1876-1941
Bektashi history. He was born in the year 1876CE/1292AH
near the town of Kolonjë, located on the great coastal plain
of central Albania. It was there that he completed his
elementary education. In his youth he left for Istanbul and
then to Anatolia where he took up residence in the Grand
Tekke of Haji Bektash Veli. He returned for the first time to
Albania in 1908, the year of the Young Turk revolution. It
was in that year that he obtained the grade of Baba. In 1913
he succeeded Haji Feyzullah Dedebaba as the postnisin of
the Tekke of Haji Bektash. In the chaotic years following
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Salih Niyazi Dede
became a keen supporter of the Nationalist movement
headed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha. He was a man of great
intellectual depth and he even personally financed the
construction of the only school in sacred town of Hacibektas
in the 1920's.
Nevertheless, Atatürk's reforms brought an end to the open
practice of Sufism. On November 30th, 1925 all Sufi orders
were outlawed and all tekkes were ordered closed. The
Tekke of Haji Bektashi was no exception. Salih Niyazi Dede
vacated the tekke and left to Ankara where he stayed for a
few years managing a hotel. He constantly aroused the ire of
authorities since he tried to use his new location as a
clandestine tekke.
of Albania on the 17th of January, 1930. Since the abolition of the Sufi orders in Turkey, the Bektashi of
Albania began restructuring themselves to continue their survival under the latest state of affairs. Shortly
after Salih Niyazi Dede's coming to Albania he was selected to lead the country's Bektashi community
which numbered at the time well over 100,000. He also held jurisdiction over the few remaining tekkes in
Kosova, Macedonia, Greece and Egypt. For nearly a decade he successfully directed the reorganization of
the Bektashi Order by which he earned a grand reputation enriched though the many other distinguished
personalities. He was responsible for strengthening the Bektashi community both in Albania and in
neighboring lands.
In 1939 the Italians invaded and annexed Albania. It is unclear as to whether the dede took an active or
passive stance against the foreign occupiers. Salih Niyazi Dedebaba was murdered in November of 1941,
during the height of the struggle between the Italians and the Albanian resistance (both communist and
non-communist). The various accounts of his death are contradictory as far as responsibility is concerned.
Some point to an assassination by the Italians for alleged anti-occupation sympathies, while others blame
the communist partisans, since it was known that most Bektashis supported either the royalists or the
anti-communist Nationalists. One report stated that he was simply murdered by brigands intent on
stealing the tekke funds. Allah knows best! Al-Fatiha for the soul of Salih Niyazi Dede.
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