1895-1983
village of Bakkal near the town of Gjakova, Kosova. He
graduated from the elementary school (mektep) in his
hometown and in 1909, at the age of 14, he was enrolled in
the teacher-education school (dâru’l-mu’âllimîn) from
Skopje. At that time this school was one of the few modern
educational institutions in the Ottoman Balkans.
Understandably all the medium of instruction was Turkish
and Albanian students had no opportunity to be trained in
their mother tongue. Baba Qazim was unable to finish his
schooling due to the outbreak of the Balkan wars in 1912.
The Serbian armies quickly occupied both Kosova and
Skopje. Out of a love for his people Baba Qazim left to the
city of Vlora, where after the proclamation of the Albanian
independence on the 28th of November, 1912 a temporary
government was formed under the leadership of Ismail
Qemal Bey. This new government opened a provisional
teacher-education school in the city of Berat and it was
opened for all those Albanian students who had attended
the now closed Ottoman institutions. Baba Qazim was
among these students.
He graduated shortly thereafter and took up teaching in a
school in the central Albanian town of Pazar Shijak. But his
career here was at risk and he involved himself in the
political disputes of the day that raged between various
factions struggling for control of Albania.
that decided to change his life and to proceed on path of spirituality. He became an initiate into the Bektashi order,
and was attached first to the tekke in Gjakova and then in Stip (Macedonia).
Qazim obtained his dervish garb from the hand of Haji Mehmed Baba of Krujë. He then took his vow of celibacy
(mücerridlik) before Salih Niyazi Dedebaba. For sometime Dervish Qazim was a resident of the Bektashi tekke of
Shkodër which was under guidance of Baba Hajdar Stambolli. He then went to the city of Elbasan were he stayed at the
tekke of Ibrahim Baba (Teqja e Xhafa Ibrahim babajit). Dervish Qazim continued his education and spiritual
enlightenment while he sat at the feet of these great Bektashi masters. In 1940 Salih Niyazi Dedebaba appointed him
to be the baba of the Harabati Baba Tekke in Tetovo. In 1946 he went to Tirana where the current head of the
Bektashi Order, Xhafer Sadiq Dedebaba, conferred the rank of dede on Baba Qazim.
In 1947 Baba Qazim was arrested by communist authorities in Tirana and he was extradited back to Yugoslavia. After
a five month incarceration in a Skopje prison, he the charges (which were most likely for collaboration with the Axis)
were dismissed and he was released. But by that time the communists had closed the Harabati Baba Tekke.
Consequently, Baba Qazim returned to Gjakova where he took over the direction of the Hamza Baba Tekke. Baba
Qazim was a figure greatly loved and respected by the Albanian people of Kosova. He left this life in 1983 at the age of
88.