Allevi-Bektashi Zaviyes in the Eastern Rhodope (15th –16th Centuries)

Authors:

Pages: 495-518
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/ADGG1341

Abstract:

Thrace is the first Balkan region occupied by the Ottomans and has preserved several dervish cloisters from the early Ottoman period. The most important of them are those of Seyid Ali Sultan (or Kizil Deli), Otman Baba and Yaрmur Baba, located in the districts of Dimotika, Kurdzhali and Haskovo. All of them are representatives of the Bektashi tradition in the Balkans. Omer Lutfi Barkan calls them “dervishes-colonizers”, spiritually leading the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, and becoming spiritual pioneers of Islam in the Balkan lands. Although there are some investigations of these zaviyes that partially illuminate their history, no detailed studies have been made in order to analyze their development in comparative perspective. The purpose of this study is to collect and examine data from the Ottoman registers in the XVth and XVIth centuries, and to elucidate further their early history.

Keywords:

Balkans, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Greece, Thrace, Eastern Rhodopes, Zaviyes, Bektashi.

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