development, the First Albanian American Bektashi Monastery (the Teqe)
could never have achieved the distinction it possesses today without the
saintly magnetism of Baba Rexheb, an individual whose life story is
noteworthy if only on account of the vast panorama of events that he
witnessed during his lifetime. He was born at a time when Albania was an
Ottoman province; by the time he was twelve his homeland had achieved self-
determination, only to be soon after plunged into the destruction of the
Balkan and First World Wars; he was nearly thirty when Albania became a
kingdom and nearly forty when the Italians annexed it to their empire. He saw
the rise of Communism, the devastation it caused to his beloved Sufi Order,
and he lived to see freedom again restored to his motherland.
Any serious student of the Balkans surely knows of Albania’s special
relationship with the Bektashi Order. Ever since the traumatic suppression of
the order during the infamous Vak’a-i Hayrîye of 1826, Albania (chiefly the
southern part of the country) was destined to be one of the few remaining
bastions of Bektashism in the Ottoman Empire. Numerous dervishes and
babas fled Istanbul and other locations throughout the Balkans to the relative
safety of Albanian lands, where the sympathies of the local population
afforded a measure of protection from the Sultan Mahmud II’s enforcers.
Prior to the era of the Tanzimat - when the restrictions against the order
gradually eased - Bektashi dervishes carried out their rituals in a concealed or
semi-clandestine manner, often under the guise of belonging to non-Bektashi
orders. Nevertheless, by the 1880s, many Bektashi tekkes were in unguarded
operation throughout Albania and their number increased yearly. In 1920s,
Bektashi tekkes were so pervasive in southern Albania that one European
traveler was forced to note that while north of the Shkumbin River Bektashis
were only 1 in 10 out of the total Muslim population, to the south they were 9
in 10!
It comes, then, as no surprise that one of the most celebrated figures of 20th
century Bektashism, Baba Rexheb Ferdi, hailed from an area of southern
Albania that was noticeably bestowed with a robust Bektashi presence. The
future baba of America was born into the arms of a respected Muslim family
living in the southern Albanian town of Gjirokastër (Ergiri). His father, Refat
Beqiri, was a local mullah in the charming old mahale of Dunavat. Refat’s
family had originally migrated to southern Albania from the Kosovar town of
Gjakova via the important central Albanian city of Elbasan.
Baba Rexheb’s mother was a woman deeply attached to the Way of Haji
Bektashi. Both her maternal and paternal uncles were Bektashi babas of
considerable reputation. The later was Mustafa Baba Qefshi (d.ca. 1878), who,
after spending time as a dervish in the tekke of Shemimi Dede in Krujë, was
appointed spiritual guide of the Xhefaj Baba Tekke located on the outskirts of
Elbasan. The former was Ali Hakkı Baba, a man whose life deserves further
discussion, particularly given that his very prayer was believed to have been
responsible for the birth of his grandnephew, the future Baba Rexheb. To be
frank, given that Baba Rexheb spent the first forty years of his life in a world
immersed in Bektashism, it would be fitting to present the background of his
immediate predecessors.
Ali Hakkı was born in the city of Elbasan sometime following the outlawing of
the Bektashi Order in 1826. As a baby he was blessed by a certain Baba Salih, a
Bektashi mürşid who had recently come to Elbasan after the demolition of his
tekke in Veles/Köprülü. In his youth, Ali studied in the city’s medrese where
he struck up a close relationship with Mustafa (Qefshi) Balteza. The two
young men developed an interest in Sufism and resolved to go to the tekke of
Melçan (near Korça) to take the hand of Baba Abdullah and thereby enter the
Bektashi Way. They were given a cordial welcome and in the following years
they regularly visited the tekke. After they attained the rank of dervish in the
early 1850s, the two friends parted ways. Ali traveled to the tekke of Haji
Bektash in Anatolia, while Mustafa went to Krujë.
There came a saintly man.
He pointed out the way for me,
And took my friendless hand.
Who is that one, I asked myself
To which a voice did answer,
“A hero you have found indeed!
A Saint, a Shaykh, a Master!
In Allah’s Month he came to be,
With Sultan on the throne.
But soon that would be toppled down
For winds of change had blown.
His uncle took him by the hand
And showed him to the Way
The Shah of Khorasan did smile
Upon that gracious day.
For years he noted down the words,
The tekke true attended.
All those who sought the source of
Peace,
Their broken ways were mended.
Then came one day a red wind bloody
And proclaimed itself a god.
A hundred heroes met their fate
With no more than wink and nod.
That man of God from Gjirokastër
Refused to change his name
And with permission from his murshid
He left them to their game.
In Musa’s land he found himself
A servant to a Secret.
And increased he on the dervish path
With taj and haidariyyah.
A sister’s call had beckoned him
To leave the hallowed cave.
And from the Nile he did move west
Where bigger plans We’d laid.
His heart he made with brick and
stone
And lovers gathered round.
The Path of Hajji Bektash Veli
In America was found.”
To my surprise I saw myself
In a place where none dared stand
And gathered round me were the
twelve
In candle-lit meydan.
That man of God from Gjirokastër
Who took my weary hand
Pressed to my lips the drink of life
With twelve did form a band.
The Kirkbudak soon did inflame
And dem began to flow
For all the pain of this dear life
I couldn’t let it go.
Look! O Baba Rexheb Ferdi
Your glance has set me free!
For this dejected poor one found
That your hand held the key!
remained there for seven years and was assigned to the post of türbedar to the tomb of Haji Bektash Veli.
In 1861 word arrived that the position of spiritual guide for the influential Asım Baba Tekke (otherwise
known as the Teqene e Zallit) outside of Gjirokastër, had become vacant with the passing of its baba. To
address the needs caused by this vacancy, the dedebaba conferred the rank of baba on Ali Hakkı and
dispatched him to Gjirokastër.
The first days in Gjirokastër were somewhat challenging for the newly arrived Ali Hakkı Baba. It seems
that in the months following the death of its previous baba, the local mühibs often came to the tekke to
drink and sing. When Ali Hakkı Baba discovered that vulgar songs were being recited during these
“muhabets” instead of the traditional nefes, he smashed the liquor bottles and forbade any further use of
alcohol in the tekke. The locals were noticeably upset by this and told him that he had no place in the tekke
and a plot was fermented against him. However, it was subdued in due course on account of the baba’s
remarkable personality.
In the early 1870s Ali Hakkı Baba traveled once more to the Pir Evi to be bestowed with the rank of dede.
With this added authority and the force of his personality, Ali Hakkı Baba played a major role in the spread
of the Bektashi Order throughout southern Albania. It is said that he initiated scores of dervishes and that
he had some two thousand mühibs (both men and women), among whom were many muftis, kadis, begs
and other local notables. In time, Ali Hakkı Baba’s reputation for piety spread far beyond the borders of
Albania and he was even asked to once more travel to the Pir Evi and assume the position of dedebaba
after the death of Haji Mehmed Ali Hilmi Dede in 1907. However, Ali Hakkı Baba declined this offer and
remained in Gjirokastër where he passed away shortly thereafter, having presided over the Asım Baba
Tekke for more than four decades. His nephew, Selim Ruhi Baba, succeeded him.
Selim Ruhi Baba was born in the Elbasan in 1869CE/1285 AH. Bektashism, unsurprisingly, played a
significant part in the formation of his youth, as his mother was the sister of Ali Hakkı Baba and his father,
Xhemal, was the brother of Mustafa Baba Qefshi. Like his two uncles, the young Selim studied in the main
medrese of Elbasan. At the age of sixteen, his father took him to Gjirokastër to be looked after by his
maternal uncle, Ali Hakkı Baba. Selim remained there from then on. He continued to study in the city’s
medrese and he acquired not only an education in Islamic theology but was able to master Turkish, Arabic
and Persian. In 1887 he received his diploma (icâzetname) from the medrese. A year later he made the
oath to Baba Ali to enter into the Bektashi Order and three years later, in 1891, Selim donned the garb of a
Bektashi dervish. For the next sixteen years he served both his uncle and the Asım Baba Tekke with great
devotion. Because the turbulent political climate in the Ottoman Balkans during the late 19th century
made travel to the Pir Evi impractical, Dervish Selim took mücerredlik (vows of celibacy) at the hands of
Ali Hakkı Baba. He also received the rank of baba from him as well and when Ali Hakkı Baba left this
world in 1907, he appointed Selim Ruhi to be his successor and spiritual guide of the Asim Baba Tekke.
Following the coup d'état which overthrew Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid II in the spring of 1909, the Young Turk
regime’s tolerance for Albanian nationalist expression proved transitory. The Ottomans lost considerable
sympathy in the Gjirokastër region following the arrest of several dervishes belonging to the Haydar Baba
Tekke in 1905. Like the majority of Bektashi clergy, Baba Selim stood behind the patriotic appeals of his
countrymen. In the wake of the assassination in the spring of 1908 of Gjirokastër’s particularly oppressive
governor by Çerçiz Topulli and his band of guerillas, Baba Selim offered his tekke as a place of temporary
refuge for these men since they were hotly pursued by Ottoman troops.
Baba Selim was a passionate intellectual and he immersed himself in the books and manuscripts that
arrived at the tekke every year from Istanbul. He not only studied topics of a spiritual nature, but he
delved into history, geography, literature, the physical sciences, and philosophy as well. He was
considered by many to be the most cultured and refined Bektashi of his time. In the best of Sufi tradition,
Baba Selim was also a gifted poet, composing three divans of mystical verse: one in Turkish, another in
Persian and a third in Arabic.
In the years before his death, Ali Hakkı Baba’s sister approached him with a dilemma. After seven years of
marriage, her daughter Sabrije failed to give birth. Ali Baba told her not to be troubled, for two sons and
four daughters would soon be born to his niece. However, one of the sons had to be given over to the
service of Haji Bektash Veli, and that son was Rexheb.
Rexheb was six years old when his great-uncle died, and it fell on the shoulders of his uncle, Baba Selim,
to make sure the child was gradually groomed to become a future servant of the tarikat. When he reached
the age of seven, Rexheb was enrolled in one of Gjirokastër’s mektebs, where he obtained an elementary
education in Islam and learned to read and write Turkish. Following the completion of his elementary
studies, Rexheb entered the city’s medrese. In addition, for several years he received private tutoring at the
hands of one of southern Albania’s leading ulema, Delvineli Mullah Ragib, from whom he learned
Turkish, Arabic and Persian.
In 1912 the Ottoman Empire was plunged into a disastrous war with its Balkan neighbors. Despite the
longing for cultural and political autonomy, most Albanians rallied to the defense of the Sultan’s realm, if
only for the fact that their own homes were in jeopardy. Southern Albania was particularly hard hit during
the initial phase of the Balkan Wars as Greek irregulars inflicted mayhem and destruction in an attempt to
ethnically cleanse “Northern Epirus” of its Muslim population. Bektashi tekkes were particularly targeted
not only as Islamic cultural institutions, but also as centers of patriotic resistance. Scores of Sufi tekkes
(both Bektashi and non-Bektashi) were burned to the ground, while others were plundered and
appropriated for military use. Baba Selim and most of his dervishes narrowly escaped certain execution
when Greek irregulars encircled the Asım Baba Tekke. However one old dervish named Sulo Kuka was
found in the tekke and cruelly beaten. The Greeks then proceeded to loot and desecrate the tekke and over
the next three years utilized it as a barracks.
During the Greek occupation of southern Albania, Baba Selim and his dervishes resided at his sister's
residence in Gjirokastër, which was virtually transformed into a tekke. For the twelve-year-old Rexheb,
this move of Baba Selim into the family home must have brought him all the more closer to his uncle. In
1914, the Greek occupation authorities learned of Baba Selim’s presence in the city and his continued
agitation for resistance. As a result they moved against his residence and had him arrested. However, in a
demonstration of national solidarity, the Albanian-speaking Orthodox notables of Gjirokastër intervened
and persuaded the Greeks to release him.
As soon as the Greeks pulled out of Gjirokastër in the wake of the Central Power’s 1916 offensive in the
Balkans, the faithful swiftly began restoration of the Asım Baba Tekke. Once the renovation was
completed, Baba Selim and his dervishes moved back in. Along with them came sixteen-year-old Rexheb.
Although he had been raised in surroundings permeated with Bektashism, it was not until he turned
seventeen that Rexheb was granted his nesip (initial vows) to enter the tarikat as a mühib. During this
time, he continued his studies with Mullah Ragip. For the next four years Rexheb served Baba Selim and
the tekke. Once he had concluded this initiatory phase, he was advanced to the rank of dervish at the age
of twenty-one. Not only had Rexheb taken the oath to become a Bektashi dervish, but at the age of twenty-
four he took the additional vow of mücerredlik (celibacy). A year later he completed his studies at the
medrese and received his diploma (icâzetname) in 1925.
Because of the learning earned through years of study, as well as his devotion to the Bektashi Way,
Dervish Rexheb’s talents were put to use as his uncle’s personal assistant and secretary. He accompanied
his uncle in 1924 to the second nation-wide meeting of Bektashi babas held in the nearby Haydariye
Tekke and in 1929 he represented Baba Selim at the Third Bektashi Congress held at the Turan Tekke of
Korçë.
During the 1930s, a decade that can aptly be called the ‘Golden Age’ of Albanian Bektashism, the tekke of
Asım Baba flourished. The number of dervishes had increased slowly from the seven that resided in the
tekke when Dervish Rexheb entered, to twelve. Selim Baba had many mühibs and at one time, scores of
students from Gjirokastër’s medrese had taken his hand. During the weekly muhabets it was not unusual
to see 40 to 50 people meeting in the tekke.
Dervish Rexheb was, in due course, selected to succeed Baba Selim, but the outbreak of the Second World
War forever changed not only that, but the rest of his life as well. On April 7th, 1939 Italian troops invaded
Albania, ousted King Zog I, and annexed the country to the newly revived “Roman Empire”. Given that the
majority of Bektashi babas had supported nationalist causes in the past, their resistance to foreign
occupation should have been anticipated. Initially, however, this seems not to have been the case; as
Bektashi response to the new authorities appears to have been one of subtle antipathy, or in some cases,
reserved cooperation (at least publicly). The Italians were aware of the influence the tarikat held over
much of Albania and they endeavored to pacify influential babas through a number of methods, including
the financing of a new asithane for the dedebabalık in Tirana and public displays of interaction with
various babas. Italian officers occasionally visited the Asım Baba Tekke to converse with Baba Selim,
along with his personal assistant, Dervish Rexheb, and they were impressed with the pious qualities of the
former.
This delicate coexistence between occupier and occupied came to an end with the murder of Salih Niyazi
Dedebaba in November of 1941. The details of the slaying remain confused, with official Italian accounts
maintaining that pro-communist guerrillas killed him in an attempted robbery. Other accounts, however,
seem to hint that the act was carried out with the tacit approval of the Italians. This being the case, it would
point to growing dissatisfaction among the Bektashi clergy with the occupation. Two months after Salih
Niyazi Dedebaba’s murder, a meeting was held in which representatives of the six dedelıks met to choose
his successor. Due to his age, Baba Selim could not attend and instead sent the forty-one year-old Dervish
Rexheb to speak on his behalf.
By this time the increasingly oppressive policies of the Italians caused widespread and violent resistance to
intensify throughout Albania. An ardent patriot, Dervish Rexheb, along with other notable Bektashi
babas, joined those actively opposing the Italian occupation. He became a member of the Balli Kombëtar
(National Front) and quickly established himself as one of its leading representatives in the Gjirokastër
area. Formed in November of 1942, the Balli Kombëtar found support among the middle class,
merchants, religious conservatives, and landowners. The goals of the Balli Kombëtar sought to restore the
republic and push for the establishment of an Albania whose boundaries would embrace all Albanian-
majority regions of Yugoslavia and Greece, something which appealed to those Bektashis who were wary
of the communists’ radical social ideals as well as their close ties to the Yugoslav partisans.
Although the Balli Kombëtar’s initial military activity was directed against the Italian army, by the fall of
1943 (that is after the collapse of Italian authority) it came into increasingly recurrent clashes with Enver
Hoxha's communist-dominated National Liberation Army. Fighting between the two rival groups was
often fierce, with the Germans offering supplies to many Balli Kombëtar units. Life in southern Albania
was increasingly disrupted by the war and many villages were completely destroyed. In addition, the region
suffered from an outbreak of typhus. The Asım Baba Tekke opened its doors to become a place of shelter
for all those displaced by the fighting.
Dervish Rexheb’s support for the Balli Kombëtar was well known. In addition, he personally knew many
of the men in the partisan ranks that he fought against. Both Enver Hoxha and Bedri Spahiu were from
the Gjirokastër area and both men came from families that were attached to the Bektashi tradition. In fact,
before Enver set off for France to study fourteen years earlier, his father brought him to seek the blessing
of Baba Selim. The baba was not one to refuse the request of a petitioner and made a benediction over the
boy. However, he told the father, “One day this young man will return and be the ruin of this place.”
Toward the end of 1944 it was obvious that the communist-dominated National Liberation Army would
win control of the country after the Germans began their staged withdrawal. Concerned that his anti-
communist activities would soon cost him his life, Dervish Rexheb fled Gjirokastër in late August 1944.
He headed for Shkodër and in November boarded a ship for Italy shortly before the communists seized the
city. He would never step foot in his homeland again. By September the partisans were in control of
Gjirokastër and it is said that Baba Selim died the very day that they entered the city.
For the next four years Dervish Rexheb lived the life of a refugee in a camp for displaced peoples in Bari,
Italy. In 1948 an opening came for him to leave and he headed to Cairo, where one of the last functioning
Bektashi lodges outside of Albania was found: the Kaygusuz Sultan Tekke. There he continued his
spiritual advancement under the supervision of the tekke's guide, Ahmad Sırrı Baba (1895-1965).
In many ways Ahmad Sırrı Baba’s life mirrored that of Dervish Rexheb’s. Both men hailed from the same
region of Albania, both were highly educated, both entered the Bektashi Order as teenagers, both lived as
refugees in Italy (Sırrı Baba following the First Balkan War) and both ended up at the Kaygusuz Sultan
Tekke. The idyllic atmosphere of the tekke in Cairo must have provided Dervish Rexheb with a degree of
tranquil relief following nearly a decade of ordeal and hardship.
However this serenity did not last long. On March 18th 1947, the Bektashi community was rocked by the
news that Dedebaba Abbas Hilmi had shot two pro-communist babas to death and then (according to
government accounts) turned the gun on himself. For nearly a year, attempts to choose a new dedebaba
proved unsuccessful, until June of 1948 when Ahmet Myftar Baba, a man viewed by many as a communist
stooge, was selected to head the world’s remaining Bektashis. Yet this choice prompted a rift, in view of the
fact that the Bektashis living in the Free World refused to acknowledge this selection. In response to what
was seen as obvious communist interference in Bektashi affairs, a gathering was held in the Kaygusuz
Sultan Tekke in January of 1949 during which Ahmad Sırrı Baba was elevated to the rank of dedebaba. To
a large extent, those Bektashis living outside of the communist world (in Egypt, Turkey and Greece)
recognized him as supreme leader of the Bektashi Order and rejected Ahmet Myftar Baba.
This rift in the community was shortly followed by another, more immanent, crisis. In 1952 Gamal Abdel
Nasser’s revolution placed considerable financial strain on the Kaygusuz Sultan Tekke. King Faruk (who
was of Albanian descent), along with many wealthy and influential Albanian émigrés, were forced to flee
the country. A number of these individuals were frequent visitors to the tekke and had regularly sent
stipends for its upkeep. In addition, Nasser’s pro-communist regime nationalized the tekke’s waqf
property, further depriving it of income.
It was in this year - 1952 - that Dervish Rexheb’s sister, Zejnep Çuçi (who was then living in New York)
requested that he come to the United States. Given that the existing financial situation in the Kaygusuz
Tekke was making it extremely difficult to support the number of dervishes living within, Dervish Rexheb
accepted this invitation. In the first year after his arrival in America, he and his supporters labored to
organize an effort to establish a tekke in the New York City area, but the political struggles within the
Albanian community between anti-communist and pro-communist factions made this unfeasible. An
opportunity came, however, by way of Dervish Rexheb’s developing connections with the Albanian
community of Detroit.
The First Albanian American Bektashi Monastery: the “Teqe”
In October of 1953, a group of fifteen men, all from families with Bektashi backgrounds, met at a hall in
Detroit to plan the opening of a tekke for Dervish Rexheb. They immediately launched a fundraising
campaign and set up a board of directors, which included a president, a treasurer, a secretary and five
council members. The plan had widespread support throughout Detroit’s Albanian community, for within
the space of a few days approximately $8,000 dollars had been raised. With this money the board began to
look for a site where a tekke could be established. In due course, a suitable location was found some 15
miles outside of the city, in the agricultural community of Taylor Township. The board purchased an
already existing farm that sat on 18 acres of land, the cost of which totaled $25,000. Following
renovations and state approval of its non-profit status, The First Albanian American Bektashi Monastery
opened on May 15, 1954 with a ceremony attended by some 200 people.
In conjunction with the establishment of the very first Bektashi tekke in the New World, came Dervish
Rexheb’s promotion to the grade of baba. He had spent the last thirty years of his life faithfully carrying
out his duties as a dervish, but a new tekke necessitated a new baba. Baba Selim had intended to promote
Dervish Rexheb to baba and had even planned for him to be his successor in overseeing the Asım Baba
Tekke, although this was barred by the unanticipated events of war. According to convention, for a dervish
to be elevated to the rank of baba, the consent of a dede was needed. Approaching the Bektashi hierarchy
in Albania for this was out of the question and it is unlikely that given Dervish Rexheb’s wartime activities
that they would have been permitted to entertain such a request in any case. At this time the only
individuals with the authority of dede outside of the communist world were Said Seyfi Baba of the Durbali
Sultan Tekke in Greece and, of course, Ahmad Sırrı Baba of Cairo, who, as mentioned above, was
recognized as the legitimate dedebaba by Bektashis outside of Albania. It was the latter who sent Dervish
Rexheb an icâzetname raising him to the rank of baba along with a letter of recommendation to the
Albanian Bektashi community in America bestowing his heartfelt backing to all their endeavors.
In the coming years, four Bektashi dervishes arrived in the United States and moved into the Teqe. The
first to come were Dervish Arshi and Dervish Lutfi. Originally from the southern port city of Vlora, Dervish
Arshi left Albania shortly after the war and went to live in the Durbali Sultan Tekke in Rímnio/Rini,
Greece. Dervish Lutfi (originally from Gjirokastër) came from the Cairo tekke where he lived since 1929. A
few years after these men entered the Teqe, an additional member of the Kaygusuz Tekke, Dervish Bajram
(who was originally from Gjakova, Kosova) had arrived after being personally invited by Baba Rexheb.
Finally, a Turk of Albanian descent, Dervish Bektaş Karamartin, arrived from Turkey after he had been
made dervish during a visit to the country by Ahmad Sırrı Baba.
The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion and promise for the Teqe. Not only were a baba and four
dervishes residing in it, but they had turned the 18 acres of property into a prosperous farm. Baba Rexheb
and his dervishes worked the farm full-time, often with the help of occasional volunteers. The property
included a large orchard of pear and apple trees (which partially exists today), an expansive vegetable
garden, and wheat and barley fields. The yields of these provided food for the Teqe, and the surplus was
sold in local farmers’ markets providing supplementary income. The Teqe also had several head of cattle
and sheep as well as some two thousand chickens. Each year for the festival of Sultan Nevruz, a great
picnic was organized and the community partook in the bounty of the sacred farm. During the festival,
individuals purchased lambs from the Teqe to be sacrificed, as was the age-old custom. All of the property
of the Teqe was a deemed a vakıf, and all income went solely to its upkeep and expansion.
The original farm house that was now the Teqe was comprised of two floors. It had a living room, a
kitchen, a room for Baba Rexheb, four rooms for the dervishes, a social room for entertaining guests,
along with a sizeable basement. However in it’s nearly ten years of service, this space grew to be
inadequate. In 1963 a massive expansion was carried out, during which time a new structure was added on
to the east wing of the house. This two storied building included on its top floor, a spacious room for the
meydan, next to which was a sitting hall that also contained the library (which contained a great number of
books on Sufism that were part of Baba’s collection) as well as additional guest rooms. Most of the lower
floor was taken up by an enormous meeting hall with an attached kitchen, where, in the decades to come,
hundreds would gather yearly for the holidays of Aşura and Sultan Nevruz. In addition a large metal
Hüseyini tâc - painted in the traditional green and white colors of the Bektashis– was placed atop the new
structure. This expansion was inaugurated on June 9, 1963, a day that also marked the commemoration of
the Aşura.
Over the next two decades a small block of apartments was added to the Teqe grounds; two of which were
initially intended for use by any future baba and his family and the other for “women”. These apartments
were slowly rented out to private individuals, the income from which went to the Teqe.
In the summer of 1989, the portion of the Teqe that was the original farmhouse was completely replaced
by a massive new structure composed of a splendid and open sitting room where Baba Rexheb received
visitors, an expanded bedroom for him, several guestrooms on the second floor, and a kitchen/dinning
hall in the basement where meals were served daily. Another significant structure was added to the
property at this time: the large türbe where Baba Rexheb would be interred following his departure from
this life. By this time the rural setting of the Teqe had completely disappeared. Except for a row of fruit
trees, all of the original farm, the livestock and all the fields had been discarded. This was partially in
response to Taylor’s rapid urbanization over the years and partially due to the advanced ages of both Baba
Rexheb and Dervish Arshiu.
By the time these latest renovations were in place, Baba Rexheb and Dervish Arshiu were the only
members of the original group of five permanent residents living. Dervish Lutfi passed away in the early
1960s and Dervish Bektaş had long since returned to Turkey. It was intended that Dervish Bajram succeed
Baba Rexheb as head of the Teqe and he was even raised to the rank of baba for this purpose. However
Baba Bajram passed away in 1973.
Despite this depletion in the number of dervishes, the quantity of mühibs continued to steadily increase.
Trix noted that in the 1950s there were some seventeen initiates and by the 1980s that number had
increased to forty-three. Many of these affiliates lived outside of the Detroit area (notably New York and
New Jersey) and visited the Teqe only during major holidays. Those mühibs who did live within driving
distance came to the Teqe Thursday nights for muhabet and the ayın-i cem ceremony.
Outside of religious services, mühibs, aşıks, and other visitors could be found calling on the Teqe every day
to sit with Baba Rexheb in the grand new sitting room or, on sunny days, outside underneath an expansive
shade tree. Nor was this place exclusively for Bektashis or even for Muslims. As a center of Albanian-
American life, Catholic and Orthodox individuals frequently visited and the representatives of their
respective churches were always invited as guests of honor at yearly gatherings. The fact that he was
greatly appreciated and loved by those within and without the community certainly says much about the
strength of Baba Rexheb’s character and personality. Even as his health began to fail in the last two years
of his life and he was repeatedly hospitalized, Baba Rexheb continued to receive visits by the admirers and
well-wishers.
Two significant events occurred during the final years of Baba Rexheb’s life that are worth mentioning.
Baba Rexheb had always maintained cordial relations with the Bektashi community of Turkey throughout
his forty years at the Teqe and he often received them as guests. In June of 1990, Prof. Bedri Noyan, the
only recognized dedebaba since 1967, visited the Teqe and bestowed Baba Rexheb with the rank of dede
(halife-baba) and this icâzetname was hung with pride in the main sitting room of the Teqe.
Baba Rexheb also lived to see Bektashism re-established in his native Albania. Between 1967 and 1990
Albanians had to endure the most stringent anti-religion policies ever enacted by a government in modern
times. In 1967 all religious institutions in Albania were ordered shut down and all clergy were directed to
remove their garb and assume conventional lives. Those who refused were sent to forced-labor camps or
simply executed. The destruction this caused to the Bektashi Order was dreadful. When religious freedom
was restored 1991, there were only five babas and one dervish out of the hundred or so that were living in
1967. In 1994, Baba Bajram Mahmutaj and Baba Reshat Bardhi made an extended visit to the Teqe and
ties to the motherland were reestablished. And when Baba Rexheb finally “walked to the Truth” on the
10th of August 1995, these two men, along with Baba Selim Kalicani, Dervish Flamur Shkalla and 600
other people, were present at his cenaze prayer and interment in the türbe.
Baba Rexheb’s Writings
Baba Rexheb spent his years in the service of Bektashism as a guide, counselor, and a spiritual therapist.
The primary means of transmission of the knowledge and wisdom he gathered through a lifetime of
devotion was normally of a personal and intimate nature. Yet it is to the benefit of those who may have not
had the opportunity to sit with him that did write.
Baba Rexheb’s first major work was a translation of the Vilayetname of Haji Bektash Veli into Albanian.
This work was made prior to his coming to the United States, at a time when he was living at the Asim
Baba Tekke. To the best of my knowledge the manuscript was never published.
After having settled in the Teqe in 1954, Baba Rexheb immediately began the publication of a semiannual
journal entitled Zëri i Bektashizmës (“The Voice of Bektashism”). In the lead article of the first issue, Baba
Rexheb (the chief editor) described the reasons for the publication:
“Bektashism is celebrated worldwide, particularly in our Albania, where it left an extraordinary trace.
This is why at the time of the foundation of first Bektashi tekke here in the United States of America, a
great curiosity was revitalized about it in many circles. All now want to know what Bektashism is; what
its philosophical base is; what its past was in the world history and in particular, Albania. To truly satisfy
these desires - with our small budget - we made the decision to publish our journal Zëri i Bektashizmës,
which will strive to bring knowledge to all those interested, in all that they want to know about
Bektashism, its religious principles and its history.”
Baba Rexheb had originally planned to keep the journal going into the foreseeable future and had
suggested, given interest and funding, that the frequency of publication could be expanded to quarterly,
and perhaps, even beyond. He also solicited articles from individuals with a talent for writing, stating that
the pages of the journal were open to all articles “dealing with moral, social, and economic issues that
promote the general good.” It seems, however, that the appeal for community participation was
unsuccessful in moving individuals to participate, even financially. Only four issues of Zëri i Bektashizmës
were ever published (1954-1955) and all the articles (barring letters) contained within were written by
Baba Rexheb himself.
Yet despite its fleeting existence, Zëri i Bektashizmës, proved to be a veritable goldmine of information on
Bektashi history, doctrine and practice. Each of the four issues is a uniform 32-pages in length and,
surprisingly, each contain articles in English. The reason for this may have been a reflection of Baba
Rexheb’s desire to make Bektashism accessible not only to second-generation English-speaking Albanian-
Americans but to the general American public as well. The English pieces are direct translations of most of
the Albanian articles that appear in each of the four issues. I have no knowledge at this point as to who the
translator(s) of these articles was, though it is unlikely that Baba Rexheb’s English at this stage in his life
was voluble enough to allow him to undertake such a task.
All of the articles in the four issues of Zëri i Bektashizmës are of a religious nature and deal with the
subjects of standard Islamic knowledge (“Why is the Qur’an respected?”, “Islamic Pilgrimage”, “The Ka’
bah: The Sacred Place of Islam” etc.), the general concept of universal mysticism (Baba Rexheb writes in
considerable detail about Vedic, Buddhist, Greek and Egyptian philosophies) and, obviously, Bektashism.
Articles discussing the latter include “What the Great Writers say about ‘Ali”, “How Bektashism was
Organized” (which discusses the lives of Haji Bektash and Balım Sultan), “The Ritual Garb of Bektashism”,
as well as articles on the Aşura, Matem and the celebration of Sultan Nevruz.
In 1970, some fifteen years after the last issue of Zëri i Bektashizmës came out, Baba Rexheb released his
monumental Mysticizma Islame dhe Bektashizme (Islamic Mysticism and Bektashism). This work stands
witness to Baba Rexheb’s vast knowledge of Sufism as well as Bektashi spirituality and its history. The
book was undoubtedly written for the general public, as it is evident that Baba Rexheb intended it to be a
textbook of sorts for the initiated as well as for those wishing a deeper appreciation of the Order
Mysticizma Islame dhe Bektashizme was composed in Albanian and it consists of 389 pages. The book can
be divided into two parts: the first (pages 7-102), in which a comprehensive outline of Sufi history and
doctrine is given; and the second (pages 103-385), where the basics of Bektashi thought and the lives of
prominent Bektashi mystics are discussed. In this way Baba Rexheb affords the reader a solid background
in the Sufi milieu from which Bektashism emerged before transporting him or her to the finer points of
the Order.
Baba Rexheb’s presentation of Sufism encompasses a number of relevant topics. He begins by putting
forth evidence for the validity of Islamic mysticism from the Qur’an, Hadith Qudsi as well as Prophetic
Hadith. This is followed by an extensive overview of the development of early Sufism from the 1st to the
5th centuries Hijrah, which includes discussions on Rabia Adawiyya and Hallaj. Baba Rexheb follows this
with a discourse on the mystical philosophy of Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, the great Sufi thinker of the 11th
century CE. He then moves the reader into the classical age of Sufism, presenting the lives and teachings
of such distinguished Islamic saints as Ibn ‘Arabi, Rumi, and Ibn Farid. The portion of the work dealing
with general Sufism ends with a discussion of the foremost orders (tarikats) in the world since the late
Middle Ages: the Qadiri, Rifa’i, Badawi, Yesevi, Naqshibandi, Khalwati, Sa’di and Shadhili.
Having presented the contextual foundation for Bektashism, the second half of the book discusses major
themes in the Bektashi spirituality, such as edeb (etiquette), admission into the order, the centrality of
mystical love, as well as the mürşid-mürid relationship. The concluding part of Mysticizma Islame dhe
Bektashizme (a solid 244 pages!) details the biographies and poetic verse of a long line of Bektashi
personalities, beginning with Haji Bektash Veli and ending with the great babas of pre-WWII Albania,
including that of Baba Rexheb’s own mürşid, Baba Selim. These biographies are quite extensive and Baba
Rexheb’s translations of the poetry out of the original Ottoman Turkish and into Albanian present the
reader not only with a deeper appreciation of Bektashi thought, but witness to Baba Rexheb’s genuine
mastery of the two languages.
In 1984, a partial English translation of Mysticizma Islame dhe Bektashizme appeared under the title The
Mysticism of Islam and Bektashism. This translation was prepared by the late Bardhyl Pogoni and it is 173
pages in length. Although the effort is to be commended, the work, in general, is lacking in many respects
and it appears that the translator had little background in the subject matter. Much of the religious
terminology is imprecisely rendered into English and entire passages from the original work are not
translated at all, disrupting the flow of reading. The Mysticism of Islam and Bektashism cannot be
considered a complete translation and it only covers the first half of Baba Rexheb’s book (i.e. the portion
on Sufism) and a trace of the rudimentary doctrines of Bektashism found in the second part. It is clear that
there were plans to finish the translation of the remainder of Mysticizma Islame dhe Bektashizme, for the
cover of The Mysticism of Islam and Bektashism is labeled as “Volume I”. Unfortunately this plan has
come to naught.