Bulqizë
Bulqizë is the name of both a town and a municipality in Dibër County, eastern Albania. It was formed during the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipality of Bulqizë with the adjacent municipalities of Fushë-Bulqizë, Gjoricë, Ostren, Shupenzë, Trebisht and Zerqan; the seat of the municipality is the town called Bulqizë. The total population is 31,210, in a total area of 678.51 km2. The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 8,177; the location of Bulqiza lies at the east side of Albania, bound at east side with Big Dibra, at north with Dibra, at west with Mati region and Tirana, while at south is bordered with Librazhdi. The administrative center is Bulqiza with 16768 inhabitants; the locality has 7 communes. In this locality, lies the town of Krasta with 5969 inhabitants. In Bulqiza and Krasta, is present the biggest sources of chronium. Together with 36 thousand hectares of forest of pine-trees and beech-trees, is composes the most important support for the economy of the area.
Bulqiza is one of the most important centers of the economy of Albania because of the big quantity of chromium, today the resource of life for many families in the area. This zone is rich in sources but the level of life is low; the future of this area, except the chromium sources, can be considered the natural tourism. The people of this region has always been a great example of resistance, against the enemy, Serbian, Italian and so on, because the valley of Bulqize is situated in a cross road, is the main entrance to go to the inner side of Albania, it is famous the Battle of Vajkali Plain, Gjorica,e Xixulla, the spring of Mure etc. at the beginning of the Renaissance, the people of this region, has fight and win against the army of Hajredin Pasha. Local people contributed to the historic events as the patriots of this region has been part of the declaration of The Independence at 1912; the people of Bulqize participated at 2nd World War against the Italian and German invaders where 68 heroes sacrificed their life.
The liberation found the country in a deep poverty statement. The Communist Party took every piece of dignity, exchanging the promises for the great freedom and prosperity, in a long wild dictatorship; the people of Bulqiza, remained far away from his aspiration for the freedom and prosperity, which had characterized it during every époque. At 1990, step by step, Bulqiza encouraged the creation of the private market and economy, the democratic forms of the live and again started to aspire the join of the European civilization. Most of the relief is composed by mountains. In this territory lie the valley of Bulqiza 25 km long, 1 km wide; this valley is bordered on with Bualli 842 m high. Next to it, extends the national road which connects Burreli with Bulqiza and Big Dibra through the valley runs the gravel spring of Bulqiza which streams at Black Drini river; the climate all around Bulqiza is cold in winter and dry in summer. The valley is open from the east side and so weather-beaten; the medium degrees goes to the maximum until 35 °C in summer.
During winter the lowest degree is –18 °C. the quantity of precipitation is 980 mm
Berat
Berat, is the ninth largest city by population of the Republic of Albania. The city is the capital of the surrounding Berat County, one of 12 constituent counties of the country. By air, it is 71 kilometres north of Gjirokastër, 70 kilometres west of Korçë, 70 kilometres south of Tirana and 33 kilometres east of Fier. Geographically, Berat is located in the south of the country surrounded by mountains and hills including Tomorr on the east, declared a national park. For a total length of 161 kilometres the Osum River runs through the city before it empties into the Seman River within the Myzeqe Plain. Berat, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, comprise a unique style of architecture with influences from several civilizations that have managed to coexist for centuries throughout the history. Like many cities in Albania, Berat comprises an old fortified city filled with churches and mosques painted with grandiose wealth of visible murals and frescos; the name of the city in Albanian is "Berat" or "Berati", derived from the Old Slavonic Бѣлградъ or "Belgrad", under which name it was known in Greek, Bulgarian and Slavic documents during the High and Late Middle Ages.
That name was rendered as Bellegrada in Greek. It is believed to have been the site of the ancient city "Antipatreia" or "Antipatrea" in Latin, while during the early Byzantine Empire the name of the town was "Pulcheriopolis". In the Republic of Venice the city was known as Belgrad di Romania, while in the Ottoman Empire it was known as Belgrad-i Arnavud to distinguish it from Belgrade. Berat lies on the right bank of the river Osum, a short distance from the point where it is joined by the Molisht river; the old city centre consists of three parts: Kalaja and Gorica. It has a wealth of beautiful buildings of high historical interest; the pine forests above the city, on the slopes of the towering Tomorr mountains, provide a backdrop of appropriate grandeur. The Osumi river has cut a 915-metre deep gorge through the limestone rock on the west side of the valley to form a precipitous natural fortress, around which the town was built on several river terraces. According to an Albanian legend, the Tomorr mountain was a giant, who fought with another giant called Shpirag over a young woman.
They killed each other and the girl drowned in her tears, which became the Osum river. Mount Shpirag, named after the second giant, is on the left bank of the gorge, above the district of Gorica. Berat is known to Albanians as the city of "One above another Windows", or The City of Two Thousand Steps, it was proclaimed a'Museum City' by the dictator Enver Hoxha in June 1961. The earliest recorded inhabitants of the city were the Illyrian tribe of the Dassaretae or Dexarioi, the northernmost subgroup of the Chaonians, the region was known as Dessaretis after them. Modern Berat occupies the site of Antipatreia, a settlement of the Dexarioi and a Macedonian stronghold in southern Illyria; the founding date is unknown, although if Cassander is the founder it has been suggested that Antipatreia was founded after he took control of the region around 314 BC. In 200 BC it was captured by the Roman legatus Lucius Apustius, who razed the walls and massacred the male population of the city; the town became part of the unstable frontier of the Byzantine Empire following the fall of the western Roman Empire and, along with much of the rest of the Balkan peninsula, it suffered from repeated invasions by Slavs.
During the Roman and early Byzantine period, the city was known as Pulcheriopolis. The First Bulgarian Empire under Presian I captured the town in the 9th century, the city received the Slavic name Belgrad, Belegrada in Greek, which persisted throughout the medieval period, changing to Berat under Ottoman rule; the town became one of the most important towns in the Bulgarian region Kutmichevitsa. The Bulgarian governor Elemag surrendered the city to the emperor Basil II in 1018, the city remained in Byzantine hands until the Second Bulgarian Empire retook the city in 1203 during the rule of Kaloyan. During the 13th century, it fell to the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus. Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos sent letters to the Albanian leaders of Berat and Durrës in 1272 asking them to abandon their alliance with Charles I of Naples, leader of the Kingdom of Albania, who had captured and incorporated it at the same period in the Kingdom of Albania. However, they sent the letters to Charles as a sign of their loyalty.
In 1274 Michael VIII recaptured Berat and after being joined by Albanians who supported the Byzantine Empire, marched unsuccessfully against the Angevin capital of Durrës. In 1280-1281 the Sicilian forces under Hugh the Red of Sully laid siege to Berat. In March 1281 a relief force from Constantinople under the command of Michael Tarchaneiotes was able to drive off the besieging Sicilian army. In the 13th century Berat again fell under the control of the Byzantine Empire. In 1335 Albanians from Epirus Nova invaded the area of Berat and appeared in Epirus for the first time, while in 1345 the town passed to the Serbian Empire. After its dissolution in 1355 Berat came under suzerainty of its former governor, John Komnenos Asen (1345-
Dowry
A dowry is a transfer of parental property, gifts or money at the marriage of a daughter. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment by the groom or his family to the bride's parents, dowry is the wealth transferred from the bride's family to the groom or his family, ostensibly for the bride. Dower is the property settled on the bride herself, by the groom at the time of marriage, which remains under her ownership and control. Dowry is an ancient custom, its existence may well predate records of it. Dowries continue to be expected and demanded as a condition to accept a marriage proposal in some parts of the world in parts of Asia, Northern Africa and the Balkans. In some parts of the world, disputes related to dowry sometimes result in acts of violence against women, including killings and acid attacks; the custom of dowry is most common in cultures that are patrilineal and that expect women to reside with or near their husband's family.
Dowries have long histories in Europe, South Asia and other parts of the world. A dowry is the transfer of parental property to a daughter at her marriage rather than at the owner's death. A dowry establishes a type of conjugal fund; this fund may provide an element of financial security in widowhood or against a negligent husband, may go to provide for her children. Dowries may go toward establishing a marital household, therefore might include furnishings such as linens and furniture. Locally, dowry is called dahej in Hindi, varadhachanai in Tamil, jehaz in Urdu and Arabic, joutuk in Bengali, jiazhuang in Mandarin, çeyiz in Turkish, dot in French, daijo in Nepali, in various parts of Africa as serotwana, saduquat, or mugtaf. Anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study of dowry systems around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated that dowry is a form of inheritance found in the broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland that practice "diverging devolution", i.e. that transmit property to children of both sexes.
This practice differs from the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice "homogenous inheritance" in which property is transmitted only to children of the same sex as the property holder. These latter African societies are characterized by the transmission of the "bride price," the money, goods or property given by the groom or his family to the parents of the bride. Goody has demonstrated a historical correlation between the practices of "diverging devolution" and the development of intensive plough agriculture on the one hand, homogeneous inheritance and extensive hoe agriculture on the other. Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies in intensive plough agriculture and extensive shifting horticulture. In sparsely populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place, most of the work is done by women; these are the societies. Boserup further associates shifting horticulture with the practice of polygamy, hence bridewealth is paid as a compensation to her family for the loss of her labour.
In plough agriculture farming is men's work. In contrast, plough agriculture is associated with private property and marriage tends to be monogamous, to keep the property within the nuclear family. Close family are the preferred marriage partners. There is a scholarly debate on Goody's theory. Sylvia Yanagisko argues, for example, that there are a number of societies including parts of Japan, Southern Italy, China, that do not support Goody's claim that dowry is a form of female inheritance of male property, she notes that Goody's is an evolutionary model in which these historical variables may not be the decisive factors today. Susan Mann argues, in contrast, with examples where in late Imperial China, dowry was a form of female inheritance. Stanley J. Tambiah argued that Goody's overall thesis remained pertinent in North India, although it required modification to meet local circumstances, he points out that dowry in North India is only used as a bride's conjugal fund, that a large part goes directly to the groom's joint family.
This would seem to discount Goody's model, except that in North India, the joint family is composed of the groom's parents, his married brothers and unmarried sisters, their third generation children. This joint family controlled this part of the dowry, which they used to help fund their own daughter/sister's dowries, but when the parents die, the joint family partitions, this jointly held wealth was divided among the married sons, such that the bride's dowry given to the joint family returned to her and her husband as their "conjugal fund."Schlegel and Eloul expanded on Goody's model through further statistical analysis of the Ethnographic atlas. They argue that a major factor in determining the type of marriage transaction is the type of property controlled by the household. Bridewealth circulates property and women, is typical of societies where property is limited. Dowry concentrates property and is found in property owning classes or commercial or landed pastoral peoples; when families give dowry, they not only ensure their daughter's economic security, they "buy" the best possible husband for her, son-in-law for themselves.
In the oldest available records, such as the Code of Hammurabi in ancient Babylon, the dowry is described as an already-existing custom. Daughters did not inherit anything fr
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. Tirana is located in the center of Albania and is enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajt on the east and a slight valley on the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance. Due to its location within the Plain of Tirana and the close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, the city is influenced by a Mediterranean seasonal climate, it is with 2,544 hours of sun per year. Tirana flourished as a city in 1614 but the region that today corresponds to the city's territory has been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age; the city's territory had no importance within Illyria. Indeed, it was annexed by Rome and became an integral part of the Roman Empire following the Illyrian Wars; the heritage of that period represented by the Mosaics of Tirana. In the 5th and 6th centuries, a Paleochristian basilica was built around this site. After the Roman Empire split into East and West in the 4th century, its successor the Byzantine Empire took control over most of Albania, built the Petrelë Castle in the reign of Justinian I.
The city was unimportant until the 20th century, when the Congress of Lushnjë proclaimed it as Albania's capital, after the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912. Tirana is the most important economic, financial and trade center in Albania due to its significant location in the center of the country and its modern air, maritime and road transportation, it is the seat of power of the Government of Albania, with the official residences of the President and Prime Minister of Albania, the Parliament of Albania. The discovery of the Pellumbas Cave near Tirana shows that ancient human culture was present in Albania as early as the Paleolithic era. Nonetheless, the oldest discovery within the urban area of Tirana was a Roman house, transformed into an aisleless church with a mosaic floor, dating to the 3rd century, with other remains found near a medieval temple at Shengjin Fountain in the eastern suburbs. A castle called Tirkan, whose remnants are found along Murat Toptani Street, was built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and restored by Ahmed Pasha Toptani in the 18th century.
The area had no special importance in classical times. Tirana is mentioned in Venetian documents in 1418, one year after the Ottoman conquest of the area: "...the resident Pjeter, son of late Domenik from the village of Tirana...". Records of the first land registrations under the Ottomans in 1431–32 show that Tirana consisted of 60 inhabited areas, with nearly 2,028 houses and 7,300 inhabitants. In 1510, Marin Barleti, an Albanian Catholic priest and scholar, in the biography of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis, referred to this area as a small village, distinguishing between "Little Tirana" and "Great Tirana", it is mentioned in 1572 as Borgo di Tirana. According to Hahn, the settlement had started to develop as a bazaar and included several watermills before 1614, when Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler, built the Old Mosque, a small commercial centre, a hammam; this is confirmed by oral sources, which state that there were two earlier mosques 300-400 m from the Old Mosque, towards today's Ali Demi Street.
The Mosque of Reç and the Mosque of Mujo were positioned on the left side of the Lana river and were older than the Old Mosque. The Et'hem Bey Mosque, built by Molla Bey of Petrela, was constructed, it employed the best artisans in the country and was completed in 1821 by Molla's son Etëhem, Sulejman Bargjini's great-nephew. In 1800, the first newcomers arrived in the so-called ortodoksit, they were Vlachs from villages near Korçë and Pogradec, who settled around modern day Tirana Park on the Artificial Lake. They started to be known as the llacifac and were the first Christians to arrive after the creation of the town. After Serb reprisals in the Debar region, thousands of locals fled to Tirana. In 1807, Tirana became the center of the Subprefecture of Krujë-Tirana. After 1816, Tirana languished under the control of the Toptani family of Krujë. Tirana became a sub-prefecture of the newly created Vilayet of Shkodër and the Sanjak of Durrës. In 1889, the Albanian language started to be taught in Tirana's schools, the patriotic club Bashkimi was founded in 1908.
On 28 November 1912, the national flag was raised in agreement with President Ismail Qemali. During the Balkan Wars, the city was temporarily occupied by the Serbian army and it took part in uprising of the villages led by Haxhi Qamili. In August 1916, the first city map was compiled by the specialists of the Austro-Hungarian army. On 8 February 1920, the Congress of Lushnjë proclaimed Tirana as the temporary capital of Albania, which had gained independence in 1912; the city acquired that status permanently on 31 December 1925. In 1923, the first regulatory city plan was compiled by Austrian architects; the centre of Tirana was the project of Florestano Di Fausto and Armando Brasini, well-known architects of the Mussolini period in Italy. Brasini laid the basis for the modern-day arrangement of the ministerial buildings in the city centre; the plan underwent revisions by Albanian architect Eshref Frashëri, Italian architect Castellani and Austrian architects Weiss and Kohler. The modern Albanian parliament building served as an officers' club.
It was there that, in September 1928, Zog of Albania was crowned King Zog King of the Albanians. Tirana was the venue for the signing of the P
Albania
Albania the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea. It shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east, Greece to the south and a maritime border with Italy to the west. Geographically, the country displays varied climatic, geological and morphological conditions, defined in an area of 28,748 km2, it possesses remarkable diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab, Skanderbeg and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea. The area of Albania was populated by various Illyrian and Ancient Greek tribes as well as several Greek colonies established in the Illyrian coast; the area was annexed in the 3rd century by Romans and became an integral part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Illyricum. The autonomous Principality of Arbër emerged in 1190, established by archon Progon in the Krujë, within the Byzantine Empire.
In the late thirteenth century, Charles of Anjou conquered Albanian territories from the Byzantines and established the medieval Kingdom of Albania, which at its maximal extension was extending from Durrës along the coast to Butrint in the south. In the mid-fifteenth century, it was conquered by the Ottomans; the modern nation state of Albania emerged in 1912 following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars. The modern Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a Communist state titled the People's Socialist Republic of Albania was founded under the leadership of Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour; the country experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In the aftermath of the Revolutions of 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the fourth Republic of Albania was established.
Politically, the country is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the tertiary sector followed by the secondary and primary sector. It went through a process of transition, following the end of communism in 1990, from a centralized to a market-based economy, it provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. The country is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE and OIC, it is an official candidate for membership in the European Union. In addition it is one of the founding members of the Energy Community, including the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Union for the Mediterranean; the term Albania is the medieval Latin name of the country. It may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of Albani recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, who drafted a map in 150 AD, which shows the city of Albanopolis located northeast of the city of Durrës.
The term may have a continuation in the name of a medieval settlement called Albanon or Arbanon, although it is not certain that this was the same place. In his history written in the 10th century, the Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni and referred to themselves as Arbëreshë or Arbëneshë. Nowadays, Albanians call their country Shqipëria; as early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë replaced Arbëria and Arbëresh. The two terms are popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" and "Children of the Eagles"; the first traces of human presence in Albania, dating to the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic eras, were found in the village of Xarrë close to Sarandë and Dajti near Tiranë. The objects found in a cave near Xarrë include flint and jasper objects and fossilized animal bones, while those found at Mount Dajt comprise bone and stone tools similar to those of the Aurignacian culture.
The Paleolithic finds of Albania show great similarities with objects of the same era found at Crvena Stijena in Montenegro and north-western Greece. Several Bronze Age artefacts from tumulus burials have been unearthed in central and southern Albania that show close connection with sites in south-western Macedonia and Lefkada, Greece. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that these regions were inhabited from the middle of the third millennium BC by Indo-European people who spoke a Proto-Greek language. A part of this population moved to Mycenae around 1600 BC and founded the Mycenaean civilisation there. In ancient times, the territory of modern Albania was inhabited by a number of Illyrian tribes; the Illyrian tribes never collectively regarded themselves as'Illyrians', it is unlikely that they used any collective nomenclature for themselves. The name Illyrians seems to be the name applied to a specific Illyrian tribe, the first to come in contact with the ancient Greeks during the Bronze Age, causing the name Illyrians to be applied pars pro toto to all people of similar language and customs.
The territory known as Illyria corresponded to the area east of the Adriatic sea, extending in the south to the mouth of the Vjosë river. The first accou
Politics of Albania
Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, where the President of Albania is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Albania the head of government in a multi-party system. The executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister with its Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Albania; the judiciary is independent of the legislature. The political system of Albania is laid out in the 1998 constitution; the Parliament adopted the current constitution on 28 November 1998. Due to political instability, the country has had many constitutions during its history. Albania was constituted as a monarchy in 1913 a republic in 1925 it returned to a democratic monarchy in 1928, it became a socialist republic until the restoration of capitalism and democracy in 1992. The President represents the unity of the Albanian people in the country and abroad as the head of state and is the commander-in-chief of the military; the President is nominated through a secret vote and without debate by the Parliament of Albania by a majority of three-fifths of all its members and is in every case elected for 5 years.
The President maintains regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government system, safeguards the independence and territorial integrity of Albania and appoints Prime Ministers on the basis of the balance of power in the Parliament. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president after each parliamentary election and must have the confidence of the Parliament stay in office; the Prime Minister is elected on the basis of universal suffrage, through a secret ballot, for a four-year term. The constitution sets no limit as to office terms of the prime minister; the Prime Minister is de facto the most influential person in Albanian politics. However, in the absence of the prime minister, the Deputy Prime Minister takes over his functions, such as chairing the cabinet and the council of ministers of Albania; the Parliament is a unicameral legislative body of Albania. It is vested in both the government as well as in the parliament; the number of representatives is 140. The oldest parliament with extant records was held on 2 March 1444, forged in Lezhë under Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu as the leader against the Ottoman Empire.
Since 1991, the introduction of pluralism, the party system is dominated by the Democratic and the post-communist Socialist. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, the most recent in 2017. Albania is a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and an official candidate for membership in the European Union.. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated Albania as "hybrid regime" in 2016 with "some form of democratic government" in place. Since the declaration of independence in 1912, Albania has experienced different models of governance, including an international protectorate, a monarchy, a state-party regime and the parliamentary republic as well. Throughout all this period, the function of the head of state has been exercised in various forms. Nowadays, the President of Albania is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and the representative of the unity of the Albanian people.. The President is indirectly elected to a five-year term by the Parliament by secret vote, requiring a three-fifths majority of the votes of all members.
The President has the power to guarantee observation of the Constitution and all laws, act as commander-in-chief of the Albanian Armed Forces, exercise the duties of the Parliament, when the Parliament is not in session, appoint the Prime Minister. The President has the power to declare war, to grant pardon and to conclude agreements of peace and participation in international organizations; the Prime Minister of Albania is the head of government. According to the Constitution, the Prime Minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in the Albanian parliamentary system; the Prime Minister is appointed by the President. The Council of Ministers is responsible for carrying out both domestic policies, it controls the activities of the ministries and other state organs. The Deputy Prime Minister of Albania is the deputy head of government. In the absence of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister takes over his functions, such as chairing the Cabinet and the Council of Ministers.
The Parliament of Albania is a unicameral legislative body. It is composed of not less than 140 members elected to a four-year term on the basis of direct, universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot; as of Article 45 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to vote, the People of Albania exercise their power through their elected representatives in the Parliament. When the Parliament is elected, the first session shall be held no than 20 days after the completion of elections with the President as the speaker. There are 15 permanent committees. Extraordinary meets can be called by the President, by the Chairperson of the Parliament, by the Prime Minister or by the one fifth of the members. Decisions are made based on a majority vote if more than half of the members are present, except in cases where the Constitution provides for a special majority; as specified by the current electoral legislation in Albania, 140 members of the Parliament are elected in multi-seat constituencies. Within any constituency, parties must meet a threshold
Bektashi Order
Bektashi Order or Shī‘ah Imāmī Alevī-Bektāshī Ṭarīqah is a Sufi dervish order named after the 13th century Alevi Wali Haji Bektash Veli from Khorasan, but founded by Balım Sultan. The order, whose headquarters is in Tirana, Albania, is found throughout Anatolia and the Balkans, was strong in Albania and among Ottoman era Greek Muslims from the regions of Epirus and Macedonia. However, the Bektashi order does not seem to have attracted quite as many adherents from among Bosnian Muslims, who tended to favor more mainstream Sunni orders such as the Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya; the order represents the official ideology of Bektashism. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, the Bektashi order was significantly influenced during its formative period by the Hurufis, the Qalandariyya stream of Sufism, to varying degrees the Shia beliefs circulating in Anatolia during the 14th to 16th centuries; the mystical practices and rituals of the Bektashi order were systematized and structured by Balım Sultan in the 16th century after which many of the order's distinct practices and beliefs took shape.
A large number of academics consider Bektashism to have fused a number of Shia and Sufi concepts, although the order contains rituals and doctrines that are distinct. Throughout its history Bektashis have always had wide appeal and influence among both the Ottoman intellectual elite as well as the peasantry; the Bektashi Order is a Sufi order and shares much in common with other Islamic mystical movements, such as the need for an experienced spiritual guide—called a baba in Bektashi parlance — as well as the doctrine of "the four gates that must be traversed": the "Sharia", "Tariqah", "Marifa", "Haqiqah". Bektashism places much emphasis on the concept of Wahdat-ul-Wujood وحدة الوجود, the "Unity of Being", formulated by Ibn Arabi; this has been labeled as pantheism, although it is a concept closer to panentheism. Bektashism is heavily permeated with Shiite concepts, such as the marked reverence of Ali, The Twelve Imams, the ritual commemoration of Ashurah marking the Battle of Karbala; the old Persian holiday of Nowruz is celebrated by Bektashis as Imam Ali's birthday.
In keeping with the central belief of Wahdat-ul-Wujood the Bektashi see reality contained in Haqq-Muhammad-Ali, a single unified entity. Bektashi do not consider this a form of trinity. There are many other practices and ceremonies that share similarity with other faiths, such as a ritual meal and yearly confession of sins to a baba. Bektashis base their practices and rituals on their non-orthodox and mystical interpretation and understanding of the Quran and the prophetic practice, they have no written doctrine specific to them, thus rules and rituals may differ depending on under whose influence one has been taught. Bektashis revere Sufi mystics outside of their own order, such as Ibn Arabi, Al-Ghazali and Jelalludin Rumi who are close in spirit to them. Bektashis hold that the Quran has two levels of meaning: an inner, they hold the latter to be superior and eternal and this is reflected in their understanding of both the universe and humanity. Bektashism is initiatic and members must traverse various levels or ranks as they progress along the spiritual path to the Reality.
First level members are called aşıks عاشق. They are those who, while not having taken initiation into the order, are drawn to it. Following initiation one becomes a mühip محب. After some time as a mühip, one can become a dervish; the next level above dervish is that of baba. The baba is considered to be the head of a qualified to give spiritual guidance. Above the baba is the rank of halife-baba. Traditionally there were twelve of these; the dedebaba was considered to be the highest ranking authority in the Bektashi Order. Traditionally the residence of the dedebaba was the Pir Evi, located in the shrine of Hajji Bektash Wali in the central Anatolian town of Hacıbektaş, known as Hajibektash complex; the Bektashi are the disciples of some of his descendants. The Bektashi order was widespread in the Ottoman Empire, their lodges being scattered throughout Anatolia as well as many parts of the southern Balkans and in the imperial city of Constantinople; the order had close ties with the Janissary corps, the elite infantry corp of the Ottoman Army, therefore became associated with Anatolian and Balkan Muslims of Eastern Orthodox convert origin Albanians and northern Greeks.
With the abolition of Janissaries, the Bektashi order was banned throughout the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826. This decision was supported by the Sunni religious elite as well as the leaders of other, more orthodox, Sufi orders. Bektashi tekkes were closed and their dervishes were exiled. Bektashis regained freedom with the coming of the Tanzimat era. After the foundation of republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk banned all Sufi orders and shut down the lodges in 1925; the Bektashi leadership moved to Albania and established their headquarters in the city of Tirana. Among the most famous follower
Albania
