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Spiritual surrender from companionship to hierarchy inthe history of Bektashism

Albert Doja

To cite this versionAlbert Doja Spiritual surrender from companionship to hierarchy in the history of Bek-tashism Numen International Review for the History of Religions 2006 53 (4) pp448-510101163156852706778941996 halshs-00405963

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden (2006) NUMEN Vol 53

Also available online ndash wwwbrillnl

SPIRITUAL SURRENDER FROM COMPANIONSHIP TOHIERARCHY IN THE HISTORY OF BEKTASHISM

ALBERT DOJA

Summary

The system of beliefs and practices related to Bektashism seems to have cor-responded to a kind of liberation theology whereas the structure of Bektashigroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organization conven-tionally known as charismatic groups It becomes understandable therefore thattheir spiritual tendency could at times connect with and meet social cultural andnational perspectives In turn when members of the previously persecuted reli-gious minority will acquire a degree of religious and political respectability withinsociety at large the doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theology fade into thebackground In the end the heirs of the heterodox promoters of spiritual reformand social movement turn into followers and faithful defenders of a legitimateauthority They become the spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whosesupport is sought by the political regime

Introduction

Religious studies specialized in Bektashism being largely thedomain of either Orientalists or religious scholars remain stucksomewhere between ethnocentrism empiricism historicism and lit-eralism and have thereby brought little distinctive anthropologicaland sociological analysis to bear successfully on the practical real-ities and political ideologies of its religious projects They tend to beaffected by what Roland Barthes (1993) called the ldquovirus of essencerdquovery much oriented towards a folklorist paradigm of Reliktfor-schung (Bausinger 1993) concerned with a search for the remainsof ancient times The main interest of such an unanalytical approachwhich often piles up uncritically all kinds of trite evidence seems onlyto be in correcting either the mistakes of Western specialists or thepresumptions of local scholars on one or another point of detail

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 448

Numen International Review for the History of Religions vol 53 2006 ndeg 4 pp 448ndash510ha

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9Author manuscript published in Numen International Review for

the History of Religions 53 4 (2006) 448ndash510 DOI 101163156852706778941996

Spiritual Surrender 449

This is clearly visible in recent years with the spate of bookspublished in Turkish and in Western languages about Bektashismand Alevism many of them by Bektashis or sympathizers ofBektashism for which an approach will remain comprehensibleand legitimate as long as it reproduces an apologetic discourse oraims at revealing the essence or the origins of Bektashism Somemay offer new interpretations and political slants which could pro-vide material for lively debates but their insufficiency is evidentsince they obscure the properly political dimensions of the phe-nomenon and are accompanied by a double naturalization

To begin with the Bektashis are usually taken for granted as acommunity once and for all After umpteen ldquopreliminaryrdquo accountsof studies regarding Bektashism (eg Kressing 2002) suggestionsfor further research are still advocated on the single account of themutual influences between the everlasting Bektashi and the differ-ent religions present in Anatolia or in the Balkans and their devel-opment in the course of time A supposed substratum of folkreligion the highly syncretistic character or the exclusive hetero-dox nature of Bektashism are unquestionably assumed and seen asthe continuous reactions to centuries of foreign dominance and hos-tile outside influences leading to an immutable inertness andpreservation of archaic features deemed to characterize theBektashisrsquo cultural and religious life So it is that most specialiststudies intend nothing more than to ldquoconvey a reasonable generalimpression that most Bektashis could acceptrdquo (Norton 2001)

Moreover many works regard Bektashism as self-explanatoryexpressing ldquoacademicallyrdquo what the Bektashis themselves claimldquoreligiouslyrdquo They are always declared victims par excellence sys-tematically oppressed by political or religious authoritarian regimesOn the other hand they are constantly made out to be the best pre-servers of both local cultural and universal moral values

If Islamic brotherhoods have always occupied an important placein social economic and political life from the old Ottoman Empireto modern Turkey throughout Turkish history the Bektashi have neverfailed to claim their foundations as exclusive centres of culture and

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450 Albert Doja

education In this way the Bektashis and other dervishes havecome to be seen as the providers of many things They convertednomads from shamanism to Islam extended social and emotionalsupport to new converts particularly the Janissaries provided foodand shelter to travellers proposed concrete saints for popular pietyto focus on and at the end of the nineteenth century constituted asource of support to the Young Turks and Turkish nationalismMany painstaking efforts have been made to show that certainBektashis ldquocould provide a source of legitimation against an estab-lished governmentrdquo or even ldquoprove the existence of a civil societyin the Ottoman Empirerdquo (Faroqhi 1995)

In present days in most situations the Bektashis defined againstSunni Islam present themselves as essentially modern and democratoverall defenders of human rights and gender equality Tolerancelove and respect for all men and women created in Godrsquos imageand in whom God manifests himself regardless of race religionor nation as well as hatred of hypocrisy and inner religion of theheart help for those in need kindness honesty solidarity equalityfraternity freedom democracy and the like all are frequent mes-sages that Bektashis seek to convey as unique humanistic traits oftheir ideology

Certain scholars on Bektashism have given their support to or repro-duced these essentializing identity and ideological discourses with-out questioning them At first the relative benevolence of Westernscholarship towards the Bektashis is partly explained by the sym-pathy they may inspire because of their politically correct charac-ter The Bektashis answer especially well to certain academic orpolitical as well as cosmopolitan or nationalist expectations to thepoint of their claims being largely considered if not progressive atleast legitimate Moreover the example of the Bektashis seems topertinently illustrate the meeting of Western academic projectionswith the political interests of a religious movement a shortcomingdenounced with accuracy by Elise Massicard in the case ofAlevism in contemporary Turkey (Massicard 2005) Western aca-

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Spiritual Surrender 451

demia has often reproduced the Bektashi historical vulgate makingof its protagonists successively the promoters of the nation theallies of secularity or the spearheads of democracy perhaps for thesame political or ideological reasons as their fellow Bektashis

Consequently we must reverse the question and precisely get ridof that apologetic vision of the origin and essence on which manyare so enthusiastic in order to be able to explain why at a giventime the community of a religious identity becomes a relevant mediumfor spiritual cultural social or political mobilization What theBektashis hold for their identity and their history must be treatedas a discursive ideological construction for we can reveal theirpossible situational relevance or their sociological and politicaldeterminants To build a relatively autonomous analysis of Bektashidiscourses it is necessary to study the context that produces suchritualized discourses and practices to convert the interpretations ofthe actors into data to be interpreted and to incorporate in the sub-ject of study their attempts to organize a memory and their strate-gies to balance or reverse power relationships Against mostavailable research on Bektashism it is time to move from the his-torical account of the dervish units and their symbolic practices towardsthe analysis of the political and sociological dynamics of their pro-duction and reproduction Far from politicizing and ethnicizingBektashi issues a critical and analytical approach must reveal andde-essentialize the hidden ideological undercurrents of discoursesmobilizing around religious identity and political projects

A different picture may result indeed from the basic assumptionthat different types of social organisation and ways of thinking arecompatible with the political establishment to varying degrees andreact to it in different ways Within the social sciences Max Weberalready made the difference in worldly success between theCatholic and the Protestant world-view central to his ProtestantEthic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 2002) whereas anthro-pology has been constantly interested in the ways that social organ-isations might be compared emphasizing that the investigation of

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452 Albert Doja

1 A few exceptions apart only texts written in a dervish milieu contain infor-mation about holy men and their doings and these texts were written not for his-torical but religious purposes However in recent studies by contemporary Turkishscholars such as the thorough commentaries on the Vilayet-Name of HadjiBektash or the comprehensive study of pre-Islamic motifs in Bektashi legend(Golpinarli 1958 Ocak 1983) a narrative or group of stories will be followed intheir passage through different literatures while the researcher tries to reconstructthe political reasons in the broadest sense why the narrative was put together inone fashion in a given context and in quite a different manner somewhere elseAfter having rediscovered the old truth that many apparently non-political actshave a political dimension authors attempting these kinds of analyses are nolonger concerned with the concrete details of dervish life but with the greatdebates of the time such as the tension between orthodox and heterodox worldviews or between the mystics and holy men who have accepted integration withinmainstream Muslim society and the mystic who refused such an accommodationThis novel type of elaboration is very attractive particularly given the ordinarilypedestrian proceedings of many Ottoman historians Yet the danger of arbitrarilyattributing to fifteenth-century writers of dervish legends motivations which stemindirectly from late twentieth-century concerns is not to be minimized (SeeFaroqhi 1995)

living phenomena are absolutely reliant upon comparing and estab-lishing the differences between relevant groups1

Eventually it is perhaps the modern views of the nation-state andall of its institutionalized mythologies that has confused eraseddesecrated and demolished our understanding of the local defini-tions and categories of group identity as articulated in everydaylife Whereas history is regarded as a technique that makes it pos-sible to reveal the origin and thus the very meaning of the realdefinition and the true nature of Bektashism beyond this meaningwhat is finally at issue is the inclusion of Bektashism into thenation and into the categories of negotiation and declaration ofidentity and otherness In these conditions many supposedly wellestablished facts concerning historical developments of Bektashidoctrine and organization have to be severely contested and ques-tioned as resulting from the deliberate use of myths for politicalideological and religious purposes

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Spiritual Surrender 453

A series of historical incidents like the sudden appearance andrapid spread of the Bektashi group of dervishes during the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries their transformation into a power-ful Sufi order during Ottoman times and the developments towhich Bektashism has been subjected in late Ottoman period aswell as in independent Albania and in modern Turkey still remainissues that require explanations One of the main reasons that athorough critical analysis using explanatory insights from historicalanthropology and sociology may prove to be important is the pos-sibility it offers to combine the study of Bektashism both as acreed within Islam as a kind of liberation theology as a quasi-political movement and partner suited to national movements andas an ideological power base to reassert political authority Thismeans that the discussion must deal with the main groups withinsociety in a coherent analytical framework in terms of ideology organ-ization government and opposition something that is often omit-ted in discussions of Ottoman society

I do not seek here to reassess the arguments over the availableBektashi material nor am I able to treat in anything but the mostsuperficial way the fascinating but complex world of Ottoman his-tory I do believe however that we are immensely in need of acomprehensive analytical model to understand the meaning andpurpose of such a coherent ideology subsumed under the rubric ofreligion a model that must explain indeed a great deal of thediverse religious paths that I believe are characteristic of the mod-ern world today To this aim this article taking the developmentof master-disciple relationship within Bektashism as a workingexample is part of a larger critical and explanatory analysis aimedat revealing that the variations in the course of Bektashismrsquos his-tory probably best exemplify such a transformational model involv-ing many of its complex theological ideological cultural socialand political aspects

Without being necessarily concerned with genealogy my positionis anthropological ie seeking by a comparative approach to benefitfrom the discontinuity between the distinct historical vicissitudes of

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

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0405

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0405

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sion

1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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450 Albert Doja

education In this way the Bektashis and other dervishes havecome to be seen as the providers of many things They convertednomads from shamanism to Islam extended social and emotionalsupport to new converts particularly the Janissaries provided foodand shelter to travellers proposed concrete saints for popular pietyto focus on and at the end of the nineteenth century constituted asource of support to the Young Turks and Turkish nationalismMany painstaking efforts have been made to show that certainBektashis ldquocould provide a source of legitimation against an estab-lished governmentrdquo or even ldquoprove the existence of a civil societyin the Ottoman Empirerdquo (Faroqhi 1995)

In present days in most situations the Bektashis defined againstSunni Islam present themselves as essentially modern and democratoverall defenders of human rights and gender equality Tolerancelove and respect for all men and women created in Godrsquos imageand in whom God manifests himself regardless of race religionor nation as well as hatred of hypocrisy and inner religion of theheart help for those in need kindness honesty solidarity equalityfraternity freedom democracy and the like all are frequent mes-sages that Bektashis seek to convey as unique humanistic traits oftheir ideology

Certain scholars on Bektashism have given their support to or repro-duced these essentializing identity and ideological discourses with-out questioning them At first the relative benevolence of Westernscholarship towards the Bektashis is partly explained by the sym-pathy they may inspire because of their politically correct charac-ter The Bektashis answer especially well to certain academic orpolitical as well as cosmopolitan or nationalist expectations to thepoint of their claims being largely considered if not progressive atleast legitimate Moreover the example of the Bektashis seems topertinently illustrate the meeting of Western academic projectionswith the political interests of a religious movement a shortcomingdenounced with accuracy by Elise Massicard in the case ofAlevism in contemporary Turkey (Massicard 2005) Western aca-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 450

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Spiritual Surrender 451

demia has often reproduced the Bektashi historical vulgate makingof its protagonists successively the promoters of the nation theallies of secularity or the spearheads of democracy perhaps for thesame political or ideological reasons as their fellow Bektashis

Consequently we must reverse the question and precisely get ridof that apologetic vision of the origin and essence on which manyare so enthusiastic in order to be able to explain why at a giventime the community of a religious identity becomes a relevant mediumfor spiritual cultural social or political mobilization What theBektashis hold for their identity and their history must be treatedas a discursive ideological construction for we can reveal theirpossible situational relevance or their sociological and politicaldeterminants To build a relatively autonomous analysis of Bektashidiscourses it is necessary to study the context that produces suchritualized discourses and practices to convert the interpretations ofthe actors into data to be interpreted and to incorporate in the sub-ject of study their attempts to organize a memory and their strate-gies to balance or reverse power relationships Against mostavailable research on Bektashism it is time to move from the his-torical account of the dervish units and their symbolic practices towardsthe analysis of the political and sociological dynamics of their pro-duction and reproduction Far from politicizing and ethnicizingBektashi issues a critical and analytical approach must reveal andde-essentialize the hidden ideological undercurrents of discoursesmobilizing around religious identity and political projects

A different picture may result indeed from the basic assumptionthat different types of social organisation and ways of thinking arecompatible with the political establishment to varying degrees andreact to it in different ways Within the social sciences Max Weberalready made the difference in worldly success between theCatholic and the Protestant world-view central to his ProtestantEthic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 2002) whereas anthro-pology has been constantly interested in the ways that social organ-isations might be compared emphasizing that the investigation of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 451

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452 Albert Doja

1 A few exceptions apart only texts written in a dervish milieu contain infor-mation about holy men and their doings and these texts were written not for his-torical but religious purposes However in recent studies by contemporary Turkishscholars such as the thorough commentaries on the Vilayet-Name of HadjiBektash or the comprehensive study of pre-Islamic motifs in Bektashi legend(Golpinarli 1958 Ocak 1983) a narrative or group of stories will be followed intheir passage through different literatures while the researcher tries to reconstructthe political reasons in the broadest sense why the narrative was put together inone fashion in a given context and in quite a different manner somewhere elseAfter having rediscovered the old truth that many apparently non-political actshave a political dimension authors attempting these kinds of analyses are nolonger concerned with the concrete details of dervish life but with the greatdebates of the time such as the tension between orthodox and heterodox worldviews or between the mystics and holy men who have accepted integration withinmainstream Muslim society and the mystic who refused such an accommodationThis novel type of elaboration is very attractive particularly given the ordinarilypedestrian proceedings of many Ottoman historians Yet the danger of arbitrarilyattributing to fifteenth-century writers of dervish legends motivations which stemindirectly from late twentieth-century concerns is not to be minimized (SeeFaroqhi 1995)

living phenomena are absolutely reliant upon comparing and estab-lishing the differences between relevant groups1

Eventually it is perhaps the modern views of the nation-state andall of its institutionalized mythologies that has confused eraseddesecrated and demolished our understanding of the local defini-tions and categories of group identity as articulated in everydaylife Whereas history is regarded as a technique that makes it pos-sible to reveal the origin and thus the very meaning of the realdefinition and the true nature of Bektashism beyond this meaningwhat is finally at issue is the inclusion of Bektashism into thenation and into the categories of negotiation and declaration ofidentity and otherness In these conditions many supposedly wellestablished facts concerning historical developments of Bektashidoctrine and organization have to be severely contested and ques-tioned as resulting from the deliberate use of myths for politicalideological and religious purposes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 452

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Spiritual Surrender 453

A series of historical incidents like the sudden appearance andrapid spread of the Bektashi group of dervishes during the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries their transformation into a power-ful Sufi order during Ottoman times and the developments towhich Bektashism has been subjected in late Ottoman period aswell as in independent Albania and in modern Turkey still remainissues that require explanations One of the main reasons that athorough critical analysis using explanatory insights from historicalanthropology and sociology may prove to be important is the pos-sibility it offers to combine the study of Bektashism both as acreed within Islam as a kind of liberation theology as a quasi-political movement and partner suited to national movements andas an ideological power base to reassert political authority Thismeans that the discussion must deal with the main groups withinsociety in a coherent analytical framework in terms of ideology organ-ization government and opposition something that is often omit-ted in discussions of Ottoman society

I do not seek here to reassess the arguments over the availableBektashi material nor am I able to treat in anything but the mostsuperficial way the fascinating but complex world of Ottoman his-tory I do believe however that we are immensely in need of acomprehensive analytical model to understand the meaning andpurpose of such a coherent ideology subsumed under the rubric ofreligion a model that must explain indeed a great deal of thediverse religious paths that I believe are characteristic of the mod-ern world today To this aim this article taking the developmentof master-disciple relationship within Bektashism as a workingexample is part of a larger critical and explanatory analysis aimedat revealing that the variations in the course of Bektashismrsquos his-tory probably best exemplify such a transformational model involv-ing many of its complex theological ideological cultural socialand political aspects

Without being necessarily concerned with genealogy my positionis anthropological ie seeking by a comparative approach to benefitfrom the discontinuity between the distinct historical vicissitudes of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 453

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 454

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 456

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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hals

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sion

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009

460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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009

Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

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963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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Spiritual Surrender 451

demia has often reproduced the Bektashi historical vulgate makingof its protagonists successively the promoters of the nation theallies of secularity or the spearheads of democracy perhaps for thesame political or ideological reasons as their fellow Bektashis

Consequently we must reverse the question and precisely get ridof that apologetic vision of the origin and essence on which manyare so enthusiastic in order to be able to explain why at a giventime the community of a religious identity becomes a relevant mediumfor spiritual cultural social or political mobilization What theBektashis hold for their identity and their history must be treatedas a discursive ideological construction for we can reveal theirpossible situational relevance or their sociological and politicaldeterminants To build a relatively autonomous analysis of Bektashidiscourses it is necessary to study the context that produces suchritualized discourses and practices to convert the interpretations ofthe actors into data to be interpreted and to incorporate in the sub-ject of study their attempts to organize a memory and their strate-gies to balance or reverse power relationships Against mostavailable research on Bektashism it is time to move from the his-torical account of the dervish units and their symbolic practices towardsthe analysis of the political and sociological dynamics of their pro-duction and reproduction Far from politicizing and ethnicizingBektashi issues a critical and analytical approach must reveal andde-essentialize the hidden ideological undercurrents of discoursesmobilizing around religious identity and political projects

A different picture may result indeed from the basic assumptionthat different types of social organisation and ways of thinking arecompatible with the political establishment to varying degrees andreact to it in different ways Within the social sciences Max Weberalready made the difference in worldly success between theCatholic and the Protestant world-view central to his ProtestantEthic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 2002) whereas anthro-pology has been constantly interested in the ways that social organ-isations might be compared emphasizing that the investigation of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 451

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452 Albert Doja

1 A few exceptions apart only texts written in a dervish milieu contain infor-mation about holy men and their doings and these texts were written not for his-torical but religious purposes However in recent studies by contemporary Turkishscholars such as the thorough commentaries on the Vilayet-Name of HadjiBektash or the comprehensive study of pre-Islamic motifs in Bektashi legend(Golpinarli 1958 Ocak 1983) a narrative or group of stories will be followed intheir passage through different literatures while the researcher tries to reconstructthe political reasons in the broadest sense why the narrative was put together inone fashion in a given context and in quite a different manner somewhere elseAfter having rediscovered the old truth that many apparently non-political actshave a political dimension authors attempting these kinds of analyses are nolonger concerned with the concrete details of dervish life but with the greatdebates of the time such as the tension between orthodox and heterodox worldviews or between the mystics and holy men who have accepted integration withinmainstream Muslim society and the mystic who refused such an accommodationThis novel type of elaboration is very attractive particularly given the ordinarilypedestrian proceedings of many Ottoman historians Yet the danger of arbitrarilyattributing to fifteenth-century writers of dervish legends motivations which stemindirectly from late twentieth-century concerns is not to be minimized (SeeFaroqhi 1995)

living phenomena are absolutely reliant upon comparing and estab-lishing the differences between relevant groups1

Eventually it is perhaps the modern views of the nation-state andall of its institutionalized mythologies that has confused eraseddesecrated and demolished our understanding of the local defini-tions and categories of group identity as articulated in everydaylife Whereas history is regarded as a technique that makes it pos-sible to reveal the origin and thus the very meaning of the realdefinition and the true nature of Bektashism beyond this meaningwhat is finally at issue is the inclusion of Bektashism into thenation and into the categories of negotiation and declaration ofidentity and otherness In these conditions many supposedly wellestablished facts concerning historical developments of Bektashidoctrine and organization have to be severely contested and ques-tioned as resulting from the deliberate use of myths for politicalideological and religious purposes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 452

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Spiritual Surrender 453

A series of historical incidents like the sudden appearance andrapid spread of the Bektashi group of dervishes during the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries their transformation into a power-ful Sufi order during Ottoman times and the developments towhich Bektashism has been subjected in late Ottoman period aswell as in independent Albania and in modern Turkey still remainissues that require explanations One of the main reasons that athorough critical analysis using explanatory insights from historicalanthropology and sociology may prove to be important is the pos-sibility it offers to combine the study of Bektashism both as acreed within Islam as a kind of liberation theology as a quasi-political movement and partner suited to national movements andas an ideological power base to reassert political authority Thismeans that the discussion must deal with the main groups withinsociety in a coherent analytical framework in terms of ideology organ-ization government and opposition something that is often omit-ted in discussions of Ottoman society

I do not seek here to reassess the arguments over the availableBektashi material nor am I able to treat in anything but the mostsuperficial way the fascinating but complex world of Ottoman his-tory I do believe however that we are immensely in need of acomprehensive analytical model to understand the meaning andpurpose of such a coherent ideology subsumed under the rubric ofreligion a model that must explain indeed a great deal of thediverse religious paths that I believe are characteristic of the mod-ern world today To this aim this article taking the developmentof master-disciple relationship within Bektashism as a workingexample is part of a larger critical and explanatory analysis aimedat revealing that the variations in the course of Bektashismrsquos his-tory probably best exemplify such a transformational model involv-ing many of its complex theological ideological cultural socialand political aspects

Without being necessarily concerned with genealogy my positionis anthropological ie seeking by a comparative approach to benefitfrom the discontinuity between the distinct historical vicissitudes of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 453

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 454

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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009

462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

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sion

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1 -

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Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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452 Albert Doja

1 A few exceptions apart only texts written in a dervish milieu contain infor-mation about holy men and their doings and these texts were written not for his-torical but religious purposes However in recent studies by contemporary Turkishscholars such as the thorough commentaries on the Vilayet-Name of HadjiBektash or the comprehensive study of pre-Islamic motifs in Bektashi legend(Golpinarli 1958 Ocak 1983) a narrative or group of stories will be followed intheir passage through different literatures while the researcher tries to reconstructthe political reasons in the broadest sense why the narrative was put together inone fashion in a given context and in quite a different manner somewhere elseAfter having rediscovered the old truth that many apparently non-political actshave a political dimension authors attempting these kinds of analyses are nolonger concerned with the concrete details of dervish life but with the greatdebates of the time such as the tension between orthodox and heterodox worldviews or between the mystics and holy men who have accepted integration withinmainstream Muslim society and the mystic who refused such an accommodationThis novel type of elaboration is very attractive particularly given the ordinarilypedestrian proceedings of many Ottoman historians Yet the danger of arbitrarilyattributing to fifteenth-century writers of dervish legends motivations which stemindirectly from late twentieth-century concerns is not to be minimized (SeeFaroqhi 1995)

living phenomena are absolutely reliant upon comparing and estab-lishing the differences between relevant groups1

Eventually it is perhaps the modern views of the nation-state andall of its institutionalized mythologies that has confused eraseddesecrated and demolished our understanding of the local defini-tions and categories of group identity as articulated in everydaylife Whereas history is regarded as a technique that makes it pos-sible to reveal the origin and thus the very meaning of the realdefinition and the true nature of Bektashism beyond this meaningwhat is finally at issue is the inclusion of Bektashism into thenation and into the categories of negotiation and declaration ofidentity and otherness In these conditions many supposedly wellestablished facts concerning historical developments of Bektashidoctrine and organization have to be severely contested and ques-tioned as resulting from the deliberate use of myths for politicalideological and religious purposes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 452

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Spiritual Surrender 453

A series of historical incidents like the sudden appearance andrapid spread of the Bektashi group of dervishes during the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries their transformation into a power-ful Sufi order during Ottoman times and the developments towhich Bektashism has been subjected in late Ottoman period aswell as in independent Albania and in modern Turkey still remainissues that require explanations One of the main reasons that athorough critical analysis using explanatory insights from historicalanthropology and sociology may prove to be important is the pos-sibility it offers to combine the study of Bektashism both as acreed within Islam as a kind of liberation theology as a quasi-political movement and partner suited to national movements andas an ideological power base to reassert political authority Thismeans that the discussion must deal with the main groups withinsociety in a coherent analytical framework in terms of ideology organ-ization government and opposition something that is often omit-ted in discussions of Ottoman society

I do not seek here to reassess the arguments over the availableBektashi material nor am I able to treat in anything but the mostsuperficial way the fascinating but complex world of Ottoman his-tory I do believe however that we are immensely in need of acomprehensive analytical model to understand the meaning andpurpose of such a coherent ideology subsumed under the rubric ofreligion a model that must explain indeed a great deal of thediverse religious paths that I believe are characteristic of the mod-ern world today To this aim this article taking the developmentof master-disciple relationship within Bektashism as a workingexample is part of a larger critical and explanatory analysis aimedat revealing that the variations in the course of Bektashismrsquos his-tory probably best exemplify such a transformational model involv-ing many of its complex theological ideological cultural socialand political aspects

Without being necessarily concerned with genealogy my positionis anthropological ie seeking by a comparative approach to benefitfrom the discontinuity between the distinct historical vicissitudes of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 453

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 454

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 456

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 490

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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009

Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

hals

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0405

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hals

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sion

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21 J

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009

504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

hs-0

0405

963

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sion

1 -

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hals

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0405

963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

ul 2

009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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963

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1 -

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hals

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sion

1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 453

A series of historical incidents like the sudden appearance andrapid spread of the Bektashi group of dervishes during the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries their transformation into a power-ful Sufi order during Ottoman times and the developments towhich Bektashism has been subjected in late Ottoman period aswell as in independent Albania and in modern Turkey still remainissues that require explanations One of the main reasons that athorough critical analysis using explanatory insights from historicalanthropology and sociology may prove to be important is the pos-sibility it offers to combine the study of Bektashism both as acreed within Islam as a kind of liberation theology as a quasi-political movement and partner suited to national movements andas an ideological power base to reassert political authority Thismeans that the discussion must deal with the main groups withinsociety in a coherent analytical framework in terms of ideology organ-ization government and opposition something that is often omit-ted in discussions of Ottoman society

I do not seek here to reassess the arguments over the availableBektashi material nor am I able to treat in anything but the mostsuperficial way the fascinating but complex world of Ottoman his-tory I do believe however that we are immensely in need of acomprehensive analytical model to understand the meaning andpurpose of such a coherent ideology subsumed under the rubric ofreligion a model that must explain indeed a great deal of thediverse religious paths that I believe are characteristic of the mod-ern world today To this aim this article taking the developmentof master-disciple relationship within Bektashism as a workingexample is part of a larger critical and explanatory analysis aimedat revealing that the variations in the course of Bektashismrsquos his-tory probably best exemplify such a transformational model involv-ing many of its complex theological ideological cultural socialand political aspects

Without being necessarily concerned with genealogy my positionis anthropological ie seeking by a comparative approach to benefitfrom the discontinuity between the distinct historical vicissitudes of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 453

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 454

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 492

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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454 Albert Doja

Bektashism in order to discover typological homologies which mayshow them to be different realizations of a similar pattern thusmaking it possible to discover a structure of common fundamentalconstraints to a spiritual tendency to meet social cultural nationaland political perspectives The search for this common backgroundthus does not erase the differences and their distinctiveness whichan anthropologically informed approach to history rather aims tolocate since it is their reality that only makes it possible to eluci-date the homologies

Heterodox religious movements and the institution of new formsof religion as in the case of mystical orders of Islam like the Bektashisare decisive for understanding the history of religions in SoutheastEuropean area Understanding this history in turn could bring forthinsights for understanding the current situation in which groupidentities are being negotiated and redefined While mystics do notpartake in or directly express class struggle their heterodoxy overand beyond the intensity and power of their beliefs or the radicalcharacter of their opposition to the established religion always didand still necessarily does crystallize political social and culturaldiscontent which is in turn very often either ethnicized alongnationalist lines or politicized along power forces or both

The point is not only that religion as a cultural symbolic systemuses political and other resources that show a power base Moreimportantly religion in its own field has a symbolic structurewhich as Bourdieu put it (Bourdieu 1971) reproduces the distri-bution of resources and power from the non-symbolic mundanefield in a transformed form To better appreciate this we mustarguably begin by attempting to comprehend the underlyingsignificance of the structures of religious representation and medi-ation and the implication of their change in support of either cul-tural orderings or order-questioning projects in human society

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 454

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 456

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 469

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 470

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 483

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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009

Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

hs-0

0405

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sion

1 -

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963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

ul 2

009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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Spiritual Surrender 455

Background

The Bektashi order of dervishes originated as one of the manySufi movements of Islam that developed in the Middle East fromthe eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards (Karamustafa 1994) Atthis time a number of missionary precursors known as the Saintsof Khorassan infiltrated Anatolia where they paved the way for dervish groups like the Bektashis The name of the order is derivedfrom the legendary founder Hadji Bektash even though as inmany other cases concerning Sufi hagiography Hadji Bektash wasnot the actual founder of the order but a patron saint chosen at alater date He is himself supposed to have come originally fromKhorassan in north-east Iran and lived in Anatolia in the secondhalf of the thirteenth century (Melikoff 1998) The description ofhis Vilayet-Name corresponds to that of the typical wandering dervishesknown as Iranian Kalenders or Anatolian Abdals in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries (Ocak 1995) The dervishes who followedhim are called Abdal and from the very start he is called ldquoleaderrdquo(pir) of Anatolian Abdals

Apparently Bektashism must have started during the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries as a mixture of shamanism inherited fromthe Turkic tribes of Khorassan with popular beliefs in such a wayas to appeal to villagers and the lower class of the Anatolian pop-ulation In its region of origin Bektashism must have mingled withlocal beliefs and it is not surprising that besides different Sufi doc-trines and practices many religious traditions may have contributedto the development and appearance of Bektashism includingancient Turkic elements preserving pre-Islamic and non-Islamic beliefsand customs originating in shamanism Buddhism ManichaeismChristianity and ancient religions (Birge 1937) In Anatolia andlater in the Balkans Bektashism encountered further NeoplatonistChristian and Nestorian influences Being receptive to many ele-ments of these religions the Bektashis also incorporated anthropo-morphic and cabbalistic doctrines of letter and number symbolismthat can be traced to Hurufism (Melikoff 1992163ndash74 Popovic

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 455

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

hals

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009

462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

hs-0

0405

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sion

1 -

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sion

1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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456 Albert Doja

2 In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire early European scholars more par-ticularly found in Bektashism a worship that they linked to crypto-Christian tra-ditions surviving in Anatolia which would also explain the special missionaryinterest in their regard (Kieser 2001) Some perceived parallels among others tothe Christian Trinity and the Twelve Disciples or between Christian devotion tothe Virgin Mary and Bektashi devotion to Fatima wife of Ali and daughter ofMuhammad have led many commentators to presume that these features weretaken from Christianity and simply given a superficial Islamic veneer Such syn-cretism is further claimed to have made Bektashism acceptable to many non-Muslims who would have found the austere teachings of Sunni orthodoxy unattractiveAuthors holding such views tend to think that Bektashism turned into a refuge formany Christians and that the syncretistic forms of sectarian Islam became anappropriate bridge for the transition from Christianity to Islam The many traits ofChristianity that had been incorporated into Bektashism and other Sufi groups aresupposed to have contributed significantly to the shaping of popular Islamicbeliefs thus facilitating the conversion to Islam of the Christian populations inAnatolia and the Balkans which are assumed to have been previously only superficiallyChristianized In Eastern Europe for instance the population remained generallyfaithful to Eastern Christian Orthodoxy except for some Albanian Bosnian andBulgarian groups but those who did convert to Islam under the Ottoman Empire

and Veinstein 199539ndash53) combined with an extremist Shiitecredo that linked devotion to the divinity of Ali with beliefs inanthropomorphism the manifestation of God in human form rein-carnation and metempsychosis (Melikoff 200197ndash120)

Such a considerable number of doctrines and practices of het-erogeneous origins has lead to heated disputes between specialistsover the prevalence of one influence or the other and finally toclaims that the Bektashi order did not have a well defined theol-ogy that it could accommodate much local influence and that itsfundamental character is an all-encompassing syncretism (Melikoff1992 Popovic and Veinstein 1995) Many authors have regardedBektashism as an external layer over pre-Islamic Christian or otherbeliefs2 In Turkish scholarship however from the very startWestern studies were severely criticized for having attributed thespecificities of Bektashism to Christian traditions (Koprulu 1926)and Turkish nationalists and folklorists have insisted on the Turkish

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 456

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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sion

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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009

Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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009

468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 469

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 470

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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009

Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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009

482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 492

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

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1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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Spiritual Surrender 457

chose the Bektashi interpretation of Islam A tenet of Bulgarian scholarship inparticular has for a long time been the Bogomil hypothesis (see Gramatikova2001) which associated the Bektashi ethnically with the Bulgarian component andreligiously with the Christian Bogomil heresy thus presenting them as descendantsof either Old Bulgarians or Islamicized Christians

origins of Bektashism Still a prevailing syncretism betweenancient pre-Islamic Turkic and Islamic elements in Bektashi loreis argued again on the account of the encounter of pre-IslamicTurks with ldquohigh religionsrdquo in Central Asia and the position of theBektashis at the crossroads of different cultures while the questionof shamanic remainders is claimed to be far less important than hasbeen usually assumed (Ocak 1983) This official version still cur-rent has been taken over willy-nilly by many Western specialistswithout questioning its actual relevance

Another general claim is that the Bektashis preserved many traitsof oppositional movements and heretical groups and shaped theminto a synthesis during times of a mutual penetration of Turkic andByzantine cultural traits There is clear evidence for the participa-tion of Hadji Bektash himself and his adherents in the Turcomanuprisings against Seljuk rule in 1239ndash1240 the so-called Babaicircrevolt (Koprulu 199376ndash77) However there remains probably verylittle resemblance between the Turkic beliefs of Hadji Bektashrsquostime in the thirteenth century and the heterodox but sophisticateddoctrines taught at the turn of sixteenth century when the Bektashiswere organized as an established order of dervishes

While the complexities of the Bektashi past may never be knownprecisely specialist historians appear to agree that they were oftentribal or nomadic communities who inhabited that uneasy geographicalregion between the central power of the Ottomans on the one handand the gradually more orthodox Safavid Iran on the other Whilethey were exposed to many different currents of Islamic thought oneof the most effective was a form of revolutionary mystical leader-ship espoused by Iranian Shiism which gave Kizilbash-Bektashismafter this period a distinctive Shiite character This brought the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 457

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458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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009

Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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009

Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

hs-0

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sion

1 -

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0405

963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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sion

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009

458 Albert Doja

Kizilbash into violent conflict with the Ottoman state itself evermore inclined towards Sunnism (Kehl-Bodrogi 198842ndash47) It ledto widespread brutal massacres and forced conversion a persecu-tion that reached its peak during the time of Sultan Selim I(1512ndash1520) As a result of mass deportations during this timefrom Anatolia to the European provinces the Kizilbash and otherheretics integrated into the Bektashi order must have laid theground for the presence of Shiite and heterodox elements in south-east Europe

Parallel to the tumultuous Kizilbash developments in the earlysixteenth century taking place under the explicit patronage of theOttoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481ndash1512) a reforming trend was intro-duced with the appointment of a dervish known as Balim Sultan(1473ndash1516) to the headship of the order of Bektashis Formerlyleader of an important Bektashi foundation in Dimetoka nearEdirne in Thrace he took up his post at the Bektashi headquartersof Hacibektash Village in Anatolia around the year 1501 takingfirm control and introducing a large degree of uniformity whichearned him to be revered as the orderrsquos second founding saintShortly thereafter the Bektashis astonishingly established them-selves as one of the most influential dervish orders during theOttoman period from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

As colonizers charged with the Turkicization and Islamicizationof countries conquered by the first Ottoman sultans (Melikoff1992115ndash137) the Bektashis were not only an instrument of theOttoman propaganda in these countries but also enjoyed somepolitical importance in the Ottoman Empire even imposing them-selves on certain weak or mystically inclined sultans especiallywhen the Bektashis were closely connected with the Janissarytroops the instrument of Ottoman military power It is consideredthat the Bektashis constantly encouraged and dominated the Janissariesby traditionally providing their religious guides This electiveaffinity between the two groups has been attributed both to the sup-posed Christian substratum of Bektashism and to the widespreadand long-lasting Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian youths

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 458

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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009

468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 469

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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009

482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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009

Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 492

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

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0405

963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

ul 2

009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

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Spiritual Surrender 459

into the Janissary Corps To what degree however the rise of theBektashi order can be attributed to its links with the Janissaries isa matter still open for investigation as disputes rage among spe-cialists about the role of Bektashis in the formation of Janissariesas an elite army

When after repeated revolts and rebellions the Janissary troopswere finally dismantled in 1826 with resisting forces being massa-cred the Bektashis as well became subject to state suppression andhad to move to the margins of the Empire A hundred years laterin the modern Turkey after World War I the Bektashi order againsuffered state prosecution until 1925 when it was officially abol-ished together with the other dervish orders in the newly foundedTurkish Republic These trials and tribulations allowed Bektashismto develop again a non-conformist and antinomian stance to thepoint of being often depicted despite its deep mystical roots as aprogressive current within Islam close to Westernizing and mod-ernizing trends

In a very broad generalization it has been argued that a ldquohistor-ical bipartitionrdquo developed between the Bektashis who were tradi-tionally urbanized and educated and the Alevis who lived invillages the former having spread in the Balkans and the latter remaining in the Anatolian countryside (Melikoff 200137ndash44)Bektashism has therefore often been considered as a kind ofldquopurifiedrdquo Islam what an older generation of social anthropologistsmight have termed the ldquogreat traditionrdquo of the urban and organizedBektashi order against the ldquolittle traditionrdquo of the rural and less-educated Alevi or Kizilbash Insisting however that modern Aleviand Bektashi groups have much more in common than they havedifferences the Alevis themselves will often talk about the ldquoAlevi-Bektashirdquo creed culture or traditions

In the persecution climate during Ottoman-Safavid wars in thesixteenth century the isolated Kizilbash-Alevis in rural Anatolia devel-oped traditions practices and doctrines that by the early seventeenthcentury marked them as closed autonomous religious communitiesopposed to all forms of external religion (Kehl-Bodrogi 198838ndash47)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 459

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460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 460

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 462

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 466

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 481

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 490

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 491

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 494

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 495

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 496

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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009

Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

hals

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0405

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hals

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sion

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21 J

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

hals

hs-0

0405

963

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sion

1 -

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hals

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0405

963

ver

sion

1 -

21 J

ul 2

009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 505

hals

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963

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sion

1 -

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hals

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0405

963

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sion

1 -

21 J

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009

460 Albert Doja

Alevism used to be and to some extent still continues to carry asocial stigma in contemporary Turkey and many Alevis have attemptedto hide their backgrounds once they had moved to large cities

The relationship with the Sunni majority remains one of mutualsuspicion and prejudice dating back to the Ottoman period Sunnishave accused Alevis of heresy heterodoxy rebellion betrayal andimmorality Alevis on the other hand view themselves as the truepreservers of authentic Turkish culture religion and languageMore importantly Alevism is claimed to be able to adapt to moder-nity because it is flexible and tolerant possessing a natural senseof equality and justice It is much more suitable for the modernworld than Sunnism it is said for it includes traits supposedly sup-pressed by the latter which is therefore not true Islam but an aber-ration that opposes free and independent thought by its strictlegalism which is seen as reactionary bigoted fanatic intolerantdomineering and antidemocratic

More importantly in the last three decades one has witnessed inTurkey what has been described as an Alevi cultural revival whichhas led to the issue of Bektashi or Alevi heterodoxy becomingheatedly politicized and ethnicized (Kehl-Bodrogi 1992 Vorhoff 1995Shankland 2003 Massicard 2005) Spearheaded by the new edu-cated Alevi elite Alevi cultural associations are established foun-dations and trusts organized old Bektashi convents reopenedsaintsrsquo tombs rebuilt rituals restored and re-invented The revivalplaces emphasis on Alevism as a cultural and religious heritage andaims to reconstruct Alevi culture community and identity but alsoto articulate Alevi collective interests towards the modern state anddemand equality with the Sunni majority In an ongoing process ofnegotiation where leaders representing different traditions andtrends participate many intellectuals have made contributions towardsa systematization of Alevi beliefs and a flood of new books andjournals reflects the efforts to reinvent Alevism

Certain actors interpret Alevism as the specifically Turkish formof Islam that is the ldquotruerdquo Islam rid of Arab influences Alevism

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Spiritual Surrender 461

according to them is a Turkish-Anatolian religion combining Islamwith elements of Turkish culture An ethnic dimension is oftenemphasized making Alevism into a support for Turkish identity or portraying it as an authentic Kurdish phenomenon More gener-ally this view sees Alevism as the authentic expression of an Ana-tolian culture and civilization and in contrast to a specific Turkishnationalism sets up an Anatolian cultural mosaic which includes manyother groups allied with the Alevis against Ottoman oppression

While many have remained Kemalist and continued to hope thatthe state will officially legitimize the Bektashi order the new gen-eration has shown a strong tendency to think of Alevism as a polit-ical opposition movement rather than a religious tradition Partlydue to the severe repression of the left and partly as a response tothe imposition of a conservative brand of Sunni Islam by the statethe young generation joined extreme leftist parties Working for aradical restructuring of society they viewed all ldquoreactionaryrdquo ele-ments which tried to assimilate them into mainstream Sunni life as enemies reinterpreting both historical opposition to Sunnism interms of class struggle and Alevism in a socialist and Marxistidiom that hightlighted Bektashi ideals of equality and traditions ofrevolt and opposition to the state (Vorhoff 1995) They viewed theirreligion as a positive political and social revolutionary ideologyfighting against oppression and evil on behalf of the poor and marginalized sectors of society They thus defined Alevism in thetradition of democracy or as a culture of rebellion based on theKizilbash revolts under Ottoman Empire or on the massive Aleviengagement to the left in contemporary Turkey Considering thatAli was the defender of the poor and oppressed and that Hassanand Hussein were the first martyrs in the cause of the dispossessedthey presented Alevism as having always led the fight for libera-tion against all tyranny while reactionary Sunnism served the richand powerful dominant elites

Still most Alevis follow the Kemalist secularist ideology and asAlevism becomes more secular the conception of God becomes

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 461

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462 Albert Doja

almost entirely internalized and conflated with the person in worldlylife (Shankland 2003) Thus the Sufi cry of ecstasy conflating Godand the self regarded as the pinnacle of profound understandingand often associated with a mass of complicated symbolism andsecret doctrine becomes completely routinized a casual butassertive claim to place the individual and their desires at the cen-tre of the universe This shift can lead to a profoundly peaceful humanism and frequently does It may also lead to a notable phe-nomenon whereby individuals or sometimes whole Alevi associa-tions interpret Alevism as an international culture They stress onlythe liberal and humanistic values of Alevism as a world-viewdownplaying its religious connotations In this context they maydeny that Alevism is Islamic and claim that its origins lie in pre-Islamic religious systems stressing their links to similar groups allassumed to be fragments of an original community For these peo-ple being a Alevi is extended to mean something that is commonto all humanity not restricted to a chosen group of believers andwhich in effect has nothing to do with religion

On the other side during the later developments of Bektashismunder the Ottoman Empire Albania often served as a kind of exilefor the adherents of the Bektashi order and there is general agree-ment that after their first noticeable presence in that country in thesecond half of seventeenth century Bektashism gradually becamemore and more deeply rooted in Albania during the end of nine-teenth century Besides the fact that the Bektashis in Albania werespared the suppression that the order had to face in Anatolia andother core areas of the Ottoman Empire after 1826 a reason for itsgrowth in that country may be the specific Albanian religious cli-mate (see Doja 2000b) on which account the establishment ofBektashism in Albania has attracted special attention as a religionsupposed to have incorporated many archaic traits and to havedeveloped in Albania an independent character something whichserves as another paradigmatic example of the forces of culturalinertness and political resistance (Kressing 2002) Because of its

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Spiritual Surrender 463

both pantheistic and unorthodox character it has often been as-sumed that the acceptance of Bektashism in Albania was largelyfacilitated by the fact that Bektashi syncretism already combinedpre-Islamic and Shiite elements with Christian elements

When Bektashism established itself in Albania the argumentgoes that these elements must have been quickly replaced byAlbanian popular traditions Arguably Bektashism came to be per-ceived as the purest expression of Albanian religiosity and the con-servatory of Albanian traditions to the point of being considered asthe only truly national religion and it is no surprise if Bektashismight have played an important role in the national awaking of Albaniain the second half of the nineteenth century Specialists speak ofthe ldquosolidificationrdquo of a properly Albanian Bektashism in the west-ern confines of Ottoman Empire with elements of Albanian nation-alism being integrated into Bektashi doctrine especially in the southernparts of the country where most of the Bektashi lodges were situ-ated (Popovic and Veinstein 1996470)

Whether religious politics was instrumental in mobilizing ideo-logical myths or actual action on the eve of the Albanian independ-ence the Bektashis were numerically important and politicallyinfluential and Albanian Bektashi dervishes were frequently foundin convents outside their own country Many high Bektashi digni-taries including sometimes even the supreme leader of the centralinstitution are often thought to be of Albanian origin WhenTurkey decreed the definitive abolition of all the mystical orders in1925 the Bektashi general headquarters once again took refuge inAlbania At any case it became quite clear that a decisive nationalAlbanian character of the order was further fostered in the courseof the twentieth century when Bektashism became officially rec-ognized by the Albanian state as the fourth legal denominationalcongregation of the country

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 463

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464 Albert Doja

Nonconformist Groupings and Liberation Theology

The Bektashis were one of the many bands of believers seekingto achieve the goal of most Sufis that is mystic union with GodWhen mystical union with God was not quite the goal sought itwas the cult of the miracle-working saints living or dead throughworship of their tombs which prevailed in the religious fervour ofthese heretical and heterodox groupings of dervish religiosity Inthese conditions the intensity of religious life prevailed over itsextension and salvation became a personal affair rather than a rela-tionship with some grace-dispensing agency Participation in thespiritual community comforted the individual need to oppose ortranscend society raising one temporarily into timeless supernatu-ral experience Heterodox or heretical movements and mysticalorders like Bektashism embodied in themselves the whole mys-terium fascinans of the age the revealed esoteric mystical andemotional religion Their function was to mediate the inner aspectof religious experience

Regarding their organization broadly speaking and aside fromthe peculiarities that may be accounted for by the political and eco-nomic systems of the countries in which they spread the initialstructures specific to their communities are suggestive of the earlyChristian groups of the first centuries as related in the Acts of Apostlesand the Epistles of St Paul Early Sufi and Bektashi groups werelinked by enthusiasm common devotions and methods of spiritualdiscipline with the aim of stripping the soul and eliminating theself to attain a vision of divine reality They were therefore inte-grated by spirit and aim rather than by any formal organizationand were in fact very loose organizations more or less anarchicalclosed and secret groups or circles of initiates who showed nointerest in sharing any collective discipline or dogma In the earlystages of the Sufi movements until about the thirteenth century the master is not mentioned at all (Trimingham 1971167) eventhough the respect for the spiritual freedom of each member neces-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 464

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Spiritual Surrender 465

sitated regulations for the common life The idea of a spiritualcommunity was formed in such groups as a basis for their commonlife and the master remained essentially a guide in spiritual mat-ters but not an autocrat of a convent allegedly acting as an inter-mediary between the believers and God

Hadji Bektash himself for instance led a life of a wanderinghermit during most of his life and did not seem to have been aprominent character in religious matters He did not even seek tofound any order or to have disciples during his life (Melikoff1998) He remained the eponym of an order he did not found him-self and was quite unconscious of the impact he was going tohave his success being achieved after his death and in spite ofhimself Although Bektashism had spread over a wide area andgained many adherents it is considered that ldquobefore 1500 both theorder and its teachings developed in a random fashionrdquo In addi-tion specialists are led to consider that ldquothis vagueness of beliefwas paralleled by lack of uniformity in their organizationrdquo eventhough they normally attribute this character to the supposedBektashi all-encompassing syncretism and the ldquoreadiness to incor-porate a wide range of beliefs and practices which made it difficultto define precisely what the order stood forrdquo (Norton 2001171)

My position following innovative approaches within the fieldregarding early Sufism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Tri-mingham 1971 Karamustafa 1994) is rather to consider Bektash-ism first as a reaction against the external rationalization of religionin law and systematic theology Essentially like other early Sufi groupings in its earlier developments during the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries Bektashism corresponded to the sphere of reli-gious experience which developed from the common experience ofboth spiritual knowledge and suffering while running parallel andoften in opposition to the orthodox institutions and the mainstreamof Islamic consciousness derived from prophetic revelation

Making deliberate use of altered states of consciousness such asecstatic dance (sema) and recitation (zikr) which are still a common

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 465

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466 Albert Doja

feature of Bektashi practices Bektashism must have aimed first atspiritual freedom whereby intrinsic and intuitive human spiritualsenses would be allowed full scope over and against instituted reli-gion as based on authority and legalistic morality It must have beenan assertion of a personrsquos right to pursue a life of contemplationseeking contact with the ultimate source of being and reality Inreaction to the expression of religion as a communitarian matterBektashism was a subjective expression of personal religiondirected at an individual and direct experience of the presence ofGod Finding inspiration in interpretations revealing the ldquoinnermeaningrdquo behind the literal sense of sacred texts the craving forspiritual satisfaction led these early Sufi Bektashis into a non-conformist religious experience where there was no room for aclear-cut separation between humans and the divinity

Legalistic orthodox religion fulfilled a social far more than aspiritual function and had little to offer to human spiritual needsbeing not concerned with the exercise of a pastoral office and hav-ing neither the means nor the agencies for emotional outlet and fewfor free intercession In Sunnism like other formal religious pres-criptions the commandments and rules regarding disciplinary prac-tices such as praying fasting forbidden food and other austeritiesbelong to the Law which the followers are forced to obey by com-plying with formalities and dogmas In Bektashism like other earlydervish groups the initial dogged individualism was reinforced byinitiation into a claimed higher degree of knowledge and aware-ness for a follower no longer to be bound by the formalistic aus-tere demands and prohibitions of the Islamic faith comprehendedwithin the orthodox codified and systematic theology such as pro-pounded by the legalist Sunni dogma

The claim of having learned and understood the essence andcore of religion led Bektashis to personal interpretations of the doc-trines and traditions Claiming to be enlightened enough to followthe Way by obeying the voice of conscience they could therebyproceed alone by carrying out the religious commandment with atendency to reduce salvation and rebirth to a purely internal oper-

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Spiritual Surrender 467

ation to the point of denying the need for rituals They actuallyrejected any external display or collective worship for their reli-gion thus repudiating especially the external forms of Islam and itsfive pillars For Bektashis worship is a secret affair peculiar to ini-tiates who are taught that inner purity and sincerity are moreimportant than outward ablution and ritual They firmly believe thatit is essential not to unveil the secret that they are responsible toGod and not to their other fellow humans that sin involves doingthings surreptitiously rather than in public and so on The premisethat underlies the distinctive character of the Bektashis is thepurification of the human heart and spirit which is the fundamen-tal purpose of all religious rites They claim that this purified stateis attainable without following either the Sunni or the Shiite formsof worship

Not surprisingly therefore the Bektashis are systematically crit-icized for both their fanaticism and their liberalism insofar as theirheterodoxy resided in the non-observance of canonical rituals Theydo not practice at set times the five daily prayers (namaz) or theritual ablutions (abdes) nor do they observe the fast of Ramadanor believe in the necessity of pilgrimage to Mecca They interpretthe Koran in an esoteric allegoric and symbolic rather than literalmanner and appeal to Koranic authority rather less than do mostother dervish groups Appropriate verses are read at weddings andfunerals but otherwise they are happier to listen to the verses oftheir poets conveying their own responses to the sacred texts Ona more formal level they are criticized for their tolerance of alco-holic beverages and the presence of women during ceremonies aswell as for indulging in orgies or sexual licenses and of all theslanders to which eccentrics of all sorts have been victims duringthe centuries (Muumlller 1967)

In the face of economic social and ideological upheavals themost radical mystics always adopted attitudes cultivating distancenot simply from legalist religion but from mainstream society aswell Their watchword was the desire to be outsiders in a worldthey claimed to be corrupt and led astray by bad guides Mystics

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 467

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468 Albert Doja

of this sort were not simply opponents of the ruling classes theywere intent on going against social norms as well Alternatively when-ever faced with drastic social change people will systematicallyturn from the worship of a transcendental orthodox God towardsan internalized sense of spiritual self that is far less reliant uponthe formalized framework of traditional religious ritual such as that exemplified by legalist Sunni Islam This is of course an extremelyabrupt summary of a particular inclination that appears to havebeen active among the Bektashis and was especially emphasized inthe course of history each time they were subjected to politicalstate oppression

This must have happened specifically in the early phase ofBektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries during theOttoman-Safavid wars in the first half of sixteenth century after thesuppression of Janissary troops in the first half of nineteenth cen-tury or after the abolition of the dervish orders in the first half ofthe twentieth century (Doja 2006a) It is this emphasis that hasmade it possible for the Bektashis in Anatolia to achieve a closesense of identity successively with the Young Turk movement withthe Albanian national awakening in the second half of nineteenthcentury (Doja 2006b) and with early Turkish nationalism in thefirst quarter of twentieth century The same emphasis must havealso interacted with more recent nationalist ideals and left-wingldquoprogressiverdquo political philosophy which are even more unstableas has been often the case with the Alevi revival in contemporaryTurkey or with the ldquodemocraticrdquo processes of post-communisttransformations in contemporary Albania

Among groups which possess a radicalized interpretation of thesocial world one that relies upon and feeds off the communistideal of the inherently illegitimate state this emphasis may becomeless a route to toleration than one of hardened bitterness over theperceived lack of respect that is paid to the person in modern soci-ety Indeed if a group or organisation both lose faith in the stateand respect for divine authority they may turn more easily to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 468

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Spiritual Surrender 469

imposing their ritual practices and anti-authoritarian ideas into theservice of a revolutionary ideology Viewed in this light the reli-gious experience of the Bektashis have presented recognizablecharacteristics of a liberation theology while the structure of theirgroups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organi-zation conventionally known as charismatic groups

Master and Disciple

One of the functions of religion as a cultural system is to serveas a mediating representation between powerless earthly creaturesand an all-powerful God located in heaven Mediation may makeit possible for the heavenly divinity to intercede on behalf ofhumans on earth The assumption here is that different covenantalstructures of divine mediation must correspond to specific stages inthe development of Bektashism and Sufism The following assump-tion is that it is possible to gain a different meaning if a mediatinghierarchy is to be found in the conceptualization of the divinity orin the organization of the worldly human society

The manuals produced as guides for initiation may be somehowuseful for elucidating the theological philosophy and the socialexperience of Bektashi religiosity Some sections in the manualsare particularly significant in their emphasis on a restricted hierar-chy from which it could be clearly inferred how questions of reli-gious hierarchy and authority are dealt with They successively describethe ranks of leader teacher or guide (pir murshid and rehber) andthe different ranks of followers (talib and murid) which resembleeach other closely with the importance of submitting to a masterbeing stressed throughout (Kehl-Bodrogi 1988104ndash12)

Bektashi discourses as other Sufi apologetics assert that their Is-lam is more than religion and articulate its techniques and master-disciple relations as reflections of those of God to humans Howevera critical examination of this relationship conceptualized externallyin terms of the societal personal and ritual meanings it presumes

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470 Albert Doja

3 The same Albanian Islamic master teaching ldquospiritual discourserdquo to anthro-pologist Frances Trix has published a number of intellectual speculations on

can be an outstanding opportunity for approaching religious con-ceptions in their ideological and political implications Indeed if adifference is claimed in the case of Bektashism which for the dis-ciple must lay in the accessible presence of the master as the inter-mediary between humans and God while in the case of orthodoxIslam or Christianity the relationship is claimed to be inaccessibleand no intermediary is available these assertions are commonlymet with a more social or political ontology

Such assertive claims are nevertheless taken for granted andnever questioned even in the most sophisticated analyses A case inpoint is Frances Trixrsquos sociolinguistic study of the meanings ofand the means for transmitting Islamic spirituality and worldviewfrom the master and spiritual guide (murshid) to his follower aspi-rant and disciple (talib) (Trix 1993) I have argued elsewhere thatin spite of her sophisticated conceptual framework and methodologyFrances Trix ldquogoing nativerdquo in the very conditions of her specificallylasting and ldquofaithfulrdquo experience as a Bektashi talib herself couldnot but view the relationship in this way (Doja 2004) The learn-ing framework and the position of disciple offered her a vague yet all-encompassing scheme in which every narrative and adagemust be placed according to theological explanations In addition theteaching process Trix described was not an over-common occur-rence in daily life but rather part of those rare instances when oneis faced publicly to produce the type of intellectual explanationwhich daily life does not normally call for3 Indeed this is nothingother than what Maurice Bloch calls the expansion of ideology intosomething which misleadingly looks like an interpretation of the world(Bloch 1985)

Normally Sufi and Bektashi groups are inspired by the ideal ofa community of the spiritually pure who are gifted with the gracesand powers that knowledge is supposed to procure and who are

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 470

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Spiritual Surrender 471

Bektashism (Rexhebi 1970) which have also inspired a number of other area spe-cialists (Clayer 1990 2002) But whatever such patented super-informants likeBaba Rexhebi may tell us we must not loose sight of the fact that what we areobserving is exactly what they can manage to do with their ideological schemeswhen their prestige is at stake This also clarifies the apparent elective affinitybetween anthropologists and informants who are themselves somehow marginal tothe culture that is being studied even though or perhaps because they are in arepresentative position One thinks for example of Marcel Griaulersquos or VictorTurnerrsquos famous accounts of their long exegetical sessions with Ogotemmeli andMuchona respectively (Griaule 1948 Turner 1967) The marginal figure is morelikely to ponder on what is going on and why precisely because his or her par-tial detachment from the centre of things This is if not a problem at least givespause for thought What is created in this kind of encounter is a kind of interme-diate ground between cultures ldquothe beginnings of a hybrid cross-cultural objector productrdquo a ldquoliminal worldrdquo as Paul Rabinow (1977153) describes it in hisown account of fieldwork If there is systematically a general concern to providethe anthropologist an official or respectable version of the facts this undoubtedlyreveals something of the nature of cultural self-awareness as well as of the poli-tics of fieldwork

called upon to dispense these benefits around them A dividing linesplits followers into two classes depending on whether they arecapable or worthy of receiving some or all of the gifts of grace andspirit some having acquired them and possessing them fully whileothers aspire to partake of them or are just at the beginning

Since all the stipulated moral prescriptions could not be observedliterally and to the same extent by all early Sufi and Bektashigroups only demanded that the best of the followers be strict intheir practices They were obliged therefore to resort to a sort ofdual ethics prescribing two distinct systems of observances andrules of conduct A more liberal set of rules was conceded to theweakest and most imperfect the seekers or followers designated asdisciples (murids or talibs) Another much stricter code wasreserved for the initiated elite also known as the perfects or saints(eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) who belonged to the superior class of theelect few Each of the religious groups and each of the communities

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 471

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472 Albert Doja

4 Experienced as one Reality for the Muslim mystic this is the worldrsquos foun-dation and its subsistence Therefore everything in the world is nothing other thanGod and the created world is only an appearance This view of the created world

of which they were composed contained members of both sortsmore or less clearly grouped into two classes the larger of the twothe followers auditors or adepts (muhibs) being organized by andsubordinated to the other the elected few perfects and fathers(dervishes) Thus at the top there were the saints almost sacredbelow them were the sinners or at the least the profane the laypeople still under the sway of the world and its temptations

The opposition between the elect and the followers is akin tothose between the elder and the younger the strong and the weakthe perfect and the imperfect the spiritually accomplished and thenovices the master and the disciple However the distance betweenthe two groups should not be exaggerated at least for the begin-nings of Bektashism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries or forthe later difficult periods of recurring persecution Aside from the factthat followers and seekers were supposed to have received both thefaith and knowledge when they entered the religion they wereacknowledged as true believers and were an integral part of theBektashi order on a par with the elect The disciples became adeptsas the ldquofollowersrdquo became ldquobelieversrdquo and the latter became ldquoperfectrdquodervishes after given proof of their strict observance and wisdom

According to Sufi Bektashi conceptions God is supposed to bepresent in everyone and the potential for perfection is present inevery human being insofar as for all Reality (hakikat) there is noexistence but in the Truth (hakikat) which is in fact God (al-Hakk) In the theory of the ldquooneness of beingrdquo4 it is required ofindividuals to become aware of their state as ultimately emanatedand to understand the community of their essence with the wholeof creation They may thereafter make their way back towards theircreator towards their origins towards the state of ultimate perfec-tion and truth God may be approached through the improvement

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 472

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Spiritual Surrender 473

seems to have encouraged a quest for ldquohiddenrdquo connotations that was joined withan emphasis on the mystic pantheism of the oneness of being (vahdet-i vucud)As one of the most illuminating expressions of Muslim heterodox mysticism thetheory professed that ultimate truth and perfection can lie only in a pantheisticsynthesis Especially the existential monism of the theory to the extent that thereis no radical distinction between the Creator and his Creation and that everythingexists within a single reality earned Sufism the charge of having exchangedmonotheism for pantheism drawing strong condemnations from the orthodox doc-tors of religion

of oneself God is incarnated in humans when they have reachedthe highest stages of perfection which is obtained only by thesacrifice of self in order to better free onersquos body and to be inte-grated into the divinity or rather to integrate divinity into the self

It is through the elect however thanks to the contacts and con-crete ties created and maintained with them through the mediationof spiritual knowledge (marifet) that seekers and followers formedand strengthened the bonds that attached them to the body of theirreligion while they at the same time acquired merits and edifiedthemselves In addition for the masters of the Bektashi Way likein early Sufism the mystical tendency became highly dangerous asan individual experience since there can be mystic Ways the Sufiargument goes to other gods than God Hence the necessity ofguidance under an experienced director was insisted on In order togo through the gateways of spiritual growth and to experience thedivine Reality and ultimate Truth and penetrate to their inner signi-ficance one needed a guide a spiritual master (Birge 1937102ndash3)

In most Bektashi narratives indeed the point is clearly madethat ldquothe murshid is the way through which the student reachesGodrdquo (Trix 1993123) This is simply because the master hasalready acquired the perfection stage of ldquothe perfect human beingrdquo(insan-i kamil) (Birge 193796ndash97) For Bektashis if each humanbeing is a mosque each human face is the face of perfection (vech-i kamil) of onersquos master In him the outer signs of perfection arematched by inner perfection and the dual inseparable personality

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 473

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hals

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474 Albert Doja

of Muhammad and Ali was believed by the Bektashis to be repre-sented on earth by every master who is to the follower what theProphet is to the community of Muslims For this reason the fol-lower is taught to owe a greater allegiance to his master than tohis own parents and the Bektashis equal ritual prayer (namaz) withpaying visits to onersquos master (Norris 199397) who was therebyentitled to great veneration

Therefore to the extent of his status of perfection the master is supposed to have already acquired the capacity to communicatedirectly with God which the disciple still lacks God could respondto the master if called upon but not yet to the disciple To be surethe disciple is a ldquofaithfulrdquo but he or she is still a follower and aseeker encouraged to pass through the gateways of ultimate truth-reality and in his or her turn to become perfect and reach his orher own union with God

Historically the first meaning of ldquofaithrdquo was a virtue of loyaltyIn the relation to divinity as well as I have shown elsewhere (Doja2000a) faith always implied a loyalty to the conventions andfidelity to commitments In this case faith was not a belief in atheological credo but the confidence that the faithful showed to thepower of god It was a kind of initial contract where a distinctioncan always be made between the confidence that humans place tothe ldquocreditrdquo of gods and the favours that gods are supposed to sendto humans These are the two movements in opposite directionswhich define two complementary fields of exchange Their automa-tism is thus less magical than legal because they imply constraintslike a pact at least like that type of implicit pact that MarcelMauss studied in his essay on The Gift as ldquothe form and reason forexchange in archaic societiesrdquo (Mauss 1950)

The inclusion of faith within the field of discourse and exchangemakes it possible to grasp that the act of faith always encompassesa confidence in a reward To believe is to engage his or her ownconfidence in an act of faith expressed towards a god but on theprovision of a return It is a kind of concrete stake and security

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 474

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Spiritual Surrender 475

token which also engages personal feelings It is this conceptwhich is then invested with a mental attitude and an ldquointeriorstaterdquo in Evans-Pritchardrsquos terms (Evans-Pritchard 1965) that isthe confidence which belongs to oneself and which one offers upto a high and powerful god It is this relation that constitutes abond of faithfulness which is necessarily accompanied by an actof confidence with the certainty to receive a return in the form ofa favour awarded in the form of divine inspirations

Now for the Bektashis the experience of spiritual learning isachieved by means of the master as a communication process withthe spiritual knowledge Had this process led to the possession ofthe mystical gnosis (marifet) as is normally expected to result in thevery ldquofaithfulrdquo sense from the internalizing experience as an ldquoactof faithrdquo the novice would be sanctified as a potential saint hav-ing achieved a mystic union with God But the union involvingdivine inspiration is not possible without progressive communica-tion through different manifestations of divinity split into a seriesof hierarchical emanations The most accessible of these is in factnone other than onersquos own master who appears to be not so mucha simple intermediary between humans and God but rather Godhimself in a different guise

Of course in Bektashi practice neither religious leaders nor theirfollowers justify their behaviour by direct reference to their sacredbooks or manuals nor indeed is there ever any mention that thereare categories outlined theoretically which must be found in thelocal community Even though the Bektashi masters appear regu-larly to possess some kind of manual they never bring it into reli-gious ceremonies They rather absorb aspects of Bektashi religiousphilosophy that they find interesting in their own time and recountthem in the course of commentaries as they do with song poetryand narrative in the mode of parable The great weight of the incul-cation teaching and perpetuation of Bektashi religious thought liesalmost exclusively with the local religious leaders themselves andthe oral tradition that supports them To illustrate a well-known

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 475

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476 Albert Doja

narrative is frequently told where the disciple looking for his mas-ter went to his house looked for him down twisting streets theninside another house and finally up on the flat roof When he didnot see him on the roof either he jumped off and his mastercaught him in his arms (Trix 1993 158)

Each practicing leader has an oral account which explains hispast within which is often a mention of his spiritual ancestors andteachers attending the lodge of Hadji Bektash and also of his ownability to perform miracles The immediate reason for the religiousleadersrsquo accepted authority is that they are accepted as having beensanctioned by Hadji Bektash and his successors These claims aresupported by myths and from a wider perspective are embodiedwithin a cosmology which assumes that some may be closer toGod than others They express this by saying that they are peopleof ldquocharismardquo (keramet) which is best understood in this contextas ldquothe ability given by God to perform miraclesrdquo Independentlyof any other consideration ldquocharismardquo is a mark of Godrsquos favourand places the leaders in the rank of ultimate ldquotruth-realityrdquo(hakikat) where one is in contact with God at liberty to performmiracles and control the material world

On a more technical level as in Sufism generally the claims aresupported by explicit hierarchical series or chains of initiation (silsila)that connect the masters ultimately to God In the developed seriesthe chain of authority includes an unbroken historical line of mas-ters and disciples through which they are connected to the founderof the order their patron saint Hadji Bektash This unbroken chainof spiritual revelation and power continues the link that leads fromthe orderrsquos founder himself to earlier saints to the Imams toHussein whose master was Ali whose master was the ProphetMuhammad whose master was the Angel Gabriel and which thusends in God If Godrsquos manifestation (mazhar) is Ali who showshimself under various forms and if Ali is the source of the divinelight Bektashi poetry and narrative offer numerous witnesses to thebelief that Ali was fused with the various Prophets that he appeared

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 476

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Spiritual Surrender 477

under the aspect of the Twelve Imams and that he showed himselfas Hadji Bektash who ldquocarried the sign of Ali in the palm of hishandrdquo In other words Hadji Bektash as well was God in a differ-ent guise Building on this continuity Bektashi followers come intorelation with God through devotion to their personal master

Clearly if there are mediators between humans and God such asthe Sufi and Bektashi master (murshid) for instance or a priest orsacrificer they act as representatives of the secular congregationand place themselves on a higher plane than the latter but in aposition of inferiority with respect to the deity However the medi-ational structure may also be of another type and claim to be thenegation of hierarchy of any sort In this model the initiative isentirely in the hands of the divinity which may manifest itself ina number of hierarchized emanations but without any mediation bydispensing the gifts of its grace directly to the faithful with believ-ers receiving immediate inspiration Charisma divine grace andspiritual knowledge touch them without the help of any intermedi-ary and is in no way affected by the degree of effectiveness of anyritual or specific expertise performed or controlled by a mediatingpriest or master

Following a structural hypothesis suggested by Edmund Leach(1972) I have argued elsewhere that a crucial factor for under-standing the communication between humans and God lies in the factthat the conceptualization of a hierarchical model of religious media-tion corresponds to the dogma of orthodox faiths while the concep-tualization of a model in which all hierarchies are denied in its realembodiments is closely linked to millenarian and mystical beliefsand to the development of heresies and heterodoxies (Doja 2000a)such as those related to Bektashism The former model may wellsupport an established hierarchical power whereas the latter cor-responds to an oppressed or deprived minority seeking justificationfor its revolt against the established authorities

According to this model the establishment of a political hierar-chy in a given society goes hand in hand with the introduction of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 477

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478 Albert Doja

a unified conception of divinity that is a pure monotheism withinthe theological system On the other hand a manifest hierarchicalconception of the divinity goes together with egalitarian politicsThe conception of a relational equality derived from the idea thatpeople are equal in their relations with the divinity is effectivelypresent alongside an ideology of substantial egalitarianism amonghuman beings

This brings us to our main assumption regarding the character ofBektashism Insofar as the master is perceived as ldquoGod himself ina different guiserdquo the system of beliefs and practices related toBektashism is a liberation theology which makes it possible tomeet social cultural and national demands In turn when the mas-ter is perceived as a kind of priest an ldquointermediary between a dis-ciple and Godrdquo Bektashism becomes an orthodox ideology aimingat the establishment of a political hierarchy

Organizational Transformations

The normal relationship of a disciple to his or her master hasoften been described as a spiritual sonship but the relationship im-plied by these terms in different stages of development came to be entirely different In an extended Bektashi adage it is assertedthat a disciple is one who ldquoknows that he or she does not knowrdquo(Trix 199386) This refers of course to more than facts for whenBektashis in general speak of knowledge they mean spiritualknowledge that is the process of coming closer to God For thelowly Bektashi disciple however what is lacking is a frameworkfor understanding what is going on In addition the Bektashi goalfor the disciple ldquoto know what one does not knowrdquo also impliesas Trix showed an acknowledgment that one is unable to predictsequences and find meaning within a new situation

In other words to use Goffmanrsquos terms (Goffman 1974) know-ing onersquos lack of knowledge is a sort of suspension of the frame ofexperience In the interaction with the master this lack of a frameof reference this lack of knowledge is reflected in features that areoften characterized as differential strategies between negative and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 478

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Spiritual Surrender 479

positive experiences in an attempt to both maintain and reducesocial distance Thus if the Bektashi tradition expects and pro-motes this suspension of a cognitive framework for the disciple itspurpose should be the actualization of the relationship with his orher master a kind of ldquonegative experiencerdquo allowing the reintegra-tion into a new frame In Bektashi thinking the way to achieve thespiritual goal is understood with the help of the master who servesas ldquothe only way to a reintegration thus the knowing of onersquos not knowing cuts one loose and focuses trust on the murshidrdquo (Trix 1993103)

Based on Bektashi beginnings in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and the evidence from subsequent times of politicaloppression it is generally assumed that the continual guidance ofindividual disciples has made the masters appear quite naturally asthe medium between God and humans However the overriding importance of the system of the master-disciple relationship whichbecame the very foundation of the Sufi orders is that it implies ashift in morality The institutionalization of the master-disciple hier-archy brought forth the organization of what cannot be properly organ-ized that is personal mystical life and individual creative freedomwhich are now fettered and subjected to conformity and collectiveexperience I believe this process must correspond to the radicalchange that took place in the Bektashi environment after the organ-ization of the order in the sixteenth century which may also be dis-cerned to repeat itself each time after recovering from periods ofpersecution

In times of consolidation of the order the masters would denythe right of the individual not merely to seek a Way by trial anderrors but even under any guidance Thus the master wouldbecome an exclusive mediator like a priest who allotted spiritualtasks according to a mechanical ritual process whereas the initia-tion of a disciple involved the surrender of his or her will to thatof the master It was the task of the master to judge the personalityand capability of his followers to instruct them in the teachings ofthe order and at appropriate stages to reveal to them the orderrsquos

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 479

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480 Albert Doja

secrets The follower who had received instruction and was deemedworthy by his or her master was initiated into the Bektashi orderby means of the special ritual considered to have been part of theorganizational reforms introduced by Balim Sultan in the beginningof the sixteenth century Members of the order could attend the ceremony welcoming a new member up to and including their own rank but such gatherings were not open to those to whom amaster had not yet revealed the secrets relating to that level(Norton 2001174) Thus although Bektashism like Sufism in gen-eral is clearly the embodiment of mystical experience its distinc-tive feature has become the insistence that ldquoknowledgerdquo of thedivine is only transmitted through the master

Therefore the idea of the disciple seeking ldquoto know what onedoes not knowrdquo could be considered with Trix as a strong indi-cation that it is only through the master that light and assistancemay be gained (Trix 199389) Every act of knowing brings fortha world and all knowing is effective action since the power of all discourse is the potential to disclose a world Therefore in Ricoeurrsquosterms ldquoto understand is not to project oneself into the text it is toreceive an enlarged self from the apprehension of proposed worldswhich are the genuine object of interpretationrdquo (Ricoeur 1981182ndash83)This view squares well with the Bektashi vision of spiritual know-ing as the action of drawing closer to God In Bektashi terms theldquoenlarged selfrdquo includes the spiritual realm

Through the immersion into mystical Sufi ideas the image ofGod that is experienced by the Bektashis through their membershipin the ritual activities becomes from the theological point of viewhighly sophisticated A layered concept of divinity with variouslevels present God in effect not so much as transcendent butrather in a more immanentist fashion than is generally assumed and relies on the Bektashi internalized perception of the divineBektashis believe that within all people their soul is a part of GodThey are aware of the Koranic account of creation but they mostfrequently describe the way human beings gained a soul as coming

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 480

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Spiritual Surrender 481

directly from God Some see the whole of creation animate andinanimate as ldquoemanating from a single light identified with Godrdquo(Zarcone 200541) Others recount that God gave life (xhan) toeach of the creatures he created on earth but when he found thathe had nothing with which to reflect himself in them he gave themall a piece of himself (ruh) which does not die on the death of themortal body but returns to God (Shankland 2003118)

In the centre of Creation there seems to be a high-level Godwho gives humans his Light whereas a lower level God isemanated from that high-level God and humans in turn are ema-nations of that emanation Every human being on earth is an ema-nation of God on that lower level which seems to be a kind ofastral shining or spiritual self to whom humans may direct theirprayers This spiritual self improves itself through different incar-nations and different social positions in order to develop intohigher degrees of perfection of which the final stage and supremegoal is to become a ldquoperfect human beingrdquo (Cornell 2006) whomust achieve union with God just as did Abraham Moses JesusBuddha Muhammad and Ali among others

While the higher level is beyond comprehension and reach andhuman influence remains doubtful the ultimate truth of God can beintelligible to humans on earth which corresponds to the highestdegree of initiation in Bektashism If Aristotlersquos most perfecthuman fulfilment lies not in moral action but in intellectual con-templation in the context of Bektashism this would imply that the morally advanced initiate follows the way (tarikat) while theldquoperfect human beingrdquo is united with God through contemplationand thereby has risen beyond the earlier stages to truth-reality (hakikat)The main goal of Sufi Bektashi practice is precisely this level of full perfection where humans on earth are completely unitedwith their spiritual self and fully initiated Therefore the spiritualself seems to be the voice of conscience guiding humans on their way to perfection and thus allowing them to reach union with God

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482 Albert Doja

Yet instead of speaking of an ldquoenlarged selfrdquo Bektashis speakof a ldquoloss of selfrdquo of a ldquodeath before dyingrdquo The Bektashis mayexplain the literal meaning by saying that the interrogations theyundergo by their masters is parallel to that which they will receivefrom God after death (Shankland 2003128) In a language stronglyreminiscent of Chapter 3 of St Johnrsquos Gospel they also say that aBektashi is born first from his mother and then born again into anew world from his master otherwise he cannot enter the kingdomof the heart (Norton 2001173) Taken together this would meanthat by dying to this world and its values one may be reborn byentering the kingdom of heart in a mystical union with God whichcoincides with a ldquolost selfrdquo dissolved and annulled in order toreach the ldquoenlarged selfrdquo of ultimate unity

In addition these seemingly contradictory metaphors should notmask the relevance of Ricoeurrsquos insistence that any event of inter-pretation is a hermeneutical appropriation (Aneignung) which basi-cally ldquomeans to make onersquos own what was initially alienrdquo (Ricoeur1981 185) What the disciple ldquomakes his or her ownrdquo is not some-thing mental nor it is some design supposedly hidden behind spir-ituality Rather it is the projection of a world the proposal of amode of being in the world which the master discloses by meansof non-ostentatious references Far from the idea that the masterwho already masters his own being in the world projects the a pri-ori of his own understanding and injects it into the disciple theappropriation is rather a process by which the revelation of newmodes of being and new forms of life gives the disciple newcapacities for knowing If the reference of discourse is the projec-tion of a spiritual world closer to the world of God then it is notin the first instance the disciple who is projected in this world Thedisciplersquos capacity for projection is only broadened by receivingstill new modes of being from the master

Therefore in the Bektashi vision of spiritual knowing under-stood as an action of drawing closer to God it seems more appro-priate to see fundamentally an experience of spiritual growth inwhich one receives but does not control or direct The Bektashi expres-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 482

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Spiritual Surrender 483

sion of ldquoloss of selfrdquo partly reflects the precariousness of trustingthe Unknown as well as the reframing and restructuring of the expe-rience that can ensue In turn the master nurtures the relationshipwith the disciple but always with a clear sense of who has theknowledge This concept of knowledge becomes actually a primesource of power whose potential for understanding social relationshas been shown by Foucault (1980) Henceforth subjection to thearbitrary will of the perfects turned the follower into a spiritualslave not of God but of a human being albeit one of Godrsquos elect

To illustrate in a well-known narrative the master commandedhis disciple to swim across the water with him holding onto hiscollar and all the time saying Pir Hakk ldquopatron saintrdquo here mean-ing ldquothe master is the truthrdquo The disciple however revealed hislack of trust in the master by reconsidering halfway across thewater and calling out to God instead at which point he began todrown (Trix 1993121) In his explanation the master Baba Rex-hebi made it clear for his disciple Frances Trix that it was the mas-terrsquos place to call out to God for both of them As for the disciplehis place was to call out only to the master

For Bektashis obedience must be total and unquestioning forfailure to obey the master is a failure to keep the oath sworn at ini-tiation It is certainly not accidental therefore that in the literatureit is over and over again reported that one or another unworthy andunscrupulous master will be tempted to exploit his power for per-sonal advantage Specialists may notice the fact but they simplis-tically qualify that when such abuse occurred it was condemned bythe Bektashis themselves and outsiders alike (Norton 2001173)Such occurrences are considered as occasional aberrations from thegenerally assumed humanistic characteristics of Bektashism muchthe same as individual corruption is often assumed to have destroyedthe ldquoprogressiverdquo role of one or another Bektashi convent whichon occasion turned into a hotbed of conspiracy (Shankland 2003)

Important changes however were taking place in the very mean-ing of Sufi terms as well By degrees ldquoawarenessrdquo ldquocontemplationrdquoand ldquomeditationrdquo acquired new meanings until they came to signify

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484 Albert Doja

in the orders participation in the being of the object of contem-plation (Trimingham 1971146ndash48) the union and participation inGod developing into that in ldquoMuhammad-Alirdquo in Hadji Bektashand finally in onersquos master living or dead Hence the meaning ofterminology degenerated from a relationship to God to a relation-ship to a dead saint or living master who now became the mediumbetween God and human beings For example ldquomental concentra-tionrdquo (tawajuh) came to mean the spiritual assistance rendered bythe saint to his devotees or by the master to his disciple In thisexercise like the attempt to contact the spirit of the dead saint themaster concentrated upon the disciple picturing the spinning of aline of linkage between his pineal heart and the heart of the disci-ple through which power was supposed to flow At the same timethe disciple concentrated upon becoming a passive vessel for theinflowing power of the master

In certain instances among the rather few anthropological ap-proaches to Bektashism there is also a focus even if somewhat timidlyon the sophistication of the Bektashi ideas which present God asbeing immanent and transcendent at the same time (Shankland2003113ndash16) but surprisingly one has been unable to considerideological change and authoritarian agency in such mattersOmniscient authority became a vital conception of God among theBektashis when religious leaders came to reflect Godrsquos authorityon earth While in heterodox Bektashism the person may find Godwithin themselves from the orthodox theological point of view thisis regarded as unacceptable because it permits the person tobecome part of God himself Therefore the sense of a transcen-dental God must necessarily rely upon the creation of social con-trol and order by means of an institutional Bektashism

The transformation in the conception of God is profoundly inter-twined with the mediating function of the religious leaders withinthe local community and indeed may be said to be essential totheir distinctive means of achieving social control and gainingpolitical power within the traditional setting In effect the internal-

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 484

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Spiritual Surrender 485

ized God is now held to be a reflection of an omnipotent omnis-cient transcendent being Thus God may be fearsome cast sup-plicants into heaven or to hell at a wish and sanction particularpeople through a sign to be leaders to the rest of the communityIndeed it is the presumption that the religious leaders are in someway qualitatively different from other people by virtue of theircloser contact with God which allows them to mediate within thecommunity That they occupy an intermediary position betweenGod and their followers that they are Godrsquos spokesmen and havethe capability to help others contact the Divine is important notsimply as a key element in ritual but also becomes the rationale oftheir authority to mediate in the worldly life

Religious scholars normally outline three successive stages of devel-opment in Sufism from asceticism (zuhd) to mysticism (tasavvuf )and then to corporatism (tarikat) Trimingham characterized thesethree stages respectively as the individualrsquos surrendering to Godtheir surrendering to a rule and finally their surrendering to a per-son (Trimingham 1971102ndash4) In the first stage the master and his circle of pupils were frequently itinerant having minimum reg-ulations for living a common life leading to the formation ofundifferentiated unspecialized lodges and convents Methods ofcontemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy wereindividualistic and communal In the second stage the transmissionof a doctrine a rule and a method corresponded to new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy Deriving from pro-fessed illuminates the development of continuative teachingschools of mysticism (silsila-tarikat) disciplined the mystical spiritwithin organized Sufism and made it conform to the standards oftradition and legalism In the third stage the introduction and trans-mission of allegiance toward the doctrine and the rule formed newfoundations for numerous ldquocorporationsrdquo or ldquoordersrdquo whose prac-tices were fully incorporated with the saint veneration cult

Essentially as in early Sufism a change took place with thedevelopment of collegium pietatis into a collegium initiati whose

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 485

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486 Albert Doja

members ascribed themselves to their initiator and his spiritualancestry and were prepared to follow his Way and transmit it tofuture generations (Trimingham 197113) The leading master evenceased to teach directly and delegated authority both to teach andinitiate to representatives (halife) A special cult therefore sur-rounded the master associated with the power supposed to emanatefrom the saint founder of the order He became the spiritual heir ofthe founder whose qualities and powers become inherent in himupon his succession The Bektashi life of recollection and medita-tion now became increasingly associated with a line of ascriptionwhich bestowed the order its formulae and symbols as emanatingfrom the master and guiding all disciples along his Way in hisname while the new aura emanated from the master as a proteacutegeacute(wali) of God probably came to imply the belief in his role as amediator and as an intercessory with God

The theological rationalization of the necessary relationship bet-ween master and disciple was articulated through the historicalaspect of the divine hierarchical chain (silsila) an idea which wasavailable already in the very theological conceptions of Sufism Onfirst sight as Trix showed divine and historical chains connectingthe master to God may be seen as a device to legitimize the placeof the master cosmologically (Trix 1993103) Yet given the exces-sive proliferation of orders and their ramifications in almost anylocal setting5 there is good reason to believe that the primary con-cern of the founders and leaders of an orderrsquos branch while seek-ing to gain personal ascendancy and protect themselves againstaccusations of doctrinal irregularities6 was that of demonstratingtheir orthodoxy by showing how their teachings followed those ofsome famous theologian whose orthodoxy was acknowledged byall They could then use the authority of this master and all theintermediary links of transmission back to the Caliphs and theImams for their teaching and practice Thus the silsila became a

5 This can be shown in the Albanian context (Doja 2006b)6 As for instance in the case of the Sanusi (Evans-Pritchard 19493)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 486

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Spiritual Surrender 487

means to assert the new doctrinal orthodoxy of the order As newideas were fostered on eminent Sufis of the past in order to makethese ideas respectable the silsila provided a doctrinal as well as apower line leading to the ultimate source of religion

This process became clearly visible in the history of Bektashismwith the advent of Balim Sultan at the head of the order in theearly sixteenth century Out of diverse backgrounds and heterodoxtendencies the nebulous group of Bektashi dervishes graduallydeveloped into an ecclesiastic institution with a highly organizedand centralized hierarchy All available accounts in the literatureclearly show that this process was fostered under the specific con-ditions of Ottoman patronage during the sixteenth and eighteenthcenturies especially after the order became linked to the powerfulmilitary body of the Janissaries (Doja 2006a) A similar processwas reiterated in independent Albania in the twentieth centurywhen Bektashism enjoyed official state recognition (Doja 2006b)

During those periods the organizational system of the Bektashiorder was increasingly replaced by another one more sophisticatedand much more institutional ecclesiastical and hierarchical Of course even in the heyday of Bektashism the distinction betweenmasters and disciples was maintained but the subordination of thelatter to the former was now emphasized In addition both cate-gories simply became the last two ranks of a larger hierarchy con-taining a number of other additional grades so that the system oftwo classes was replaced by a much more complex one The hier-archically lower level the class of ordinary people and potentialfollowers was categorized as adepts (muhibs) The immediatelysuperior class included the elect (eren or teuml mbeumlrrimeumlt) righteousand truly initiated They might become dervishes and laterldquofathersrdquo (baba) hierarchically recognized religious leaders Theymust be officially ordained by the ldquograndfathersrdquo (dede or gjysh) towhom they paid allegiance The organization as a whole was nowheaded by a single leader the Arch-grandfather (grand-dede orkryegjysh) who was supported by the leading figures of ldquograndfa-thersrdquo known as his caliphs (halife)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 487

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009

488 Albert Doja

Even though in contrast with the ulema there were no class dis-tinctions among dervish groups Bektashi leaders formed an insti-tuted religious class The officials of the order approached the roleof a clergy class similar to that in Sunni Islam or Iranian Shiismand the Bektashi institutions provided a parochial village religionwith a system of hierarchically affiliated lodges in Anatolia and theBalkans which in many respects was equivalent to the diocesanchurch system Centralization was pushed to the extreme as theArch-grandfather legitimate heir and terrestrial representative ofGod came to act as the supreme pontiff of the holy religion of theorder High priest and master of the masters Grandfather of allFathers and Grandfathers he embodied all of the spiritual powerand was supposed to lead and govern his followers by ensuringthat the dogmas were maintained and transmitted properly discip-line and tradition were respected and orthodoxy was upheld

In this way the Bektashi order developed its final forms oforganization and spiritual practices Innovations were fully inte-grated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped No further devel-opment was possible and new revelations of mystical insight thatcould mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practicewere precluded The authoritarian principle had become the chieffeature of the organization along with the veneration of the mas-ter the supreme inheritor of the divine mystical wisdom and sub-jection to his authority was unconditioned The organization washierarchical imposing uniformity and instituting an elaborate initi-ation ceremony non-hereditary offices and disciplinary practices suchas celibacy and other austerities for adepts

Thus the development of Bektashism appears to be a perfectillustration of the different phases that all religions experience in their evolution which corresponds to what Joachim Wach hascalled the threefold expression of the experience of the sacred(Wach 1958) First of all doctrinal elaboration based on pro-phetism gradually fashions revelation into an oral message whichreceives a written codification becoming a theology and a dogma

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 488

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Spiritual Surrender 489

Next the worship shapes behaviour into a liturgy rites a protocolwhose performance is usually entrusted to ministers of the cult whobecome its guardians and make sure the rules are not oversteppedLast in reaction to the anarchist tendencies of frenetic movementsor ataraxy organizational measures are taken by the creation of ahierarchy determining roles classing believers and controlling thetradition Its task is to coordinate and subordinate canonize andcensure balancing the measures of tradition and innovation andpresiding over the relations between the religious body and its envi-ronment At this point a religious institution mdash the ldquoChurchrdquo mdashis established It takes its place within a religious society by meansof which human society asserts both its convictions and its doubts

With these changes Bektashi religion rather than seen as anindividual life path must be regarded as the collective subservienceto a road as a religious order headed by an authoritarian leader-ship Bektashism henceforth viewed as a revealed religion whosedoctrines were literally true became a system of thought whichalso claimed legal authority The different elements on which thispower was based consisted of the acceptance of the inherent super-iority of the Bektashi leaders the ratification of their decisions atcollective rituals and the inculcation of a sense of appropriatebehaviour encapsulated within a necessary moral philosophy Theprogramme as a whole was supported more immediately through arich corpus of ritual narrative poetry music and myth

A different path is being taken by the Alevi revival in contem-porary Turkey which can be brought in here as a counter-exampleTraditional Alevism was based in closed rural communities andconsisted of local largely orally transmitted traditions while thenew Alevism is based in modern urban associations and is experi-encing a rapid process of rationalization and scripturalization Thishas allowed a redistribution of the knowledge capital to the extentof witnessing the appearance of a new body of exegetes compara-ble to a clergy that is to use Weberian terms a group holding themonopoly on the manipulation of the visions of the world Indeed

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 489

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490 Albert Doja

knowledge is not only a symbolic capital but represents a primeessential resource absolutely sacralized by all identity and politicalactors of Alevism (Massicard 2005) However in the course of themovement no consensus has emerged among the actors and entre-preneurs who are even aware of their dissension concerning theorigins and the very nature of Alevism While all are in search ofa relevant knowledge the accounts are so contradictory that theyoften do not know which of them to believe There are so manycompeting conceptions of what Alevism is or should be that thevalidity of knowledge can always be called in question Instead ofleading to the unification of the movement the resource of knowl-edge thereby contributes to the dispersion of interpretations and themultiplication of conflicts

The persistence of debates and the not-attribution of a fixedmeaning to Alevism cannot be explained by its syncretistic charac-ter but rather by the fact that knowledge has not yet been natural-ized and objectified It can be argued that this state of affairs is dueabove all to the fact that in the course of the movement no majoractor has yet emerged likely to impose a single interpretation ofAlevism in politically relevant categories This is due both to theconfiguration of actors and to the absence of institutions making it possible to objectify a source of knowledge acceptable andaccepted by all Finally while seeking to organize themselves fortheir own protection and survival by building up a religious-culturalassociation in the process the Alevis have not yet established ahierarchy of their own claiming a ldquotruerdquo faith with its own infal-lible dogmas and doctrines

Instrumental Theology

One of the cornerstones of political anthropology is that ideol-ogy supports the existing power relations within the social communityIndeed religious leaders are validated in many ways both byBektashi cosmology in general and by the myths which Bektashi

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Spiritual Surrender 491

masters themselves teach Yet the two sociological conceptions ofthe role of religious faith as supporting either orthodoxy or liber-ation are not by any means mutually exclusive or essentially con-tradictory There are not two kinds of behaviour set once andforever nor is there a merely ldquoroutinizationrdquo in the Weberian sense(Weber 1978246ndash54) but rather a process of dialectic change andtransformation As political conditions change and the organizationof religious structures undergo a number of transformations thefinal assumption is that the essential differences between hierarchi-cal and unified types of theology acting as mediating cultural sys-tems of representation between humans and God must change andadapt accordingly

If the character of Bektashism and all Sufi groupings of Islamshowed first a cultural system corresponding to the model of reli-gious mediation in which all hierarchies were denied the subjectiveand millenarian doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theologyfade into the background at the moment when the members of thepreviously persecuted religious minority attain a degree of religiousand political respectability within society at large Eventuallychances are that the heirs of mystics and the heterodox promotersof spiritual reform and social movement will turn into followersand faithful defenders of a legitimate authority They will becomethe spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose supportwill be sought by the political regime

The transition from innovation to conservatism in theologicalconceptions and organizational structures and the subsequentrenewal of innovation in support of either liberating social and natio-nal movements or the re-establishment of a new political power insociety takes on different forms and tones forming a complexprocess requiring detailed historical and political analysis of thecultural values and social entities involved Instrumental transfor-mations of this kind are clearly evidenced by the development ofBektashism down through its history depending on different polit-ical contexts and the course of events as I have shown for the

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492 Albert Doja

7 When the Bektashis affirm for example the importance of the prescribedSunni rituals they understand true rituals (namaz) not as mere superficial practicebut rather esoteric symbols of justice and goodness giving emphasis to the sin-cerity of faith and not to the religionrsquos outward observances They believe that sal-vation is found in emulating such perfect models as Ali Hadji Bektash and othersaints Everyone must seek ldquopurity of heartrdquo and self-awareness but piety is meas-ured by lifestyle and not by ritual Their ldquothree conditionsrdquo of speech action andmoral containment (eline diline beline) are a succinct statement of an overall ori-entation that implies very strongly that it is through continual striving for perfec-tion in worldly moral conduct that divine approval will ensue Again they see thetrue fast of Ramadan not as the renunciation of material food but rather as a spir-itual cleansing of heart from evil just as they see true pilgrimage not as a phys-ical journey to Mecca but rather as a spiritual journey to the heart In the same

classic Ottoman period for the reformed Ottoman system or forModern Turkey as well as for Albania from independence to thepost-communist era (Doja 2006a 2006b)

From almost all documentary accounts the important fact can beshown that Bektashi ideas particularly during the critical periodsof the Kizilbash movements in Ottoman Anatolia the Alevi move-ments in Modern Turkey or the national movement in Albaniastand forth as extremely heterodox and heretical In addition manydiscursive interactions in Bektashi narratives poetry and adagesshow a coherence of linkages progressing from the outer to inwardthat is as Frances Trix has pointed out (Trix 199333ndash34) from amore Sunni or orthodox Islam to the decidedly mystical concep-tions of Sufism apparently because Sufism or Islamic mysticism could only progress from the outer Sunni form to an inner Sufimeaning The Bektashi world of discourse can be seen then as alegit-imizing strategy by which a later relationship not sanctionedby Orthodox Islam seeks legitimacy by being related to one of thebasic relationships of Islam Actually Sunni Islam is often consid-ered by Bektashis to be a cloak covering the essential Shiite andpantheistic character of the Bektashi faith and the prevailing opin-ion assumes that the Bektashis entirely neglected the religious per-formances required by the Sharia7 However my assumption is that

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Spiritual Surrender 493

way the order of the hierarchical chains by which the Bektashi conception ofdivinity is structured parallels once again the outer to inward paradigms leadingfrom the more general Sufi to the more particular Bektashi

the part Sunni Islam has played in Bektashi life and thought ismore important than it appears

The fact that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on the groundsof doctrine or innovations is directly related to their associationwith the Janissaries and the Ottoman authority In its Ottoman hey-day when it maintained a strong central organization Bektashismeven claimed to be a Sunni order (Trimingham 197180 Norris199389) in spite of its very unorthodox and Shiite tendencies Nowonder therefore that the officials of the order clearly insisted ontheir loyalty to the Sunna of the Prophet as a necessary stage intheir code of discipline More importantly as generally within insti-tutional Sufism from the moment the religious Bektashis leadersfelt the need to support their statements with prophetic sayingsthey also felt it necessary to express conformity with the Shariathe revealed Law of orthodox Islam which coincided with theirgrowing conformity to the legal establishment

As a result the mystical content of the order weakened In factevery time the order approached the establishment of orthodoxpolitical powers whether in Ottoman as in Modern Turkey or inindependent Albania its hierarchical and centralized organizationcorresponded to a doctrinal radicalism It is by no means acciden-tal that the sources emphasize over and over again that a certaineminent Bektashi took the Sharia seriously a fact that shows thatas long as the desire for power of the orthodox postulates its ownposition as absolute the educational attitudes of the Bektashis willnecessarily follow suit Order leaders vied with one another indemonstrating their loyalty and subservience to legalistic Islamand in the process Bektashism was emptied of its essential ele-ments and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology dis-ciplines and exercises

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 493

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494 Albert Doja

To illustrate from Albanian Bektashis there are known two sev-enteenth-century manuscripts written in Turkish in which it isinteresting to notice how the language in contrast with both earlierand later manuals is unusually wrapped in the flowery Sunniorthodox vocabulary often ambiguous but appearing sometimes asa forced disguise giving all the outward appearances of Sunniorthodoxy (Guidetti 1998264) More importantly it can be shownthat in these texts there is an effort to comply with the dogma oforthodox Sunni Islam even in respect to features of a categoricallySufi and Shiite nature I believe the explanation of this attitude is to be found in the context of a more hierarchical developmentof the Bektashi internal organization in connection with the his-torical and political conditions of Albania in the period of the textsrsquocomposition In the seventeenth century as political power in the Ottoman world was overwhelmingly in the hands of orthodox Muslims Sunni doctrines were the grounds of legitimacy

Under these conditions Bektashi leaders were seeking to subjectthe mystical element to Islamic standards to make mysticisminnocuous by tolerating many of its outer aspects and forms inreturn for submission They increasingly strived to reprimand sev-eral colorations of mysticism and fanaticism while trying to bringfollowers back to more respect for fundamental Islamic rules Upto the present day there are many who vigorously reject any crit-icism that the order and its doctrines are against the beliefs ofIslam claiming that otherwise Bektashi dervishes would only cre-ate prejudices against Islam by separating themselves from thegenuine Islamic teachings

Religious scholars warn in particular against the belief in the incarnation of God in human form the transcendental annihilationin God and the cult mysticism where the master is mistaken forGod They try to defend Bektashism from all accusations of hete-rodoxy or liberalism and consider it identical with the normalunderstandings of legalist Sunni Islam stressing its missionary roleand the links of transmission which guarantee against doctrinaldeviations of any kind

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Spiritual Surrender 495

A frequent point of friction as with the case of other dervishsects of extremist Shiite inclinations (Moosa 1988) is the belief inreincarnation (tenasuh) the idea of the transmigration of soulswhich implied a belief in transformation and the multiplicity offorms and the doctrine of emanation which eventually implied theldquomanifestationrdquo of God in human form (tecelli) Specialists may notice that the theory of emanation and the belief in reincarnationare not uniform and not an important theme in Bektashi teachingand that according to groups and periods one or another of thestrands predominates (Norton 2001177ndash78 Zarcone 200540)There is general agreement on the conditions under which the animistic belief in the transmigration of souls came about in Turkic mystical and heterodox circles and also on the character of Alevi-Bektashi groups in which these beliefs became firmlyrooted There is no attempt however to understand why in prac-tice some other individuals or groups did not accept or clearly denysuch beliefs

While marginal heterodox and nonconformist influences areadmitted I believe it is the most conservatory trend in the devel-opment of Bektashism that claims that these opinions make anamalgam between moderate Bektashi and extreme Shiite views inorder to protect Bektashi religious identity from such distortionsthat would make it appear hostile to the founder of Islam and toIslam altogether Actually in the course of argument Bektashism issaid to have been ldquomisused and misunderstood by destabilizingforces and currents hostile to Islamic society during nineteenth cen-turyrdquo which eventually did cause its disgrace in 1826 (Izeti200153ndash55) Authoritative assertions come thereby to claim thatthe Bektashi religious system as a doctrine and a practice ldquoisclosely connected with the internal development of Islam as a religionrdquo and that its ldquoindisputable ideological and philosophicalbasis is Islamrdquo Insofar as it adheres to the two basic Islamic pos-tulates mdash faith in the unity of Allah and the messenger mission ofMuhammad mdash ldquowe cannot consider its history and philosophy inisolation from Islamrdquo (Gramatikova 2001600)

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496 Albert Doja

After all indeed ldquothe Order that had enjoyed the full support ofOttoman power cannot be thought outside the fundamental valuesof Islamrdquo (Izeti 200155) That is why in Bektashi circles HadjiBektash is increasingly presented as a good Muslim respectful ofthe prescripts of Islam and according to a late tradition even a descen-dant of the Prophet (Melikoff 2001121ndash33) Especially in theperiod of independent Albania representatives of the hierarchy ofAlbanian Bektashi clergy reacted against assertions that tended toconsider the order of Bektashis as a doctrine of strong heterodoxydiverging from orthodox Sunni Islam much more than other Muslimorders Not surprisingly they kept up a certain appearance ofrespect for the law of Sharia drawing on the traditional tenets thatthe spiritual way of tarikat must necessarily go through the legalgate of the sheriat

The simple traditional Bektashi discussion of the Sheriat gate-way to religious knowledge takes therefore on a different meaningTraditionally the Bektashis have built into their religion such flexi-bility that it is quite acceptable for them to follow the precepts ofSunni Islam when they find it expedient to do so Such a dual ori-entation is not just a practical solution to external religious pres-sure It also provides a way for the particular and preferredinterpretation of Bektashism as an established religion to be linkedto the wider body of orthodox history and theology that they regardas being characteristic of Islam Furthermore this is more impor-tant than it might sound because it denotes very clearly the wayfor individuals or groups to explore such orthodox practice notjust ldquoif they feel such inclinationrdquo in Shanklandrsquos characterization(Shankland 200386) but essentially when they see the opportunityfor gaining authority and political benefit in doing so

Birge for example witnessed that several evenings as he sat inthe guest-room of the head of the Bektashi order in Albania he sawoutside the window a dervish stepping on to the veranda and givingthe evening call to prayer When in surprise he asked the reasonfor this he was told that this was the sheriat part (Birge 1937107)

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Spiritual Surrender 497

8 A recent case in point is Douglas-Klotz 2005

Still today a certain faction of Alevi writers in Turkey will oftenquote individual Koranic verses as an appeal for authority to sup-port their view on a given topic or to justify a certain Alevi reli-gious tradition a trend which is becoming increasingly typical forSufi scholars in their struggle for legitimacy8

With this type of development is also associated a new reverencefor the Prophet which not merely has brought him into the cate-gory of wonder-workers at the popular level but has also led to thedoctrine of the pre-existence of Muhammad before creation and tothe popular equivalent of the belief in the Spirit of Muhammad asthe Logos guardian and preserver of the universe The celebrationof the Prophetrsquos birthday seems at least in part to have beenalready a compensation for the suppression of Ali demonstrationsafter the destruction of Shiite regimes (Trimingham 197127)

In contrast with orthodox Islam one of the central Bektashibeliefs is that Imam Ali the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammadwas a manifestation of the divinity on earth A significant part of Bektashi discourses is taken up by the description of howMuhammad was introduced to the original forty followers of Aliwho were learning to perform the ritual from him They affirm thatthey were taught how to perform the initiation ritual by Ali andtheir slow-stepping ldquodance of the fortyrdquo commemorates the firstmen and women who gathered around Ali and learnt from him(Melikoff 2001) In many accounts Ali appears to have been chosen by God to become Muhammadrsquos representative thatMuhammad concurred with this and that the two men became oneThis revelation hinges around Muhammadrsquos ascent (miraj) to Godwhich is a central part of Islamic thought and features also in theKoran but the Bektashi version is unusual in its emphasis on theplace that Ali holds within this divine transmission

One of the founding tenets of Bektashi religious doctrine is thatAllah Muhammad and Ali are conceived in a triune relationship

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 497

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498 Albert Doja

(referred to as the ucler) Although God was described as the onetruth-reality (hakikat) both Muhammad and Ali were regarded asspecial manifestations of the same divine essence of truth and real-ity (Birge 1937132ndash34) They were thought of as a personificationof some higher spiritual being united together in a miraculous andindivisible unity of personality (tewhid) Muhammad is present inBektashi religious doctrine as the ldquobeginningrdquo that is as thefounder of the religious way whereas Ali is the last point theldquoaccomplishmentrdquo that is the mark of perfection to which abeliever should strive In Bektashi liturgical objects pictorial artand theological tracts the trinity Allah-Muhammad-Ali is all-important Ali is always depicted in a hierarchically organizeddivine triad miraculously unified with the Prophet and Allah thesupreme God (Birge 1937217 De Jong 1989) Even in everydayspeech Muhammad and Ali are understood as the same manifesta-tion of and as identical to the divine the ultimate truth-reality

The cult of Ali in Bektashism as in certain other dervish orderscarried to an extreme was a major cause of friction It was exag-gerated to a degree intolerable to the orthodox mind especiallywhen in extreme cases it culminated in his deification or in anycase in a veneration detrimental to that of the Prophet For ortho-dox Islam Muhammad and Ali are human beings and they cannotbe of divine essence In a much symmetrical but inverse relationfor the doctrine of Trinity in Catholic orthodoxy there cannot beany hierarchical projection within a divine essence Now just asthere is a Christian heresy of Docetism that refuses the Trinity anddenies the fusion of divinity and human nature as inseparablyunited and fully achieved in the person of Christ in a symmetri-cally inverse relationship the divinity of Muhammad and Ali isobviously a very extremist and heretical Shiite concept

In the history of Christianity the recognition of Jesus Christrsquosdivinity seemed to threaten Christian monotheism while the denialof his divinity put salvation in doubt Hence the doctrine of Trinityrepresented the radical reformulation of the doctrine of Godhead to

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 498

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Spiritual Surrender 499

meet the demands of Christian faith It was formulated at theNicene Council in the fourth century and became since the formalstatement of orthodox Christian belief In striking similarity BalimSultan the great reformer of the Bektashi order appointed in thesixteenth century by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II is said to haveformalized the belief system that propounded the concept of trinitypeculiar to Bektashism (Norton 2001171) which is still in forceamongst the current leaders of the order

Baba Rexhebi for instance the influential leader of the AlbanianBektashi foundation of Michigan in one of his treatises on Bektash-ism makes a clear distinction between the triune Bektashi concep-tion of divinity comprising inseparably the Ultimate Truth-Realityof God Muhammad and Ali and the heretical and heterodox traditions in Bektashi conceptions regarding the divinity of AliFurthermore he once again maintains that the order respects therituals of the faith and insists that Bektashi rituals are not in oppo-sition to Sunni Islam that Bektashism is ldquowithin Islamrdquo and some-times that it is even the ldquorealrdquo Islam (Rexhebi 1970) Allegationsof this kind fervently claimed by religious scholars (Izeti 200153ndash55)or naively justified by seemingly well-intentioned local scholars(Rexhepagiqi 1999258) may well be noticed by area specialists(Clayer 199077ndash78 Norris 199394) but without necessarily explain-ing mdash nor indeed understanding at all mdash that a deep evolution hadbeen already achieved not only in organizational and politicalstructures but also in theological and religious conceptions

When during the Communist period Baba Rexhebi escaped tothe United States where he founded the Bektashi lodge of Detroithe came into contact with more sophisticated types of Sufism readin English the works of Western Orientalists specifically FrenchOrientalist Henry Corbin (eg Corbin 1971 1979 1982 1983) andunderstood that to survive Bektashism would need to go througha drastic revision In his theological treatise he tried to put Bektash-ism in the perspective of Muslim mysticism and relate it to othermore elaborate forms of Sufism In particular he demonstrated that

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 499

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500 Albert Doja

Bektashism is closely related to Iranian Shiism and he tried to dis-miss the shamanistic and pre-Islamic influences in order to bringBektashism back onto the path of Shiite orthodoxy As this book isthe only one of its kind available in the Albanian language hiswork had a tremendous influence on Bektashis even though thedoctrines found in it differ greatly from the Bektashi traditions

There is no wonder afterwards that precisely his book openedthe door to Iranian influence in post-communist Albania which isaimed at bringing all the Bektashis back to the Shiite flock andhardening the orthodox line of the order Similarly amongst thedifferent factions competing for political audience in Turkey afterthe revival in the 1990s there is a reformulation of Bektashi-Alevism in connection with Iranian Shiism that sometimes movesin a direction quite different from the one mostly taken for granted While active in West Europe particularly in Germany itis also said to influence the Alevi villages in Turkey (Shankland2003169) In Albania among other things a significant number ofnew Bektashi dervishes are sent to Iran for religious training at theTheological Faculty of the Holy City of Qom It is probable thatwhen they return they will be much closer to Iranian Shiism thanBektashism ever was

Indeed instead of the traditional local leaders they alreadyregard themselves bound to spiritual leaders who are sent fromIran From them they learn a form of Shiism that insists on theveiling of women on men and women worshipping apart andupon the importance of the Sheriat Rather than reject mosquesthis movement appears to create or build Shiite mosques which actas centres of religious activity in a way that is unusual in Bektashitradition In this case it appears that the segregating puritanicalelements of orthodox practice have come to the fore and oncemore with an emphasis on the subordination of women The resultappears to be a religious revolutionary spirit that is as potentiallyaggressive as any other form of fundamentalism

Once again specialists have not failed to touch upon these recentconflictual developments within Bektashism After the 6th Congress

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 500

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Spiritual Surrender 501

of the Albanian Bektashis in Tirana for instance growing opposi-tion is noticed among the remaining Bektashis in Macedonia andKosova as well as within immigrant Bektashi communities inWestern Europe and overseas against Arch-grandfather ReshatBardhi in Tirana Yet quite simplistically no other explanation isoffered than the supposed weakness of the current leader of theBektashis who unlike his energetic predecessors seems to be onlyldquoan old man with little educationrdquo who ldquolacks the vision necessaryfor the movementrsquos survivalrdquo (Lakshman-Lepain 200254)

Concluding Remarks

The establishment of dervish orders can be considered as theorganized form of mysticism and the psychological affinitybetween mysticism and pantheism related as much to dualist andgnostic conceptions as to the Shiite devotion to Ali has beenpointed out This is doubtless justified but at the very startingmoment of organization and systematization there must occureither a split into different sects or a beginning to create a new sep-arate orthodoxy of its own (Kissling 195425) A moment of crisiscomes at this point for mysticism does not allow itself to bepressed into a system originating in rational considerations Thecontrast of any mysticism to its own orthodoxy as far as it existsas it does in the case of Bektashism lies in the fact that mysticismis always based on a feeling of pantheistic wholeness while anymonotheism is the result of intellectual thought The all-embracingsentiment relies on itself while monotheism and any form of theism are the results of a search for causes The development of orthodoxy is aimed precisely to overcome these irreconcilabledifferences

The overall model finally turns around a classic issue of modernsocial anthropology that assumes that both culture and the socialorder are inculcated by the authority to which people have giventheir subservience and that those favoured by the social order oftenteach successfully their own validation An obvious instance is the

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 501

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502 Albert Doja

way that religious leaders who are in a privileged position at thetop of the hierarchy tend to profess and even insist upon a world-view that maintains that hierarchy They may teach that they areparticularly favoured by God to fulfil that role claiming that eitherholy writ or spiritual knowledge ordains even demands theirassuming a dominant position

Basically translated in sociological terms this means that therigid intolerant and authoritarian attitudes of the local religiousdignitaries as well as the formalism and dogmatism prevailing inall fields religious or political simply express the haunting fearthat they will lose their power Within the political system asLevtzion has argued for other contexts (Levtzion 1979213) Islamand religious ideology are by no means abstract concepts but rep-resent different social groups competing to extend their influenceover political authority A religious leader might react first againstestablished authority out of personal or factional interest or ambi-tion or he might be a channel for the expression of social discon-tents Yet very soon leaders of heterodox movements will oftenaspire to political power Normally religious leaders from local hagioc-racies sooner or later will evolve into pillars of the establishedorder and the society at large

Every Church having been a sect itself at its beginnings that isa movement of social and religious protest breaking with society atlarge ends up being reconciled with the latter As Bryan Wilsonhas argued the first stage of this process normally occurs at thesecond generation of members Characteristically there is a loss ofthe original spontaneity in all fields the creation of professionalministries the adoption of oaths a positive attitude toward societyat large and the acceptance of pluralism This transformation par-allels the access of members of the group to respectable social sta-tus whereas the sects originally very much in reaction againstsociety at large soon become established when the second gener-ation takes the reins even though there will always be a first gen-eration to be recruited in a sect (Wilson 1990)

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 502

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Spiritual Surrender 503

Protest may come within a recognized religious group and estab-lish an ecclesiola in Ecclesia a religious ldquowayrdquo or a collegium pietatis characterized by mysticism as in the case of early BektashismBut it may also lead to dissidence and factionalism in which casewe often observe the formation of ecclesiastic bodies of the Churchtype or of semi-ecclesiastic bodies such as autonomous Churchesor again of new sects to which ecclesiastic and theological termi-nology will preferably refer as either schism or heresy and recentpolitical discourse as fundamentalism

In conclusion I believe we must put the dialectics of the devel-opment of Bektashism into the same perspective as the reformistvision of all other ldquorevived forms of Islamrdquo (Voll 1994) whoseprime ideal is the integration of religious and political authoritywhich implies an activist political concept of Islam The activecommitment comes to destroy corrupt versions of Islam and bringinto being an ideal Muslim community modelled on the exampleof the Prophet Such an ideal may spread first in religious circlesbut soon make a wide social impact the reformers being particu-larly effective in organizing religious movements in transition soci-eties Many reformist movements in lineage or tribal societies theworld over in this way led to the formation of states dedicated tothe integration of political and religious authority (Evans-Pritchard1949 Geertz 1960 Peacock 1978) Similarly the contemporary Islamicrevival the so-called fundamentalist movements are inspired bythe vision of a prophetic community They attempt to return to theprinciples of Islamic morality and to a renewal of personal com-mitment to the symbolic foundations of Islam They commonly aimto control the state and to use the power of the state to enforcewhat is believed to be the true Islam

Still the constant tension that subsists between orthodoxy andmystical movements is not exclusive to Islam The polemic againstsects and heterodox religious movements is primarily and essen-tially expressed in terms of conflict on doctrinal grounds If thesociological perspective points to the economic and social roots of

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 503

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504 Albert Doja

religious movements it tends to underestimate the importance ofthe religious structure itself Up to now the ideological and doctri-nal field has been left exclusively in the hands of theologiansoccasionally disputed by Orientalist and Medievalist historians Ihave discussed elsewhere the particular affinity that sociologistsand anthropologists have always shown between new religiousmovements and social cultural and national crisis movements aswell as the extent to which religious ideas must be regarded eitheras a justification for liberationist movements or as an ideology jus-tifying domination (Doja 2000a677ndash79) The analysis of doctrinal-ideological and structural-organizational characteristics of Bektashismthroughout its history that I presented here especially in OttomanAnatolia and early independent Albania is an illustrative sugges-tion that it is precisely on these structural and ideological groundsthat such a dialectical correlation may be correctly addressed

College of Humanities ALBERT DOJA

University of LimerickLimerickIrelandalbertdojaulieadojauamdedual

REFERENCES

Barthes Roland1993 [1957] ldquoLe mythe aujourdrsquohuirdquo In Oeuvres complegravetes Paris Seuil

Vol 1 681ndash719Bausinger Herman

1993 Volkskunde ou lrsquoethnologie allemande De la recherche sur lrsquoantiquiteacuteagrave lrsquoanalyse culturelle Paris Eacuteditions de la Maison des sciences de lrsquohomme[Orig Volkskunde Von der Altertumsforschung zur KulturanalyseDarmstadt 1971 Tuumlbingen 1979]

Birge John K1937 The Bektashi Order of Dervishes London Luzac Oriental Repr 1994

Bloch Maurice1985 ldquoFrom Cognition to Ideologyrdquo In Richard Fardon (ed) Power and

NUMEN 534_f3_448-510II 103006 1027 AM Page 504

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009

Spiritual Surrender 505

Knowledge Anthropological and Sociological Approaches EdinburghScottish Academic Press 21ndash48

Bourdieu Pierre1971 ldquoGenegravese et structure du champ religieuxrdquo Revue Franccedilaise de Socio-

logie 12(3)295ndash334 [Eng trans in Comparative Social Research13 (1991) 1ndash44]

Clayer Nathalie1990 LrsquoAlbanie pays des derviches les ordres mystiques musulmans en Alba-

nie agrave lrsquoeacutepoque post-ottomane 1912ndash1967 (Balkanologische Veroumlffent-lichungen 17) Wiesbaden Harrassowitz

2002 Religion et nation chez les Albanais (XIXendashXXe siegravecles) (AnalectaIsisiana 64) Istanbul Isis

Corbin Henry1971 Lrsquohomme de lumiegravere dans le soufisme iranien Paris Eacuteditions Preacutesence

[Engl trans Boulder CONew York NY Random House 1978]1979 Corps spirituel et Terre ceacuteleste de lrsquoIran mazdeacuteen agrave lrsquoIran chiite 2nd

ed Paris Buchet-Chastel [Engl trans Princeton NJ Princeton UniversityPress 1989]

1982 Temps cyclique et gnose ismaeacutelienne Paris Berg Publishers [Engltrans London Kegan Paul 1983]

1983 Face de Dieu face de lrsquohomme hermeacuteneutique et soufisme ParisFlammarion

Cornell Erik2006 ldquoA Surviving Neoplatonism On the Creed of the Bektashi Order

Conversations with a Mursitrdquo Islam amp Christian-Muslim Relations17(1)1ndash20

De Jong Frederick1989 ldquoThe Iconography of Bektashism A Survey of Themes and Symbolism

in Clerical Costume Liturgical Objects and Pictorial Artrdquo Manuscriptsof the Middle East 47ndash29

Doja Albert2000a ldquoHistoire et dialectique des ideacuteologies et significations religieusesrdquo

European Legacy Journal of the International Society for the Study ofEuropean Ideas 5(5)663ndash686

2000b ldquoThe Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities TheAlbanian Situationrdquo Critique of Anthropology 20(4)421ndash438

2004 ldquoCultural Politics and Spiritual Making of Anthropologistsrdquo Reviews inAnthropology 33(1)73ndash94

2006a ldquoA Political History of Bektashism from Ottoman Anatolia to Con-temporary Turkeyrdquo Journal of Church and State 48(2)423ndash450

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