MILLENNIA
Baba Arshi Bazaj is now 100 years old.
He was born in the year 1906 in the small
Albanian town of Sëvastër, a place some
ten miles from the important port city of
Vlora. At the end of one century and the
start of another, Baba Arshi’s life moves
forward. He possesses a set of piercing
green eyes and a physical energy quite
beyond belief for a centenarian. He sits
back in his comfortable Chesterfield chair
in the spacious coffee-room (kafe-oxhak)
of the Bektashi Sufi lodge (Teqe) near
Detroit, Michigan. Whenever someone
comes into the room he rises up out of
his chair like an 18 year-old. “Have a seat.
Eyvallah! Don’t stand up for me,” he’s
accustomed to saying. And he adds:
“There are rules here in the Teqe, please”.
entrusted only to his lifelong companion, the late Baba Rexheb (1901-1995).
To this stoic Bektashi cleric, an almost impassable miasma hovers over
memories of his childhood and youth of nearly a hundred years back. During
the three times I was with him I always carried a notebook in order to take
notes while he was speaking. During those three times he said nothing of his
own life. Rather, with the pride of a “Labëri” (a southern Albanian) he wanted
to talk about the city of Vlora and her sons, for Baba Arshi personally knew
the great Albanian partiots Skënder Muço and Qazim Koculi, both native
Vlorans.
During the Second World War Baba Arshi fought (as did Baba Rexheb)
together with Hysein Lepenica, commander of the anti-communist Balli
Kombëtar militia, of whom Baba Arshi spoke much. From the Albanian
patriot Midhat Frashëri he had obtained a valuable book, The Bektashi Pages,
but when the communists were pursuing him in the mountains above the city
of Kukës in 1945 Baba Arshi was forced to burn it along with other books in
his possession. Then, together with few companions, passed over the border
and out of Albania.
again to ask Baba Arshi about his life. Having fled Albanian on the eve of the
communist takeover, he suffered 6 years living in refugee camps in both
Greece and Italy. He faced many incidents while there - especially evading
communist agents - but the saintly grace of Hajji Veli Bektash saw him
through it all. Like the talisman (halmaili) Baba Arshi keeps tied around his
neck, the words of Salih Nijazi Dedebaba, leader of the Order from 1913-1942,
are kept safe in his memory. During one cold night in 1940, as Baba Arshi was
staying at the foremost teqe of the Bektashi Order in Tirana, Salih Nijazi Dede
said to him: “Listen my son (evlat)! It might be that in your life you go from
one misfortune to another, from sadness to sadness, and from one sacrifice to
the next. Keep Hajji Bektash Veli in your heart and mind and you will get
around it all.”
To be in front of Baba Arshi is like being in front of a great labyrinth full of
stories, songs, and spiritual advice. To see a little bit of that labyrinth you have
to say some pleasant words to Baba Arshi about his hometown of Vlora. I did
this, and it was like a key opening up a locked door. He told me how, with the
help of Baba Rexheb and the American government, he came from the refugee
camps of Italy to the Teqe in Detroit. But arriving at the Teqe did not mean
ease. He immediately went to work. He and three other Bektashi dervishes
(and Baba Rexheb) raised some 5,000 chickens on the Teqe’s property. Baba
Arshi sold the Teqe’s eggs and fresh vegetables at local markets, but that was
many, many years in the past.
It’s quite obvious to anyone that this one hundred year-old man carries
within his heart a devoted and immeasurable love for Baba Rexheb.
Everything that goes on in the Teqe Baba Arshi sees through the eyes his
venerable spiritual guide. When he sees that something is not going quite right
he says with a murmur: “No, no. Baba Rexheb does not like this.” Many times
a day Baba Arshi goes to the Turbé to visit his master of nearly fifty years. At
sunset every day he performs the ancient Bektashi Sufi tradition of lighting
candles in the tomb.
The Bektashi faithful in America come and with great pleasure kiss the hand
of this revered man, Baba Arshi. History and legends, songs and spiritual
teachings are told by him to the many guests that visit as they sit in the Kafe-
oxhak bathed in an atmosphere of affection and love. Baba Arshi sits in his big
chair, listening carefully, always ready to answer the phone, yet silent when
asked about his own past. The only regret he seems to have carried in the 100
years of his life is that he never saw his beloved city of Vlora again nor his
family home in the village of Sëvastër. This home was bombed during an
Italian offensive in 1942, but some walls of it remained. Later, the communists
completely demolished his family home since it was the home of an anti-
communist who fled Albania.
Still, I have safe in my memory the morning of that day in March when I was
getting ready to take a plane to New York and then return, from there, back to
Albania. That morning Baba Arshi came to my room and opened the door as
quietly as a mouse. With a whisper said to me: “I boiled 10 eggs for you to have
with you on your trip. This is how Baba Rexheb always did things…” At that
moment, I realized a transcendent truth: that by living with infinite love for
God in your heart, you can live, even to a hundred years, with infinite love for
your fellow human beings.
Syrja Xhelaj
Secretary
The World Bektashi Community
(translated from the Albanian by Shpëtim Mahmudi)
