Bektashi

Bektashi, Sufi mystic order (tariqa) founded, according to its own traditions, in the 13th century by Haji Bektash Veli. The Islamic order acquired definitive form in the 16th century in Anatolia (now Turkey [Türkiye]) and spread to the Balkans during the Ottoman period. Bektashis, whose numbers are estimated to be anywhere from 7 million to 20 million followers, are found throughout the world, and since the early 20th century their headquarters have been located in Albania.

Haji Bektash Veli, the reputed founder of the movement, was born in Neyshābūr in Khorāsān (now Nishapur, Iran). The tradition suggests that he lived from 1248 to 1337, although other sources give his dates as 1209 to 1271, roughly contemporaneous with the Sufi poet Rūmī. He migrated to Anatolia, near Kırşehir (now in Turkey), where he founded the first Bektashi tekke—religious gathering house—for the assembled practice of Sufi rituals.

Under the leadership of Balım Sultan, the pīr-e ṯānī (Persian: “second elder”), in the 16th century, the order was further structured and systematized. He instituted a hierarchy of members beginning with the laity, initiate (Persian: moḥebb), dervish (ascetic guild member), father (Albanian: baba), grandfather (Albanian: gjysh; Turkish: dede), and leader of the order or “supreme father” (Albanian: kryegjysh; Turkish: dedebaba).

Following Balım Sultan’s organization of the order, the tradition adopted many tenets of Shiʿi Islam, including a veneration of the 12 imams, particularly ʿAlī, the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, whose birthday the order celebrates on the new year festival of Nowruz.

Like many Sufis the Bektashis are relatively lax in observing daily Muslim laws, and women as well as men take part in ritual alcohol drinking and dancing during devotional ceremonies, called cems. The religion emphasizes personal spiritual development in monastic communities (tekkes). The Bektashis in the Balkans adapted such Christian practices as the ritual sharing of bread, the confession of sins, and celibacy of monastic spiritual fathers (the babas). In Turkey Bektashi clerics (dede) are not celibate, and the Bektashi community falls under the umbrella of the Alevi movement and have many rituals, such as cem, in common. Bektashi mystical writings made a rich contribution to Sufi poetry.

The Bektashis acquired political importance in the 15th century, when the order dominated the Janissaries, an elite Ottoman military corps. Their influence waned after 1826, when the Janissaries were disbanded, but the order underwent a revival later in the century, with the rebuilding of the monasteries and a flowering of literary activity in Turkey and Albania.

After 1925, when all Sufi orders were dissolved in Turkey under the secularizing efforts of Kemal Atatürk, the Bektashi leadership shifted to Albania, where it established headquarters in Tirana in 1931. But with the banning of religion and closing of religious sites by the communist regime in Albania in 1967, Bektashi devotions were carried on in secret in Albania as they were also in Turkey. They were also maintained in Albanian regions of the Balkans and in the United States. Bektashi traditions were revived in Albania after the fall of communism there in 1990. Despite their small numbers in Albania—roughly 115,000 Bektashi, or approximately 5 percent of the population as of 2024—they have been an integral part of that country’s cultural life.

In September 2024 Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced plans to create in Tirana a Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order. Modeled on the Vatican, the microstate of 27 acres (11 hectares; 0.1 square kilometers) would be the smallest country in the world and would, according to those supporting the effort, provide the moderate Islamic order with an influential voice regarding interfaith matters on the world stage. The sovereign state would be run by the order’s current world leader, Baba Mondi (Haji Dede Edmond Brahimaj).