Bektashi Order

The Bektashiyya originated in Anatolia as the followers of the 13th-century scholar Bektash.[14] The doctrines and rituals of the Bektashiyya were codified by the mystic Balim Sultan (d. 1517–1519), who is considered the pīr al-thānī ('the Second Elder') by Bektashis.[14]

It was originally founded as a Sufi movement.[15][16] The branch became widespread in the Ottoman Empire, their lodges scattered throughout Anatolia as well as in the Balkans. It became the official order of the Janissary corps, the elite infantry corp of the Ottoman Army.[17] Therefore, they also became mainly associated with Anatolian and Balkan Muslims of Eastern Orthodox convert origin, mainly Albanians and northern Greeks (although most leading Bektashi babas were of southern Albanian origin).[18] In 1826, the Bektashi order was banned throughout the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mahmud II for having close ties with the Janissary corps.[17] Many Bektashi dervishes were exiled, and some were executed.[17] Their tekkes were destroyed and their revenues were confiscated.[17] This decision was supported by the Sunni religious elite as well as the leaders of other, more orthodox, Sufi orders. Bektashis slowly regained freedom with the coming of the Tanzimat era. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk shut down the lodges in 1925. Consequently, the Bektashi leadership moved to Albania and established their headquarters in the city of Tirana. Among the most famous followers of Bektashi in the 19th century Balkans were Ali Pasha[19][20][21][22][23][24] and Naim Frashëri.

After lodges in Turkey were shut down, the order's headquarters moved to Albania.[25] On 20 March 1930, Sali Njazi was elected as the First Dedebaba of the Bektashi community. Njazi established the Bektashi World Headquarters in Tirana.[25] Its construction was finished in 1941 during the Italian occupation of Albania.[25] Njazi promoted Bektashi Islam by introducing major ceremonies at popular tekkes.[25] After he was murdered, Ali Riza succeeded him as the Dedebaba.[25]

Despite the negative effect of the ban of lodges on Bektashi culture, most Bektashis in Turkey have been generally supportive of secularism to this day, since these reforms have relatively relaxed the religious intolerance that had historically been shown against them by the official Sunni establishment.

In the Balkans the Bektashi order had a considerable impact on the Islamization of many areas, primarily Albania and Bulgaria, as well as parts of Macedonia, particularly among Ottoman-era Greek Muslims from western Greek Macedonia such as the Vallahades. By the 18th century Bektashism began to gain a considerable hold over the population of southern Albania and northwestern Greece (Epirus and western Greek Macedonia). Following the ban on Sufi orders in the Republic of Turkey, the Bektashi community's headquarters was moved from Hacıbektaş in central Anatolia, to Tirana, Albania. In Albania, the Bektashi community declared its separation from the Sunni community and they were perceived ever after as a distinct Islamic sect rather than a branch of Sunni Islam. Bektashism continued to flourish until the Second World War. After the communists took power in 1945, several babas and dervishes were executed and a gradual constriction of Bektashi influence began. Ultimately, in 1967 all tekkes were shut down when Enver Hoxha banned all religious practice. When this ban was rescinded in 1990 the Bektashism reestablished itself, although there were few left with any real knowledge of the spiritual path. Nevertheless, many "tekkes" (lodges) operate today in Albania. The most recent head of the order in Albania was Hajji Reshat Bardhi Dedebaba (1935–2011) and the main tekke has been reopened in Tirana. In June 2011 Baba Edmond Brahimaj was chosen as the head of the Bektashi order by a council of Albanian babas. Today sympathy for the order is generally widespread in Albania where approximately 20% of Muslims identify themselves as having some connection to Bektashism.

There are also important Bektashi communities among the Albanian communities of North Macedonia and Kosovo, the most important being the Harabati Baba Tekke in the city of Tetovo, which was until recently under the guidance of Baba Tahir Emini (1941–2006). Following the death of Baba Tahir Emini, the dedelik of Tirana appointed Baba Edmond Brahimaj (Baba Mondi), formerly head of the Turan Tekke of Korçë, to oversee the Harabati baba tekke. A splinter branch of the order has recently sprung up in the town of Kičevo which has ties to the Turkish Bektashi community under Haydar Ercan Dede rather than Tirana. A smaller Bektashi tekke, the Dikmen Baba Tekkesi, is in operation in the Turkish-speaking town of Kanatlarci, North Macedonia that also has stronger ties with Turkey's Bektashis. In Kosovo, the relatively small Bektashi community has a tekke in the town of Gjakovë and is under the leadership of Baba Mumin Lama and it recognizes the leadership of Tirana.

In Bulgaria, the türbes of Kıdlemi Baba, Ak Yazılı Baba, Demir Baba and Otman Baba function as heterodox Islamic pilgrimage sites and before 1842 were the centers of Bektashi tekkes.[26]

Bektashis continue to be active in Turkey and their semi-clandestine organizations can be found in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. There are currently two rival claimants to the dedebaba in Turkey: Mustafa Eke and Haydar Ercan.

A large functioning Bektashi tekke was also established in the United States in 1954 by Baba Rexheb. This tekke is found in the Detroit suburb of Taylor and the tomb (türbe) of Baba Rexheb continues to draw pilgrims of all faiths.

In 2002, a group of armed members of the Islamic Religious Community of Macedonia (ICM), a Sunni group that is the legally recognized organisation which claims to represent all Muslims in North Macedonia, invaded the Shiʻi Bektashi Order's Arabati Baba Teḱe in an attempt to reclaim this tekke as a mosque although the facility has never functioned as such. Subsequently, the Bektashi Order of North Macedonia sued the government for failing to restore the tekke to the Bektashis, pursuant to a law passed in the early 1990s returning properties previously nationalized under the Yugoslav government. The law, however, deals with restitution to private citizens, rather than religious communities.[27]

Diagram showing Bektashi as well as other Sufi orders.

The ICM claim to the tekke is based upon their contention to represent all Muslims in North Macedonia; and indeed, they are one of two Muslim organizations recognized by the government, both Sunni. The Bektashi community filed for recognition as a separate religious community with the Macedonian government in 1993, but the Macedonian government has refused to recognize them.[27]

List of Bektashi Dedebabas (mostly based in Hacıbektaş, Anatolia), prior to the 1925 exodus of the Bektashi Order from Turkey to Albania:[38]

List of Bektashi Dedebabas following the 1925 exodus of the Bektashi Order from Turkey to Albania:

No.	Portrait	Name	Term in office
1		Salih Nijazi (1876–1941)	20 March 1930[39]	28 November 1941
			11 years, 8 months and 8 days
2		Ali Riza (1882–1944)	6 January 1942	22 February 1944
			2 years, 1 month and 16 days
3		Kamber Ali (1869–1950)	12 April 1944	1945
			0 or 1 year
4		Xhafer Sadik (1874–1945)	5 May 1945	2 August 1945
			2 months and 28 days
5		Abaz Hilmi (1887–1947)	6 September 1945	19 March 1947
			1 year, 6 months and 13 days
6		Ahmet Myftar (1916–1980)	8 June 1947	1958
			9 or 10 years
7		Baba Reshat (1935–2011)	20 July 1993	2 April 2011
			17 years, 8 months and 13 days
8		Baba Mondi (1959)	11 June 2011	Incumbent
			12 years, 4 months and 14 days

• Algar, Hamid (1989). "BEKTĀŠĪYA". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IV. pp. 118–122.

• Doja, Albert. 2006. "A political history of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Contemporary Turkey." Journal of Church and State 48 (2): 421–450. doi=10.1093/jcs/48.2.423.
• Doja, Albert. 2006. "A political history of Bektashism in Albania." Politics, Religion & Ideology 7 (1): 83–107. doi=10.1080/14690760500477919.
• Elsie, Robert (2001). A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-1-85065-570-1.
• Nicolle, David; UK (1995). The Janissaries (5th). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-413-X.
• Muhammed Seyfeddin Ibn Zulfikari Derviş Ali; Bektaşi İkrar Ayini, Kalan Publishing, Translated from Ottoman Turkish by Mahir Ünsal Eriş, Ankara, 2007 Turkish
• Saggau, Emil BH. "Marginalised Islam: Christianity’s role in the sufi order of Bektashism." In Exploring the Multitude of Muslims in Europe, pp. 183-197. Brill, 2018.