.

The myxher, from Turkish mücerred ‘person tried by experience, pure, unmarried,’ is the member of a special category of dervishes, that of the celibate dervishes, who wear a ring in their right ear. There has been much controversy in the history of Bektashism about adherence to celibacy. In the Balkans, the celibate Bektashi dervishes and babas have been more revered.

The baba, also Albanian atë ‘father,’ is a spiritual master, equivalent to a sheikh in other dervish orders. Each tekke is normally headed by a baba.

The gjysh, literally ‘grandfather,’ equivalent to Turkish dede, is the superior of the babas and is responsible for all the tekkes of a certain region. The gjysh has passed through the final level of ceremony.

Finally, the kryegjysh ‘head grandfather,’ known in Turkish as dede baba, is the leader of the Bektashi Order as a whole, and is chosen from among all the gjyshes.

The early history of the Bektashi

Most of what we know of the beginnings of the Bektashi Order belong more to the realm of legendry than to documented history. The Bektashi claim their descent initially from a Turkoman holy man called Haji Bektash Veli (Albanian: Haxhi Bektash Veli, Turkish: Hacı Bektaş Veli) who came from the Khorasan region of northeastern Iran and settled around Kirshehir (Turkish: Kιrşehir) in central Anatolia in the thirteenth century during a wave of Turkoman immigration from the east. The village where he settled is now named after him – Hacıbektaşköy (Haji Bektash Village). Haji Bektash is regarded as the founder and patron saint of the order. It was thus in the village of Hacıbektaşköy that the pir evi of the Bektashi Order arose and it was from here that the Bektashi movement spread.

Little else is known about this early period of the Bektashi. It was only in the early fifteenth century that the order took on a concrete form, under Balim Sultan (1457–1517), who is venerated as the second founder and pir of the order. Balim Sultan was raised at the shrine of Seyyid Ali Sultan near Dimetoka (Greek: Didymoteichon), 22 kilometres south of Edirne (Adrianople) in Thrace. He set off for the shrine of Haji Bektash in Anatolia and became head of the Bektashi in 1501. Balim Sultan centralized the authority of the Bektashi there and is said to have codified the hierarchical ranks, rites and practices of the movement. Here is an early historical reference to him:

Upon a sign that came from Seyyid Ali Sultan in a dream, he [Balim Sultan] first went to the palace in Istanbul, where he was shown respect and reverence by the sultan [Bayezid II]. He headed for the convent of Hacı Bektaş with an imperial decree, and was the leader there until the year 922 AH [1516–1517 AD]. The rituals and rules of the Bektashi Order, which are in agreement with justice and true religion, were prescribed by him. […] Also the revenues allocated for the dervishes and the çelebis (that is, the descendants of Hacı Bektaş) residing in the convent were donated by the sultan in the time of Balim Sultan.³

From this time on, we know somewhat more about the core beliefs of the Bektashi, with their emphasis on Hakk, Muhammed and Ali, and with stress on the Twelve Imams revered by the Shi’ites. Of particular significance was the sixth imam, Jafer Sadik (Albanian: Xhafer Sadiku; Turkish: Cafer Sadik), from whom they claimed to derive special authority.

The Bektashi Order rose to enjoy significant political power in Turkey in the second half of the fifteenth century due to its close ties to the Janissaries, the elite infantry units that formed the bodyguards and household troops of the Sultan. Indeed, the Janissaries were often known at the time as Hacı Bektaş oğullari (the sons of Haji Bektash).

According to John Norton,

formal recognition came around 1591 when the head of the Bektashi Order was made an honorary colonel of the Janissaries and eight Bektashi dervishes were appointed to the 99th orta (battalion) to perform duties similar to those of an army chaplain. Thereafter, it was custom for each new head of the Bektashi Order to go to Istanbul to be ‘crowned’ by the commander of the Janissaries.⁴

With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the order spread from central Anatolia notably to the Balkans, Greece and Crete, where the Bektashi served as chaplains to the Janissaries and missionaries of Islam.

The power of the Janissaries grew to such an extent in Turkey that they could ‘terrorize sultans and make and unmake grand viziers. From the time of Selim I in 1512 they demanded gifts from each sultan on his accession. When they upset their cauldrons, it was a sign of revolt and peace for the sultan could only be purchased by granting their demands.’⁵

Things could not last. The all-powerful Janissaries had become a State within the State, and Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) resolved to act. On 15 June 1826, in an incident known in Turkish history as the ‘Auspicious Event,’ he

sent in the morning the gunners and marines of the navy in one column and the bombardiers and sappers in another against the revolting Janissaries in their quarters on the Et Meydan. The great gate of the barracks was barricaded but fell under cannon fire. Fire was set to the barracks and before the night, the great Janissary Corps had been wiped out.⁶

It is said that about 4000 Janissaries were killed in the fighting and many more were later executed throughout the Empire.

The banning and violent end of the Janissary Corps could not be without maj...