Bektashi Order in Albania

About 800 years ago, a man named Haji Bektash (hence the name Bektashi) began an order that emphasized the mystical work of loving God rather than observing the commandments. The Bektashi expressed their love for God through rituals of singing, drinking alcohol (which is considered forbidden in Islam), dancing, and a ceremonial meal. Through drinking, they reached divine intoxication; through singing, they reached love; through dancing, they connected with the movement of the universe; and through a meal, they reached communion with God.

The Bektashi became one of the largest orders in the Ottoman Empire and were especially embraced by the Janissary soldiers—Christian children who were educated in Islamic religious military boarding schools and nurtured to become the backbone of the Ottoman army and bureaucracy.

Haji Bektash arrived in Asia Minor from Khorasan in the 13th century and settled in the village that later bore his name. He was part of a movement of Turkmen Babas who continued, under the guise of Orthodox Islam, pagan traditions and customs of earlier Turkmen life, combined with a mystical system influenced by the Central Asian Sufi Ahmad Yasawi.

Haji Bektash gradually gained recognition as the leader of the Dervishes. He taught a simple ritual involving the use of a candle, a ceremonial meal, drinking alcohol, singing, and dancing (Sema). He wore—and had his followers wear—a characteristic hat, and taught simple yet profound moral teachings: love your neighbor as yourself; education for women; do not harm, even if you are harmed; and so on. Before he died, he appointed and sent disciples to various regions to continue his teachings, and one of them, named Sarı Saltık, reached the Balkans.

The figure of Haji Bektash inspired the popular Alevi movement—a very moderate form of Shiism based in eastern Turkey—and the establishment of the Bektashi order, where, through initiation and a unique mystical religious practice, one reaches union with God.

His sayings were collected in a book called Maqalat. There is another book called Vilayetname, which is a legendary story about his life, but this book was written later, at least two hundred years after him.

Haji Bektash was largely a legendary figure, and in fact, the one who gave the real impetus to the establishment of the order and is considered its second founder was a man named Balım Sultan, who lived in the 15th century. His name is derived from bal—”honey” in Turkish. According to legend, his mother became pregnant from honey that was placed in her mouth by one of the Bektashi dervishes.

Perhaps for this reason—or perhaps for another—he led communities of hermit dervishes (which is an anomaly in Islam). These were sworn monks, who took their vows by piercing their earlobes and inserting earrings into them. These dervishes are the backbone of the Bektashi order; they are initiated into the secrets of the religion and guide the community.

The Bektashis do not pray in mosques, do not fast during Ramadan, and do not observe the other commandments of the religion, and as a result, they are considered by other Muslims to be infidels. Instead of the traditional commandments, they hold their own rituals in a house called the “Maiden Awi” (or simply “Maiden”) and have a system of practices based on their own Sufi teachings.

One of the tenets of their faith is the importance of Ali, the cousin of the Prophet and his adopted son. Muhammad brought the revealed religion, which refers to the Sharia (law), while Ali brought the mystical religion, which refers to the Tariqa (path). Thus, Ali is the gateway to truth, and his figure takes on even greater dimensions than that of Muhammad—or is united with it. In addition to Ali, they believe in the 12 Imams who followed him. In other words, the Bektashis are a type of moderate Shiite Islam with Sufi mystical characteristics.

For the Bektashis, the emphasis in worship is on ecstasy and the mystical, including singing and rituals in which men and women participate as equals. They preserve some of the shamanic traditions of the pre-Islamic Turkic tribes, and according to members of the order, they deal with bioenergy, influence on thoughts, telekinesis, telepathy, and more. Drinking alcohol is part of the ritual.

Arrival of the Bektashis in the Balkans

According to legend, the one who brought the Bektashis to Albania was Sari Saltik from the 14th century, a direct disciple of Haji Bektash. He was a sheep herder in a small village in Cappadocia. When the saint turned to him and ordered him to go to the Balkans as his envoy, he said, “What will happen to my sheep? Who will take care of them?” But nothing helped, and he set off that very day, flying through the air from place to place on the skin of his beloved sheep, which he had slaughtered for the occasion…

First of all, he flew to Lake Ohrid and consecrated three places along its shores—one in the city of Ohrid itself and two on both sides of the lake. And why three? Very simple: Muhammad, Ali, Allah—the Holy Trinity of the Bektashis. He then reached the site of Balagaj, the holiest place for Muslims in Bosnia, continued to Kruje, the legendary fortress of Skanderbeg (one of the main tekkes of the Bektashis is located on the mountain above it), and finally reached Corfu, where he was buried, visiting three more places on the way and slaying a dragon.

However, according to older legends, the one who brought Islam to Albania—and with it the Bektashi faith, or rather, the mystical path—was Abbas Ali, the half-brother of Hassan and Hussein and the standard-bearer at the Battle of Karbala. His head was cut off in battle, which did not prevent him from riding a horse to Mount Tomorr in Albania, holding his head in his hand, and planting the standard on the top of the mountain, symbolizing the arrival of the true religion in the new land. The site became a center of pilgrimage and the holiest place for this community.

Historically, the Bektashis probably arrived in the Balkans during the reign of Mehmed II (1451–1481), together with the Janissary soldiers. The first messenger was a man named Kazim Baba, and the first centers were in military camps such as Elbasan. The 17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi tells of the tekkes of the Abdali in Albania, which is another name for the Bektashis. In it, there is a tekke of a baba named Murtaza Baba, where there are tombs with a hat—a tek in Bektashi—from 1728.

Much of the spread of the Bektashis in southern Albania is associated with Ali Pasha, who ruled the province of Epirus from 1790 to 1822, including southern Albania. In fact, he was an independent ruler, like Muhammed Ali (his Egyptian counterpart).

Ali Pasha’s father was a dervish; he believed in dervishes. It is said that a Bektashi dervish predicted his success. He gave him a ring that he wore until the day he died, and therefore Ali Pasha supported the Bektashis. Toward the end of his life, he was probably a member of the Bektashi Order, and perhaps also of several other orders (in Islam, it is possible to be a member of several orders at the same time), and turned his capital, Ioannina in northern Greece, into a center for dervishes.

A little later, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Janissaries and the Bektashis became unpopular with the Ottoman authorities. In 1826, Sultan Mahmud II decided to get rid of the Janissary soldiers and killed them in what the Bektashis called the “Bektashi Holocaust.” After disbanding the Janissary corps, he turned to attacking the order itself and its followers. He vowed to behead 70,000 heads, and when that was not enough, he beheaded tombstones. Some of the babas fled to Albania. In 1860, the Bektashis were outlawed in Turkey, but in Albania they were able to exist without interference.

Further persecutions occurred during the time of Atatürk at the beginning of the 20th century, and this led to the Bektashis moving their center to Albania. In 1922, the Albanian babas severed ties with the Great Dede (leader of the order), who moved his seat from Istanbul to Ankara, and they created an independent order, with centers in Tirana and Korça. Today, the official world center of the Baktashis is in Tirana, and there are several hundred thousand believers scattered throughout Albania, Turkey, and other Balkan countries, especially among the Albanian population in Kosovo and Macedonia.

Due to the persecutions they suffered, and also because of the nature of the religion and the tradition of initiation, the Bektashi rituals remained secret and closed to the general public. However, in recent years they have begun to open themselves to the public and reveal more of their tradition and rituals.

In the 1930s, a book by an Englishman named John Kingsley Birge was published, considered the best external source for their beliefs and locations in the Balkans. It was called The Bektashi Order of Dervishes.

The Bektashi in southern Albania played a central role in the Albanian national revival movement. In 1880, a struggle took place in southern Albania between the Greeks, who tried to take over the country, and the local population, who were supposedly fighting for Turkish rule but were actually fighting for their independence. The leaders of the struggle were the Frashëri brothers, who were Bektashi, and later King Zog—the first Albanian king and ruler—was greatly influenced by them.

Under communist rule, the Bektashis were persecuted, and some of the babas were executed or became collaborators. In the United States, however, a large Bektashi community was formed (the United States has a large and influential Albanian diaspora), and it is now helping to rebuild the tekkees of the homeland.

The Bektashi community in Albania comprises about 10% of the population, mainly in southern Albania and the city of Kruje. There are no precise estimates, since Albania is an officially atheist country, and it depends on how religious affiliation is considered—if at all. However Bektashi presence in noticed throughout the land and they are recognized as one of the four major religious communities of Albania.

Notable large Bektashi centers (tekkes) can be seen and visited in Vlorë, Krujë, Berat, Gjirokastër, and on the summit of Mount Tomorr, which is a sacred mountain and a site of pilgrimage and annual festivities. In some areas of Albania, the Bektashis constitute a majority.

Religion of Saints

The most striking characteristic of the Bektashis is that their religion is a religion of holy people. They took religion and brought it down from an abstract level—of God and heaven—to the level of legendary exemplary figures.

It begins with the figure of Ali, who is seen everywhere: in various and unusual pictures, on pins distributed to believers, on postcards, and more. It continues with the figures of the 12 Imams—the lineage of Ali, his descendants after him—12 people who are, in fact, the same person, the same entity, but each time in a different incarnation.

The 12 Imams are the 12 different faces of the human race. The domes of the Bektashi meeting rooms, called Maiden, sometimes have paintings of the 12 Imams on them, or they have 12 windows symbolizing the 12 Imams, who are different faces of the divine light. The dome symbolizes the One, and the images or windows represent the 12 different manifestations of Him.

The hat worn by the babas also has the same symbolism. The button in the center of the hat is a circle that symbolizes the light of Muhammad–Ali, who is the One. The 12 braids that come out from the button in the center of the hat are 12 lines that symbolize the 12 Imams, who are 12 different manifestations of the One.

The saints are first and foremost Muhammad, Ali, and the 12 Imams, but also the leaders of the order—the babas—as well as historical figures. Some may see the veneration of saints as weakness or idolatry, while others may see it as the genius of making religion accessible to people and shifting the emphasis to man.

The Bektashis like to define themselves as the religion of man. Everything is within man.
Man is the one in whose honor and in whose image the entire universe was created. Man is the gate through which one can reach God. Since God is abstract and we cannot see Him, the gate is more important than the house—because without the gate, there is no entrance to the house.

A dervish was once asked: “Who is more important to you: your teacher or God?”
“My teacher,” he said, “because without him I have no chance of reaching God—not to mention the fact that without him I would not even know that God exists.”

After the 12 Imams, the figure of the perfect man (insan al kamil)—Muhammad Ali, the figure by whose authority the world stands—continued to be revealed through the Sufi saints. The Bektashis have identified in each generation the qutb, the pole around which the world revolves, and in particular, they identify the figure of the saint of the order—Haji Bektashi Wali—as the manifestation of the light of Muhammad Ali.

The qutb has helpers: the 40 saints or 300 people who are endowed with the ability to change from their earthly state to an angelic state. One of these can speak to a person and suddenly change his clothing, take him by the hand, and lead his friend on a journey through the spheres to the presence of God. They are called abdal, from the word badli—change.

The 300 saints are the true rulers of human life. Sometimes, some of them are not even aware that they are in this state or that they are saints.

Ali and the Bektashis

Ali was born in 600 to Abu Talib, who was the uncle of Prophet Muhammad. As a child, he was adopted by the Prophet and educated by him. He was one of the first to declare his belief in Muhammad while still a child of 10 or 15. Later, he married the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, and they had two sons—Hassan and Hussein. Ali was a heroic warrior and saved Muhammad in many battles. He rode a mule, Duldul (in the Battle of the Camel), and used the miraculous sword Zulfiqar.

The Shiites believe that the spirit of prophecy—the Holy Spirit—passed from Muhammad to Ali, and therefore Muhammad also explicitly commanded that Ali would be the one to lead the community and inherit his spiritual status after him. However, other Muslims did not accept this and even omitted explicit passages in the Qur’an that refer to this.

Among the Bektashis, the figure of Ali sometimes overshadows the figure of Muhammad. Muhammad is the visible prophet, while Ali is the hidden prophet—the power behind things. Muhammad is the city, and Ali is the gate. At the entrance to the Bektashi gathering hall is written a sentence that Muhammad said: “I am the city of knowledge, and Ali is the gate.”

Ali is the gate to truth, and his figure is united with that of Muhammad, largely reminiscent of the figure of Jesus among Christians. The joint figure is called Muhammad–Ali.

Muhammad Ali is the complete man, in whose light and image the entire universe was created. He is the fruit of the tree of the universe—but the tree needed fruit and seed to begin with, before it became a tree. Muhammad Ali is the plan and purpose of all creation. All creation was created with his light standing before the eyes of the Creator, knowing that one day it would return to Him, and then the Creator would be more complete.

The prophets—each of them—embody one aspect of the complete man, but the entire complete man exists in Muhammad Ali.

Just as a small seed contains a large tree, so too does man, at least in his ideal state, contain the entire universe. The complete man unites the One and the many, so that the universe depends on him for its continuity.

Among the Bektashi, there are stories about the miraculous deeds of Ali.
One story, for example, is about a giant creature called Diu, who caught a man behind Mount Kaf (the mountain from which the world was founded) and was about to eat him, when suddenly a boy (who was Ali) appeared in the form of a lion and struck the giant with a blow that stunned him. He tied him with date leaves, and no one was able to free him—until Ali appeared again and forced him to convert to Islam and promise not to eat people anymore.

The parable of the story is that the giant represents the troubles of humans, called Dertl, while their healer is Ali, called Derman. Dertl symbolizes, in particular, the pain of separation and the recognition of duality, while the healer is Ali and his descendants.

The troubles are a screen between the truth of reality and the unbeliever. Ali is simultaneously the one who lowers the curtain on non-believers, and also raises the curtain for believers.

Another story tells of Muhammad’s ascension to heaven in Jerusalem. On the way, he meets a lion who frightens him, and he is forced to give the lion a ring in order to pass. When he reaches the eighth heaven, he speaks with God through a curtain. When the curtain is lifted, he sees Ali behind it. God gives Muhammad a cluster of grapes to give to his grandsons, Hassan and Hussein.

On the way back, he reaches the Hall of the 40 Saints and celebrates the heavenly union with them. An invisible hand squeezes the grapes in his hands, and they all drink from the resulting juice and become drunk. They begin to dance and sing, play musical instruments, and repeat the word of God: Hu, Huu. Ali places himself in the center, drunker than all the others, and takes out of his mouth the ring that Muhammad gave to the lion (he is the lion).

“Again the wound of my heart has opened—
Where will I find a cure for my troubles,
If not in the hands of the lion—Ali?”
—Pir Sultan Abdal

This story is at the heart of the Bektashi wine-drinking, dancing, and music ceremony. In effect, they reenact Muhammad’s ascension to heaven—through the seven heavens, the mystical union, and the joyous celebration that followed.

Legends of Haji Bektash

Haji Bektash is a descendant of a dynasty that begins with the Prophet Muhammad. His father was the ruler of a country in Khorasan (today’s northern Afghanistan). At birth, he was given the name Bektash, which means “equal in rank,” or “equal to a prince.” Even as a baby in the cradle, he was heard muttering the Shahada (the declaration of faith in the unity of God).

At the age of four, he went to study with a baba named Luqman Faranda, who was one of the messengers of Ahmet Yesevi, the famous Turkish saint of Central Asia.

Once, Luqman Faranda saw two figures leaning over Bektash and teaching him the Qur’an. Bektash claimed that the one on his right was Muhammad Mustafa, one of his ancestors—peace and blessings be upon him—and the one on his left was: the Pillar of the Martyrs, the Commander of the Faithful, the Lion of the Lord, the Lord of the Worlds, the Bearer of the Cup of Qusar—Ali al-Murtaza (Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad).

One taught him the external science, and the other the esoteric—internal, hidden—science, both using the Qur’an.

Bektash claimed that he received the power to perform miracles from Allah, expressed in the sign he received from Him: a green luminous dot on the palm of his hand and a similar one on his forehead—a dot that is a symbol of hidden knowledge.

One day, the teacher Luqman made a pilgrimage to Mecca. After circling the Kaaba, while standing on Mount Arafat, he longed for the dishes cooked for him at home. The student Bektash immediately understood this and, with the help of a mystical ecstatic journey, appeared before Luqman with a tray of food in his hand. Therefore, the title Haji was added to Bektash’s name, after the miraculous Hajj (pilgrimage) he made.

When he grew up, Haji Bektash became one of the close disciples of Ahmed Yasawi, the Central Asian saint. Ahmed Yasawi ordered him to go to the new land and start a new religion there. Haji Bektash threw a burning branch of a mulberry tree from Khorasan in Central Asia to Cappadocia in Turkey to announce his arrival to the dervishes. The branch stuck in the ground in a small village in Cappadocia and grew into a tree that stands at the entrance to the tomb of Balım Sultan to this day—a tree considered to have healing and sacred properties. According to legend, the tree is still burning at its ends.

On his way to Cappadocia, many miracles happened. He visited Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Aleppo, and when he reached Rum (Anatolia), he first went to Caesarea. Some dervishes, who feared for their status, tried to block his path. Haji jumped over them and ascended to the throne of God, where angels met him and blessed him with the blessing of light. He transformed into a dove and landed on the rock on a hill near the village of Haji Bektash.

Saint Bayezid Bistami came to visit him in the form of a hawk. Haji transformed into a man and caught the hawk. The hawk was sent to inform all the dervishes of his arrival. After several more miracles, the dervishes were convinced to accept his spiritual guidance.

At first, Haji Bektash passed through a period of seclusion inside a cave in a rock on a high hill overlooking the village for 40 days—a period of trial that is called çilehane—then he emerged pure, after which a woman named Hana accepted him as a member of her household.

Over time, Haji Bektash revealed himself and became the leader of the dervishes in Antalya. He taught his followers a simple ritual that included a ceremonial meal, drinking raki, lighting candles, and dancing (sama), as well as a deeply humane and moral teaching based on “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

His figure served as an inspiration for the popular Alevi movement, which is a very moderate form of Shiism, as well as for the establishment of the Bektashi order, in which, through initiation and a unique mystical religious practice, one reaches union with the divine.

His sayings were collected in a book called Makalat, and there is another book called Vilayetname, which is a collection of legends about his life—but this book was written later, at least two hundred years after him.

From the stories and legends, it can be seen that the ancient shamanic beliefs about the shaman’s ability to change shape, incarnate in animals, move from place to place, purify himself, and overcome matter found a home in the Bektashi tradition—but they were also supplemented by deep moral teachings and moving humanity.

The core of Haji Bektash’s teachings is concentrated in 14 principles called “The Golden Words of Saint Haji Bektash,” which appear as early as the 13th century. These are principles of morality, humanity, equality, and brotherhood that were very advanced for their time, emphasizing equality for women (the Bektashi Order is the only one in Islam where women and men participate as equals in religious worship), as well as love, wisdom, responsibility, and inner search. These are:

Seek and find
Education for women
Do not harm even if you are harmed
Whatever you seek, seek within yourself
Be the master of your hand (action), your tongue (words), and your desires
Wise people are both pure and purifying
The first step to spiritual wisdom is proper behavior
Human perfection is the beauty of his/her words
You will not do to others what is difficult for yourself
Do not blame any person or nation
A path not guided by science leads to darkness
How happy is he who illuminates the darkness of thoughts
Do not forget that your enemy is also a man
The saints and prophets are God’s gift to all humanity

Four Gates to Religion

According to the Bektashis, there are four gates to religion.

The first gate is the gate of the Shari’ah—Muslim law. It is intended for believers at the lowest level, those who do not know how to distinguish between good and evil.

The second level is the level of the Tariqah—the path. This is the level where the Sufis in general, and the Bektashis in particular, are found.

The next two levels are the level of Ma’rifah—knowledge, and the level of Haqqah—truth.

Muhammad said: The Shari’ah—the law—is my word. The Tariqah—the path—is my action. The Ma’rifah—knowledge—is that which governs all things. And the Haqqah—the truth—is my spiritual state.

According to the Bektashis, God created four types of people: the believers, who are the people of the Shari’ah; the seekers, who are the people of the Tariqah; the Gnostics, who are the people of the Ma’rifah; and the lovers, who are the people of the Haqqah.

This division into four is a cornerstone of many Sufi teachings and orders.

Muslim law—the level of Shari’ah—is essentially considered idolatry, because it divides the world into good and evil. In the reality of truth and the spiritual path, there is no good and evil, because God is One.
“O orthodox teacher, for me the mosque and the living room are one. The voice of justice and the cry of the drunkard are one.”

Therefore, people who are at the level of the Tariqah do not automatically have to follow the laws.

As in Kabbalah, the Qur’an has four meanings: the external text is for the common people, the subtleties for the Gnostics, the secrets for the saints, and the inner truth for the prophets.
For example, fasting: the external meaning is to abstain from food; the meaning of the path is to abstain from stealing, not to see or hear evil, not to do evil to others.

The Hypocrisy of Established Religion

According to the Bektashis, true religion is not what is considered to be religion. Established religions have only brought hatred and division over the years—and hatred is the kingdom of Satan. True religion is a religion of love and tolerance.

The clergy have made religion a profession; the Bektashis, on the other hand, have made it their principle to live off their own property, their work, their land. They have never conquered or taken over another’s land or house.

Their contempt for established religion, which they see as hypocritical, is expressed in wonderful songs that are sung throughout the Balkans:

O Orthodox teacher, to me the mosque and the tavern are one.
The voice of the righteous and the cry of the drunkard are one.
If the secrets of true guidance have not come to you from the divine reality,
The remembrance of God in prayer is the same as a cup of wine.
Come, give up hypocrisy, see the throne and the world—
In this temporary existence, they are the same as a corner of ruins.
First of all, then, do not give your heart to the world.
To him who truly knows, the wise and the simple are one.
Like Agaha, be light and see, O blind man.
To him who burns with this love, the candle and the moth are one.

– Agaha Dede

“There are many saints.
There is the Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an.
Moses had no quarrel with Jesus. Jesus had no quarrel with Muhammad.
Who are those who spread hatred in hearts?
Who said that killing in the name of religion is permissible?
The hat of religion has 66,666 edges. Who said that there are only five commandments?”

What is Truth?

In the Hadith al-Qudsi, which Sufis love to quote, God says: “I was a hidden treasure and I wanted to be known, so I created creation so that I might be known.”

God is truth, reality, absolute beauty. God decided to create the world because He was a hidden treasure and He wanted to be known.

The concept of a hidden treasure is fundamental to the Bektashi faith, and the secret behind it is that everything can only be known through its opposite: there is no light, for example, without darkness; there is no good without evil. But the two opposites are actually one, because they reflect each other.

For the Bektashi, the physical world is a reflection of reality in unreality, and the perception of duality is the curtain that hides the existence of God from man.

Man feels himself separate from God. In this apparent separation, the point of reality is that man and the universe are reflections of the divinity. Before the beginning of time, God existed as a unity—He was beauty in an absolute sense—and man was a part of Him.

Following the process of creation, man became separated from God, but there is a spark of true existence within him that longs to return to the source from which he came, and this is expressed in the struggle with the Ego. When the Ego is conquered, the possibility of unity is realized.

Sin and sorrow come from the inability to understand that everything around us is nothing—everything around us is merely the opposite of the absolute existence of God and His absolute beauty. When we see ourselves as a reflection of God, we find a satisfying sense of unity, which is the experience of knowing reality as it is.

This experience is the mystery of the “hidden treasure.”

he power to fight the war with the Ego is given by the power of love. This love exists within us because it is also part of the nature of God—a love that caused the world to be.

I opened the book of love, I write and read in it,
My gaze opens toward reality.
I woke up with love, I sought the healer.
Night and day I burned so that I could find the healer.

Drinking Alcohol and Poetry

According to the belief of the Sufis in general, and the Bektashis in particular, before the creation, all souls met and made the covenant of Elastu: God asked them if they recognized Him, and they said yes. The Bektashis simulate this covenant in their rituals—the initial covenant of recognizing Him even before the world was created.

However, they add that the covenant of Elastu is called the “banquet of Am I not?” where the awareness of the Creator’s love began, which was expressed in a joint drinking of wine (divine intoxication). The wine drunk is an allegorical remembrance of all intoxication that comes with the vision of absolute beauty. Dervish Rahula says: Since time immemorial, we have been drunk with the wine of unity.

In addition, drinking wine or raki simulates Muhammad’s night journey to Jerusalem, the meeting with the forty saints, and Ali, who celebrated the mystical union with God—in which everyone became drunk.

Furthermore, drinking begins with the words “for love and good conversation”—it allows for dealing with conflicts within the community, bringing up things that exist in the subconscious. The murshid (teacher) gives each person as much as he can drink, in sufficient quantity so that he can face the demons that arise within him, look into his soul, and make the necessary correction.

Drinking is a tool of education, inner work, and spiritual progress—just like in the mysteries of Dionysus in ancient times. It helps induce ecstatic states and the experience of the super-sensory and supernatural. It takes a person out of himself and enables connection with others and with God.

Just as it is typical of the Rifai order to produce a state of ecstasy through bodily movements and vocal repetition of the name of God and His praises, and just as the Mevlevi order produces its state by turning to the sounds of the flute (ney) and the drum, so the Bektashis claim—in the spirit of the sacrament and recalling the knowledge of God before creation began—that drinking alcohol under the guidance of the Baba, as part of a religious mystical ceremony,  produces a state of spiritual intoxication.

The axis on which Bektashi worship of God is largely built is the axis of poetry. The Bektashis have a beautiful tradition of poems called nefes, from the word nefs (breath), this poetry accompanies them from the very beginning of their journey. The national poet of Turkey, Yunus Emre, was one of their poets, as was Shah Hatayi, the founder of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, and many others.

Bektashi poems are sung by both women and men, sometimes accompanied by the sacred musical instrument, the saz—a stringed instrument somewhere between an oud and a mandolin, capable of producing soul-stirring sounds. However, among the Bektashis in Albania, the singing is performed without musical instruments.

Bektashi Pages

There is a pamphlet of the tenets of the Bektashi faith that was first distributed in Albania at the end of the 19th century and is still very common today. It reads as follows (freely translated):

The Bektashis believe in the Supreme God and in the true saints: Muhammad, Ali, Khadija, Fatima, Hassan, and Hussein. They believe in the 12 Imams, who are: Ali, Hassan, Hussein, Zain al-Abidin, Muhammad Baqir, Ja’far al-Sadiq, Musa al-Kazim, Ali al-Ridha, Muhammad al-Taqi, Ali al-Naqi, Hassan al-Askari, and Muhammad al-Mahdi. The father of all is Ali, and the mother is Fatima. They believe in the saints because they believe in and worship goodness.

They consider Ja’far al-Sadiq as their first founder, and their saint and patron is Haji Bektashi Wali, who is a descendant of the same family. All of these said: “Do good and avoid evil”—in this saying the Bektashis believe. Truth and justice, intelligence and wisdom, and all these good qualities are supreme.

The Bektashi faith is a broad path illuminated by wisdom, brotherhood, friendship, love, humanity, and all good qualities. On one side of it are flowers of knowledge; on the other side are flowers of truth. Without knowledge and without truth, no man can become a Bektashi.

For the Bektashi, the universe is God—but in this world, man is the representative of God. The true God, with the angels, the Garden of Eden, and all that is good, is found in the good qualities of man. In his bad qualities reside the devil and all that is satanic, and therefore they love and do good and avoid evil.

All things are in man—yes, even the true God—because when He wanted to fulfill Himself, He created man in His image. The Bektashis believe that man does not die but changes and becomes different, and is always in the presence of God, because the Father is hidden from His children. He who does good finds good; he who does evil finds evil. He who commits crimes against humanity identifies himself with the beasts of prey.

The way of the Bektashi is open and wide—it is the way of wisdom and goodness for all who have intelligence. Man is not bound, but free in all respects, and is accountable for all his actions.

Man has a mind that analyzes, knowledge by which to choose, a soul that knows, a heart that distinguishes, and a conscience that weighs his actions. And so, he has everything that is necessary, and he does not need help from outside, because the Lord Himself has given him all the things he needs.

As the man, so also the woman—one in kind and not separate…

Bektashi Centers

A Bektashi tekke, also called a maiden avi, differs in its structure from other Sufi centers. It is usually a building located at the edge of a town or village, and sometimes in a secluded spot elevated above its surroundings. This location serves two purposes: it connects the residents to the beauty of nature created by God, and it helps maintain secrecy, which is one of the pillars of the order. The location is somewhat reminiscent of the placement of Druze khalwats.

Different tekke centers vary from one another, but in general they consist of four parts:

First – the guest house, called a mehman avi, which provides accommodation for guests.
Second – the kitchen, called an ashureh avi or um avi, which is associated with rituals and usually contains a huge pot considered sacred. These pots are used for cooking only on special occasions, such as Muharram and the New Year.

Third – the bakery, called Akmek Avi, which is not only a place for baking bread but also serves as a women’s area.
Fourth – the assembly room, called Maidan Avi, which is the most important of all, as it is where the official ceremonies of the order are held (in which women and men participate as equals). Other names for the hall include: The Place of Those Who Have Achieved, The Place of the Forty, and The Place of the Worship of God.

The Maidan Avi is square or rectangular in shape and is usually around 7 by 10 meters in size. At one end, typically to the side, is the entrance door with its threshold, the ashik, over which everyone steps as they enter. On the opposite side is a small platform made up of three steps, which holds 12 or more candles. The platform is called Muhammad’s Throne or The Place of the Candles.

Between or in front of the candles there is usually a tall candle whose head is shaped like the tek – the Bektashi cap – with four parts at the base symbolizing the four gates of religion, 12 shirgams extending outward from the center symbolizing the 12 Imams, and a central knob symbolizing the unified divine reality – Muhammad Ali. This candle is called the Kirgi Kanun, the candle of the law.

On the left side of the platform is a sheepskin called the “Baba’s Stand” or the Murshit, also known as the Position of Khorasan, symbolizing the saint Haji Bektashi. Around the room are 12 positions of officials, each represented by a sheepskin. Sometimes there is an additional sheepskin with a black Bektashi hat on it — this position is called the Sheepskin of the Missing One. The 12 positions correspond to 12 service roles. According to tradition, Ali, when educating his children, instituted these roles of service, which are as follows: sweeper, barber, musician, table setter, water bearer, cupbearer, servant, guard, one ready for everything, doorkeeper, and candle lighter.

In the middle of one of the long sides of the room is a fireplace called Ocak or Fatma Ocagi – the hearth of Fatma.

The center of the Maidan is called Dâr-ı Mansur, or simply Dar – the Hanging Pillar of Mansur al-Hallaj. For the disciples who stand there, it symbolizes the sacrifice of life for a principle, in memory of the one who said: “I am the Reality,” and paid for it with his life.

The tekkes are distinguished by paintings and sculptures of Ali and the Holy Family — despite (and perhaps precisely because of) the Islamic prohibition on images and sculptures. The roof of the Maidan Awi has a special structure, sometimes made up of intersecting squares with an opening at the top. Entry to the hall is through antechambers and is usually permitted only to initiated disciples — men and women together. It is typically a large hall where ceremonies, singing, and dancing take place.