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Christianity's Role in the Sufi Order of Bektashism

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Christianity's Role in the Sufi Order of Bektashism chapter 12 Marginalised Islam: Christianity’s Role in the Sufi Order of Bektashism Emil B.H. Saggau Introduction1 On a warm spring day in May 2009, Professor Jørgen S. Nielsen and I, along with a group of fellow researchers crossed a busy marketplace in the Northern Macedonian town of Tetovo. At the end of the marketplace, we found the mon- astery (tekke) of Harabati Baba belonging to the Bektashi Sufi order (tariqa). We were invited in and were seated side by side with the local leader (Baba) and an initiated disciple (dervish). Surprisingly, in the hour-long conversation the like of Mother Theresa was mentioned in the same breath as Ali, Prophet Mohammad’s son-in-law. On the wall hang pictures of Ali, the twelve holy Imams and one of Mother Theresa, with the latter being the object of worship. She was emphasised as one the order revered. The conversation with the Baba of Tetovo illustrated one central question this Sufi order has posed to both Islamic studies and studies of religion in South East Europe, and that is the place and role of Christianity in Bektash- ism.2 Studies have emphasised Bektashism as a syncretistic blend of Islam and Christianity or labelled it as a bridge between the two religions.3 These de- scriptions of Bektashism have often only fleetingly touched upon the nature of the two religions’ meeting in Bektashi belief, rituals or especially the holy texts. Therefore, this article sheds light on the subject through an analysis of the role Christianity plays. The focal point of the analysis are two central holy Bektashi texts, known as the Velayetname and the Makalat. The two texts are very different in content, structure etc., but seem to draw on a common 1 I wish to thank Jørgen S. Nielsen for taking me along on his travels to the Bektashi tekkes and thereafter having several enjoyable discussions on this subject. 2 Irene Melikoff, Hadji Bektach, un mythe et ses avatars: Genese et evolution du soufisme popu- laire en Turquie (Leiden: Brill, 1998) & Sur les traces du soufisme turc – recherches sur L´islam populaire en anatolie (Istanbul: Les Éditions Isis,1992). 3 Antonina Zhelyazkova, The Spread of Islam in the Western Balkan Lands under Ottoman Rule (15-th–18-th Centuries), (Sofia, bas, 1990), 141–150. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi �0.��63/978900436�5�9_0�3 <UN> 184 Saggau understanding of Christianity. The two texts do not seem to depart from the broader Islamic or Sufi tradition in their use of Christianity, but rather they do deploy Christian figures, beliefs or stories in a new Bektashi context. Christian- ity is used as a stepping-stone for the Bektashi towards the Divine, which only can be reach in its fullness through the teaching of the Bektashism. Christianity plays a central role in these texts due to a unique combination and dialectic between social-geographical, religious and historical factors. Christianity’s role is based on a complex development of a pragmatic logic, in a special historical frame of religious interaction from where the order emerged and where it did preserve its attitude and traits. In that aspect, Bektashism is a kaleidoscope into the interlacing between Islam and Christianity in the Balkans and in Anatolia through the long centuries of the Ottoman Empire. Bektashism’s use of Christianity opens a window into what happens when religions meet and new forms of those religions are born and stabilised, and reveals, how Christianity and Islam intertwine on a theological, historical and social level. The Rise and Fall of Bektashism A few central elements in the history of Bektashism are crucial to understand in order to discuss and analyse the role of Christianity. Bektashism has not always existed as an established Sufi order and at times the order has been under extreme external pressure. In the 14th century, Bektashism was found- ed by a Türkmen Baba, Haji Bektash Veli, and his life is portrayed in the holy text Velayetname. His ideas quickly spread amongst the Ottoman and espe- cially to their janissary corps. Later, the movement became established as a dervish tariqa around the 16th century and the order found its current form under Sultan/sheikh Baba Balim (d. 1516).4 The order was also affected by the so-called Hurufism, a highly sophisticated numerological belief system, which has had a great impact on the sacred Bektashi text called Makalat.5 Bektash- ism reached its height in the 17th century and was spread across the Ottoman Empire, and especially in the Albanian-speaking regions.6 4 John Kingsley Birge, The Bektashi order of Dervishes (London: Luzac Ori ental, 1994), 33–40, 51, 71, 74–76. 5 Emil Hilton Saggau, “Bektashi-traditionen: En folkelig sufisme,” Tidsskriftet for Islamfor- skning, Volume 8, nr. 2, (2013), 81–113. 6 It is in general believed that the Bektashi order never penetrated the Balkan further than the Northern part of Kosovo, but a few recent studies suggest that they might have been active further north in Ottoman controlled Bosnia, see Eric Cornell, “On Bektashism in Bosnia,” in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives, Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Ozdalga, Catharina Raudvere (ed.), (London: Routledge, 1996), 11–18. <UN>.
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