It is reported in some Bektashi legends that Hajji Bektash was a follower and the caliph("representative") of Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi, a Sufi mystic from Central Asia who had great influence on the Turkic nomads of the steppes. However, there are no signs of Yasavi influence in the original teachings of Hajji Bektash[15][16] and this claim is rejected by modern scholars, since Ahmad Yasavi lived nearly one hundred years before Hajji Bektash.[17]
Modern research connects him to another important religious movement of that time: to theQalandariyah movement and to Bābā Rasul Ilyās Khorāsānī († 1240), an influential mystic from Eastern Persia who was tortured to death because of his anti-orthodox views on Islam. The original Bektashi teachings in many ways resemble the teachings of the Khorasanian Qalandariyah and that of Rassul-Allāh Eliyās.[15][18]
[edit]Spread of the Bektashi order
Bektashism spread from Anatolia through the Ottomans primarily into the Balkans, where its leaders (known as dedes or babas) helped convert many to Islam. The Bektashi Sufi order became the official order of the elite Janissary corps after their establishment. The Bektashi Order remained very popular among Albanians, and Bektashi tekkes can be found throughout Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia to this day. During the Ottoman period Bektashitekkes were set up in Egypt and Iraq, but the order did not take root in these countries.
[edit]Different orders within Alevism
The Bektashi order was most popular among rural segments of Anatolia and in the southern Balkans (as well as the military men), in contrast to the Mevlevis, who generally attracted artisans, or the Naqshbandi or Khalwati orders, who attracted theologians and government officials. It was also during the Ottoman period that many Alevi in Turkey attached themselves to the veneration of Hajji Bektash, a move which may have further polarized the tension between Alevism and the mainstream Sunni Muslim ideology of the Ottoman empire.
[edit]19th century and thereafter
When the Janissary corps were abolished in 1826 by Sultan Mahmud II the Bektashis suffered the same fate. The babas of the tekkes and their dervishes were banished to staunchly Sunni villages and towns, and their tekkes were closed or handed over to Sunni Sufi orders (mostly Naqshbandi; for example, the Goztepe Tekke in Istanbul was given to the Naqshbandis during this period).
Although the Bektashi order regained many of its lost tekkes during the Tanzimat period, they, along with all other Sufi orders, were banned in Turkey in 1925 as a result of the country's secularization policies and all Bektashi tekkes were closed once more along with all others. As a result, the headquarters of the order were moved to Tirana in Albania.
The main Bektashi tekke is in the town of Hajibektash in Central Anatolia. It is currently open as a museum and his resting place is still visited by both Sunni and Alevi Muslims. Large festivals are held there every August. Also the Göztepe and Shahkulu tekkes in Istanbul are now used as meeting places for Alevis.
Folk religious practices remain in Bektashism and certain practices are also found to a lesser extent in Balkan Christianity and non-Bektashi Balkan Islam as well, according to some Western Islamic scholars.
Famous archaeologist Arthur Evans, after studying ancient religions of Europe, noted that there were cults centered around the use of trees and pillars, often acting like idols. While inMacedonia he entered a temple/shrine that was maintained by Dervishes in the town of Tekekioii [possibly the tekke in modern Tetovo). He was permitted to take part in a ritual at the shrine, the focus of which was a large upright rectangular stone, possibly a "local"Kabaa. The stone was said to have fallen from heaven, and it was venerated or at least respected by Muslims and Christians in the region. It was stained black by years of being anointed with holy oils. The stone was around 6.5 feet tall, with a second smaller stone placed on top of it and a sash tied like a belt around it. A sick man was circumambulatingthe pillar, kissing and hugging it at each pass. In a ritual connected to it, a person prays before the stone, hugs it, draws water from a nearby spring, and climbs a small hill at the top of which is an Islamic "saint's grave". Growing over the grave is a thorn tree, which has rags and fabric hanging from it placed there by the sick seeking divine cures. The water is poured into a hole in the center of the grave, mixed with grave-dirt, and then the suppliant drinks this mixture three times, then anoints their head three times. Then a circumambulation around the grave is started, with three passes, each time kissing and touching with the forehead "the stone at the head and foot of it". Afterwards, grave dust was given to Evans, to be made up into a triangular amulet. The Dervish then cast some pebbles, read them (divination) as falling good, a priest sacrificed a ram outside the grave site, with the blood of the ram used to anoint the forehead of the suppliant. Finally, Evans was instructed to give something to attach to the pillar overnight, and he himself resides with the stone and his guide, lighting candles after sunset and eating the sacrificial ram.[1]
In addition to schools of Islamic thought, the Bektashis in Turkey and the Balkans also maintain ancient practices from pre-Islamic societies. For instance, upon visiting the village of Haidar-es-Sultan and Hassan-dede in the summer of 1900, enthographer J.W. Crowfoot witnessed survivals of the ancient Hero Cult and the pythian oracle.[2]
In Haidar-es-Sultan, an old Bektashi woman would inhale the sulfurous fumes of a special well in the center of the town, and go into an ecstasy in which she would divine a person's future, much like at the Oracle at Delphi. This well was also associated with a central tomb, which stood out from other local graves in the town because it wasn't neglected and it was given special care. At Hassan-dede there was also a central tomb, maintained by a family that stated that they were direct descendants of the occupant of the tomb, who had come from Korashan. These are elements that are strongly associated with the older pagan Hero Cults of that area.
Furthermore, some pre-Islamic accounts note that the people in these Bekthashi regions of Turkey are not native and that they originally come from Babylon. Their 'piety' is handed down from father to son and they have unusual institutions (which might very well be referring to initiation rituals and the rites of the mystery religions). These pre-Islamic peoples considered fire to be divine, and they mark as the founder of their nation a man named "Zarnuas", which appears to be a derivations of Zoroaster. They were also said to be "prey to the devil", which is what followers of pagan religions were usually condescendingly referred to as. The Bektashi of this region are noted to, in modern times, always use two hands when drinking wine, even if the cup used is small enough to make this unnecessary. Such a trait is also exhibited by the Yazidis of northern Iraq, and is thought to also be a survival of pre-Islamic times, when the special cups used for drinking wines contained two large handles. Unusually, the ancient inhabitants of the region also were noted for having extreme ear piercings, and the Bektashi of the hills of Turkey also keep this tradition.
Nevertheless such beliefs and practices are not particular to Bektashism and they form, rather, part of a larger Balkan and Turkish pre-Islamic and pre-Christian tradition.
