The Sufi Journey of Rexheb Baba Rexheb, 1990. Courtesy of Aslan Halim, photographer. The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb Y

Frances Trix

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Philadelphia © 2009 Frances Trix First Edition All Rights Reserved Published for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Publication of this book was supported by a generous grant from Indiana University.

Illustrations by Frances Trix unless otherwise specified.

l i b r a r y o f c o n g r e s s c a t a l o g i n g -i n -publication d a t a Trix, Frances. The Sufi journey of Baba Rexheb / Frances Trix. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-934536-12-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-934536-12-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Rexheb, Baba, 1901–1995. 2. Bektashi—Albania—Biography. 3. Bektashi—United States—Biography. 4. Sufis—Biography. I. Title. BP80.R45T75 2009 297.4092—dc22 [B] 2008042345

frances trix is an ethnographer of in Balkan immi­grant communities. Her books include Spiritual Discourse: Learning with a Muslim Master (1993), Albanians in Michigan (2001), and Muslim Voices and Lives in the Contem- porary World (2008). She is an associate professor of linguistics and anthropology at Indiana University.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. To those who follow in the Way of Baba Rexheb

Contents

Preface ...... ix Acknowledgments ...... x Note on Names...... xi Glossary ...... xiii Prologue...... 1 1. Welcome ...... 5 Meeting Baba ...... 5 Baba Arrives in Michigan ...... 11 Taping Talks with Baba...... 19 2. Baba’s Bektashi Lineage...... 27 The Inauspicious Event and Young ...... 27 The Return of Ali Haqi Baba...... 34 Selim Ruhi Baba...... 43 3. Baba’s Balkan Heritage ...... 55 Baba’s Hometown and Coming of Age ...... 55 Baba as a Young Dervish in a Young Country ...... 63 4. The Path of Exile ...... 73 Leaving the Homeland...... 73 Displaced Persons Camps...... 82 5. Waiting in Egypt ...... 97 At the Muqattam Tekke of Cairo ...... 97 Gifts to Baba from the Saint ...... 107 Leaving Egypt...... 117 6. Coming to America ...... 125 Founding the Tekke in Michigan...... 125 Securing the Tekke...... 137 7. Early Decades at the Tekke ...... 149 Baba Bajram’s Time...... 149 A Dearth of Dervishes ...... 160 8. Later Decades at the Tekke ...... 167 Gentle Teaching ...... 167 Learning at the Tekke...... 176 9. With Baba in the Beyond...... 191 Baba’s Last Days and Journey Back...... 191 Baba’s Funeral and Our Journey...... 199 Epilogue...... 207 Bibliography ...... 213 Index...... 219

viii Preface

This book is an ethnographic biography of a Balkan Muslim leader, Baba Rexheb, who founded the first Bektashi community in America. It is the account of a Sufi leader who lived through the 20th century, its wars, disruptions, and dislocations, and still at a profound level was never displaced. He lived his life as a dervish, sustained by the lifelong bond with his spiritual master. It is a book full of stories. Bektashis teach through lived example and through stories, or, more precisely, stories within stories within relationships, preceded by coffee and followed by a meal. As a linguistic anthropologist I stud- ied with Baba Rexheb in his community for over 20 years. For 12 of these years I taped our weekly lessons in Turkish, Albanian, and Arabic. I draw extensively from transcriptions and translations of these lessons in telling Baba’s life story. Besides reconstructing the life story of a modern Sufi leader in his com- munities, this study also documents the 700-year-old in the 19th and 20th centuries in the Balkans, Egypt, and America, through oral histories and lived accounts, supplemented with archival sources, traditional Bektashi literature, and published sources in Turkish, Albanian, and other European lan- guages. At the very least, documenting such a Muslim mystic order in modern times contradicts simplistic notions of Islam. At the same time, our modern times impose expectations that will not be met. In Western culture, both popular and scholarly, to know another is to know his or her flaws. I would counter that to know another is to be changed by that knowing. For readers who have not been stretched across cultures, I can only request their trust that this is the way Baba’s story should be told. Most books on Sufism are based on Sufi texts—either poetic or theologi- cal. But despite excellent philological scholarship, there are many gaps in our knowledge of the sociocultural contexts of these works and how they were com- posed, performed, read, and understood. Sufi knowledge and relationships were passed on in oral settings, but these are often omitted or unknown. In contrast I focus on such oral settings and the central relationship with the spiritual teacher. I include Sufi texts of prayers, laments, poetry, exegesis, parables, eulogies, and life stories of babas and dervishes, but they are all richly The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb

contextualized in particular historical times of particular communities. I also document Sufi practices and beliefs in narrative form, grounded in community across the liturgical year. Overall it is the personal dimension that distinguishes this work. Rather than compare beliefs or posit influence, I describe closely being with Baba in his communities. It is this firsthand experience of relationship with a Sufi master in his community over time that is this book’s signal contribution. At the same time it contributes to our understanding of social roles of Sufi centers in Islamic community life and their interaction with people of other faiths. Just as Baba worked to reach out to many people in his communities, so his life speaks to people widely.

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge first and foremost the Bektashi community in Michigan for their kindness and unfailing hospitality over many years. I am most grateful to members of this community as well as to other Albanians in America, Canada, Albania, Macedonia, Kosova, Turkey, and Egypt for their generosity in sharing documents and memories of Baba Rexheb and his communities. In particular I thank Baba Bajram, Baba Arshi, Xhevat Kallajxhi, Zejnepe Çuçi, Nake and Hasan Premtaj, Shije Orhan Shahin and Hajdar Shahin, Nancy Adam Topulli, Qani Prespa and Zejnepe Adam, Shaban Shemsedini, Husni and Bukurije Aliko, Sally Negip, Hakki Gaba, Eqrem Stino, Sejit Chota, Shahin Çoçoli, Rudi Kiçi, Shaban Peshtani, Sejfi Protopapa, Eqrem Peshkopia, Karim Hadjiou, Fawzija and Amr Bekdash, Imam Vehbi Ismail, Dom Prenk Vashaj, Father Arthur Liolin, Ajnur Rakipi, Isnisha and Gani Muço, Myrvet Sula, Fadil Duro, and Dr. Bedri Noyan. I acknowledge Walter Andrews for his wise counsel on Ottoman poetics; Sholet Quinn, historian of Safavid Iran; and Robert Elsie, the finest Albanolo- gist today. I also acknowledge university mentors, colleagues, and friends: Al- ton P. Becker, K. Allin Luther, James Stewart-Robinson, Ann Larimore, Siglind Bruhn, and John V. A. Fine from the University of Michigan; Barbara Aswad, Bernice Kaplan, and Guerin Montilus from Wayne State University. For illus- trations, I acknowledge the work of professional photographers Linda Wan and Manny Crisostomo, and that of Ric Cradick, Indiana University Digital Special- ist. I especially acknowledge the acumen of Walda Metcalf, Director of Publica- tions at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The National Endowment for the Humanities supported my transcription of the many tape-recorded dialogues in Turkish with Baba. A Career Develop- ment Chair from Wayne State University allowed interviewing of people on three continents and time to write the initial draft. A Fulbright Research Fellow-

x The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb ship allowed the distance for further refining the manuscript. Indiana Univer- sity contributed a research leave supplement and the Linguistics Department of Indiana University, subvention funds. And earlier, the International Research and Exchange Board supported my study of Albanian in Kosova and research on Islam in Albania. My son Ramsay accompanied me to the tekke for many years, my husband John supported my single-mindedness, my father trusted in my work, and my mother advocated clear writing. My debt to Baba Rexheb transcends all bounds.

Note on Names

This is an anthropological study that draws heavily on oral sources in an immigrant Balkan Bektashi community. Besides English, there are five languag- es involved: Albanian, modern Turkish, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Persian. In determining conventions of transliteration I have tried to minimize problems for the non-specialist reader, while still respecting conventions for Islamic terms, pronunciation of Bektashi terms, and how people spell their own names. I use the following principles: 1. Albanian spelling of names of Albanian places and people [with slight modifications by Albanian Americans]: Xhevat Kallajxhi/je-vat kal-a-ji/. 2. English spellings of Islamic terms where they exist. This is in flux but tends to derive from the Arabic forms: dervish, tariqat, qibla. 3. Standard transliteration without diacritics of central Islamic terms: Imam Husayn, Shari‘a, . 4. Modified modern Turkish spelling for Bektashi terms, Persian Islamic terms, and terms for things and clothing: nefes, ashık, (not Hacı Bektaş Veli), Jenab-i Hak, tesbih, hırka. There is a different order of titles with names in Turkish and Albanian. Turkish puts the title after the first name, while Albanian puts the title before the first name. I have used the older Turkish order for Bektashi babas born be- fore 1900, thus Ali Haqi Baba and Selim Ruhi Baba. For babas born after 1900, however, I use the Albanian order, hence Baba Rexheb. I also use the older Albanian titles Zoti (Sir) and Zonja (Lady) to show respect, as in Zoti Xhevat and Zonja Zejnepe. With the Albanian names in this book, the English reader needs to be aware of one unusual letter combination for a familiar sound (xh), two letters with diacritics (ç and ë), and two letters in Albanian (j and y) that are pronounced in unexpected ways for English readers. In alphabetical order, these Albanian spellings are pronounced as:

xi The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb

ç as in English “child” ë as in English “uh” j as in English “year” xh as in English “jeans” y as the French vowel in “rue” A special example of an Albanian name is that of Baba Rexheb. From the above, you can see that it should be pronounced /re-jeb/ for the xh is an English /j/ sound. (One way to remember this is to note the American state “Nu Xher- zi,” New Jersey.) There is an added complication in that Albanian names, like Greek names, can be made definite, in which case Rexhep becomes Rexhebi. I have simplified this by using Rexheb throughout; it is the way Baba signed his name on his American citizenship papers. Readers familiar with common Muslim names may find the following short list helpful.

Albanian Turkish Arabic transliteration Bajram Bayram Bayrām Hakki Haki Haqqī Haqi Hâki Khākī Hatixhe Hatice Khadīja Hysejn Hüseyin Ḥusayn Merjeme Meryem Maryam Nexhat Necat Najāt Qemal Kemal Kamāl Rexhep/b Recep Rajab Sejfi Seyfi Ṣayfī Sulejman Süleyman Sulaymān Xhevat Cevat Jawād Xhemal Cemal Jamāl Xhemile Cemile Jamīla Zejnepe Zeynep Zaynab

Finally, translation of Sufi terms into English can be problematic. In par- ticular, the phrase Baba used to refer to God was Janab-i Haqq (Cenab-i Hak in modern Turkish). The first term is used as a title of respect, while the second term is an all–encompassing word for God. I have translated this phrase as “the Lord of All-Truth,” drawing on how Baba translated it in Albanian. In an earlier work (1993) I translated it as “the Majesty of Truth.” Neither literary nor theological scholars whom I have contacted have been able to agree on how this should be rendered in English. Baba used it with reverence, humility, and intimacy.

xii The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb

Glossary ashık, person/people drawn to a Sufi Baba but not formally initiated , an important Muslim holiday that commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the Prophet ’s grandson, who was killed at Karbala in 680 baba, literally “father,” cleric who serves as head of a tekke; abbot bacılar, “sisters,” female Bektashi members , head of all Bektashis; Dede Baba, the “Grandfather” dervish, Muslim monk; clerical rank below that of baba divan, collection of poetry Erenler, brethren who have attained spiritual maturity; way of addressing a dervish and mode of address among dervishes gazel, lyric poem Geg, dialect; also speaker of the northern dialect of Albanian hadith qudsi, saying of God halife, the Bektashi clerical rank above that of a baba but below that of a dede hayderiye, a long-sleeved robe hırka, long sleeveless vest hodja, a Sunni religious leader ijazet, authorization, decree ijazetname, diploma kemer, a belt or cummerbund; for Bektashis a ritual garment levha, tablet or written banner or plaque mersiye, stirring lament for Imam Husayn meydan, ceremonial room in a tekke mihrab, prayer niche facing Mecca müderris, Islamic teacher muhabbet, general meaning of conversing among friends; also the special chanting of spiritual poems in a Bektashi tekke muhib, initiated lay member of the Bektashi Order murid, novice dervish murshid, spiritual master or guide nefes, spiritual poem or chant nefes evladi, a child from understood to come through the intercessory prayer of a dervish or baba Nevruz, a springtime Muslim holiday, understood by Bektashis as the birthday of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, who brought spiritual understanding of the Qu’ran , important saint and spiritual teacher of a community; for the Bektashis their first Pir is Haji Bektash Veli, with Balım Sultan considered the second Pir

xiii The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb qibla, the direction people should face to orient their prayers toward Mecca rehber, assisting person or “guide” in private Bektashi ceremonies Shari‘a, Islamic law taj, cylindrical white headpiece tariqat, mystical order of Islam (while this is a plural in Arabic, modern Turkish treats it as singular) tasawwuf, Islamic mysticism tekke, a sort of Muslim monastery; teqe in Albanian tesbih, prayer beads Tosk, dialect; also speaker of the southern dialect of Albania türbe, mausoleum, often octagonal türbedar, keeper of the mausoleum veli, a title, similar in meaning to “saint”

xiv