Last modified: 2024-10-19 by rob raeside
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image by Elias Bezim, 15 May 2014
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Here is a scan of the Bektashi dervish flag poster.
The Bektashi Dervishes represent one of the most remarkable phenomena in the
history of Islamic spirituality, or Sufism. They originated as an Islamic
movement among Turkic people and are named for Hunqar Haji Bektash Veli
(1209-71), who was born in Eastern Iran and composed verse in the Turkish
vernacular. This contrasted with the majority of Muslim poets, who wrote in
Arabic and Persian, and made him especially important for Turkish Islam. The
town of Haci Bektas in Turkey is the site of his tomb and is visited by many
tourists. His spiritual teacher was Hojja Ahmad Yasawi, a Central Asian Sufi who
introduced Islam to the Turkic people of today's Kazakhstan.
The Bektashi dervish order is interesting for many reasons. In addition to its
importance for Turkic culture, it represents a transcendence of differences
between Sunni and Shia Muslim traditions. Furthermore, the Bektashis became
chaplains for the Ottoman Janissary corps (Yeniceri or "new men"), a military
body mainly composed of young converts from Christianity to Islam. It should
come as no surprise that the Bektashis are known for their interest in Christian
spiritual traditions. The Bektashi order thus became one of the most important
institutions in the Ottoman empire, with spiritual centers in cities from Cairo
to the Balkans and from Anatolia to Turkestan. In 1826, however, they were
suppressed and the Janissaries were massacred by the Turkish Sultan, on the
pretext that they had accumulated and abused excessive power. Nevertheless, the
Bektashis continued to function in a clandestine manner in Anatolia, until the
post-Ottoman Turkish reforms of the 1920s, which included a complete ban on
dervish orders. By this time, the Bektashis had become a significant force among
Albanians, who were and are liberal and pluralist in their understanding of
Islam. Many prominent Albanian intellectuals during the period leading the
country's independence in 1912 were Bektashis, including a national poet, Naim
Frashëri.
In 1925 the Bektashis moved their world headquarters to Tirana, the capital of
Albania. They are widely encountered in central and southern Albania, in western
Macedonia, and in Kosovo, and comprise as much as a quarter of all Albanians,
i.e. several million adherents, with varying degrees of involvement in the
discipline of the order. They are the only indigenous Shia Muslims in Europe
outside Turkey. In addition, in 1953 a group of Albanian Bektashis who had fled
Communism and come to the U.S. established the First Albanian-American Bektashi
center in Taylor, Mich., near Detroit, under Baba Rexheb, a leading figure in
the order. That facility, which remains in operation today, represented the
first major Sufi establishment in the U.S. by practicing dervishes from the
Muslim world. Its teaching has traditionally been done in the Albanian language.
Other Bektashi groups are now to be found elsewhere in the Albanian-American
diaspora.
The Bektashis are progressive in many respects: they support complete equality
for women, popular education, the study of science, respect for other religions,
and maximum civic involvement, with a strong commitment to democracy. They
suffered under the atheist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha in Albania and were the
object of serious attack by Serbs in Kosovo until 1999.
Their flag includes the green identified with Islam, as well as a sun with 12
rays, representing the 12 Shia imams.
Much information on them is available on the net. See especially,
http://www.teqeusa.org/.
Stephen Schwartz, 5 December 2005
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC
www.islamicpluralism.org
The flag shown above is based closely on available images of such flags which
adorn the lodges in Albania and Macedonia.
Elias Bezim, 15 May 2014
image located by William Garrison, 10 January 2024
The green-field flag of the "Bektashi Order in Albania"; c. 2023. It is an Islamic Sufi order comprising about 20% of Albanian Shiite-Muslims. As revealed by Stephen Schwartz, 5 December 2005 above: "Their flag includes the green identified with Islam, as well as a sun with 12 rays, representing the 12 Shia imams."
Flag actual-use source: https://www.sarakuehn.com/research/islamic-visual-material-culture
William Garrison, 10 January 2024