Since Fuad Köprülü, scholars tend to link various aspects of Anatolian religious history directly to Central Asia. This tendency is most salient in the study of so-called Turkish folk Islam and what is assumed to be its primary manifestation today, namely the Alevi-Bekta?i communities. Köprülü associated Turkish folk Islam, by definition heterodox, with Central Asian Shamanism as preserved and transmitted under the cover of popular Sufism, in particular that of the Central Asian Yeseviyye order. However, a new body of documents found in the private archives of members of the Alevi community, together with some recently discovered archival evidence, challenge the well-established theory of the Yesevi origins of proto-Alevism. They instead highlight the prominent position in this regard of the Iraqi-born Vefa’i order, one of the oldest, but least known, Sufi orders, whose wide-spread presence in Anatolia has been previously unrecognized. Historians have long been aware of a few prominent figures affiliated with this order around early Ottoman sultans; among them, for instance, the famous Sheikh Ede Bali, who predicted the grandeur of the Empire through his interpretation of a dream related to him by the empire’s eponymous founder, Osman. There are also individual cases of dervishes with a Vefa’i affiliation from among the Abdals of Rum, such as the well-known Geyikli Baba. Notwithstanding these few renowned cases, however, one finds little sign of the Vefa’iyye in the accounts of the early Ottoman Anatolian history. This is because there are no known narrative sources from before the late fifteenth century that allude to any Vefa’i presence in Anatolia, and the late fifteenth and sixteenth century sources that speak of Vefa’i connections of the above-mentioned figures do so only in passing. This paper argues that these individual cases are only the tip-of-the-iceberg representatives of a much more pervasive Vefa’i presence in Anatolia which cut across social, political and sectarian divisions. The scarcity of traces of the Vefa’iyye in the narrative sources despite this important place it occupied in Anatolian history has to do with the later conflation of the order’s legacy with that of the Bekta?i tradition as it was configured within a Yesevi framework in the Bekta?i hagiographic literature. On a broader level, this paper suggests that the recovery of the multifaceted trajectory of the Vefa’iyye will provide us with novel perspectives on the making of “heterodox” Islam in Anatolia in general, and the formation of the Bekta?iyye in particular.

The life of Haji Bektash Veli, the thirteenth-century eponym of the Bektashi Order, is recounted in a text known as the Vilayetname. While the oldest extant copies of the text go back only to the early seventeenth century, the text was clearly first set down in writing in an earlier period, probably the late fifteenth century, and no doubt incorporates oral legends that had been transmitted prior to that. The obscure process of its composition coincides historically with the equally obscure formation of a distinct Bektashi order through several generations of disciples based at the site of Haji Bektash’s tomb. Besides providing legendary information about the life of the saint, then, the text can help elucidate the complex process of social, cultural and religious formation undergone by the community that bore his name. This paper will thus analyze elements of the Vilayetname that reflect the concerns of this community in its process of formation. The emergent Bektashi Order faced a competition for disciples at a time when other Sufi orders were also being formed, so the Vilayetname includes episodes in which Haji Bektash is shown to be superior to other founding saints and charismatic leaders in terms of prescience and the ability to perform miracles, such as with the narratives of the subjugation of the Rum Erenleri, the contest with Mahmud Hayrani, and encounters with Mevlana, Ahi Evran and a Christian priest. As the Ottoman Empire was in the process of becoming more orthodox religiously, many heterodox movements were being absorbed into the Bektashi community, and the Vilayetname shows Haji Bektash counteracting the reprovals of representatives of orthodoxy. It also legitimates Bektashi ritual practices by showing their origins in the deeds of Haji Bektash himself. And in order to give the Bektashi Order a firm spatial foundation, it recounts many legends that firmly imprint the legacy of Haji Bektash in the landscape around his tomb complex. The legacy of the saint is thus interpreted through the filter of the mobilizing project of a community in the process of formation. Haji Bektash becomes a symbolic figure on whom the Bektashi community projects its aspirations and around whom it creates its identity. The Vilayetname, then, reflects the self-imagination of the Bektashi order as part of the process of its coming to be.

How did Bektashi tekkes in the western Balkans survive through the 19th and 20th centuries? They were dealt triple blows: the outlawing of the order in Ottoman lands in 1826, foreign occupations and wars across the first half of the 20th century, followed by national policies against religion and against Albanians in the second half of the 20th century. In this paper I analyze the history of three important Bektashi tekkes in the western Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries in terms of leadership, membership, and networks of communication. In this period the Bektashis in the western Balkans became associated with Albanian movements for education and political power (Skendi, 1967; Clayer, 1990, Duizings, 2000). How did this association affect their survival? Through ethnographic work at the Bektashi tekkes in Gjakova, Tetova, and Gjirokastra, and histories of the particular tekkes (Rexheb, 1970; Bakkal, 1980; Norris, 1993; Hysi, 2004), I have found remarkable evidence of travel by leaders in earlier periods that decreased across the 20th century. At the same time quiet networking of leaders continued through turmoil of the 20th century. Bektashi communities however often found it more secure to continue their practices at this time away from their historic tekkes: on another continent for those of Gjirokastra, in another city for those of Tetovo, or away from the city center as in Gjakova. The reclaiming of their historic tekkes in the last decade of the 20th century has brought forth a period of increased interaction and even conflict. I conclude that whereas physical survival of Bektashi leaders is no longer a central concern, the relations of Bektashis with related Islamic groups on a broader regional level has grown in importance.

Since the fall of socialism in Bulgaria, the lifting of atheistic policies and the increased tolerance towards minorities has resulted in the open use of numerous rural-based shrines (türbeler) of Bekta?i saints that function as cult centers for Turkish heterodox Bekta?i, Babai, and K?z?lba? communities who now share a common trans-regional Alevi identity. Adherents of these so-called “Alevi” communities make pilgrimage to the shrines, particularly for annual outdoor festivals (maye) honoring specific saints that include ritual sacrifice (kurban) and offerings to saints, and worship meetings led by religious elders (dedeler) that include the singing of sacred songs (nefesler) accompanied by the sacred folk lute (saz/ba?lama). The “open” nature of these celebrations has not affected the intimacy and regional diversity of formal rituals (cemler, ayinler) that are reserved for initiated individuals and typically held in private homes (muhabbet evi, cem evi) or more recently-built prayer houses (dergâh evi) situated close to a number of saints’ shrines where dervish lodges once stood. Since the 1990s, many young adults have mobilized spiritually and intellectually by immersing themselves in religious doctrines and rites and in the study of the mystical philosophy embedded in the nefesler that are sometimes referred to as “the Qur’an.” In addition, ties with related Alevi/Bekta?i culture in Turkey have been strengthened by daily exposure to Alevi TV broadcasts, increased communication with and support from Alevi/Bekta?i associations and foundations, and visits to major Alevi/Bektasi shrines and festivals in the Turkish motherland. Drawing from relevant literature (Zhelyaskova 1998; Gramatikova 2001; Aleksiev 2005; Mikov 2005; Markoff 2007) and focusing specifically on ethnographic research undertaken during 2006 and 2008 in the eastern Rhodope Mountains, this paper will illustrate how Bekta?i and Babai spirituality, identity, rituals and ritual space are gradually being transformed and revitalized through changes in the Bulgarian sociopolitical climate and increasing ties to a transnational Alevi/Bekta?i communicative network. One striking example of change is the presence of an impressive, modernized, sacred space for holding collective regional Bekta?i/Babai rituals in a modern, newly-constructed hotel that towers over the central Otman Baba türbe in the Eastern Rhodopes. The analysis will also investigate ways in which this architectural gesture and strategy will not only remove Bekta?i and Babai rituals from their more exclusive contexts, but perhaps lead to the standardization and homogenization of local sacred traditions and ritual practices as is the case with urban Alevism in Turkey. Audio-visual materials will accompany the presentation.