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BEKTASHISM and ALEVISM

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THE USE AND MiSUSE OF THE BEKTASHi NAME

iN WESTERN CONTEXT: The Case of the Thule Society, the Shriners, & the Dawoodi~Bektashis

Mohammed A Al-Aha ri"

Introduction In the West, there has been a long-lasting tendeney to view belonging to a seeret society

as a means for social climbing. The more secretive and strange the ritual and history of a given 'secret' order, the langer the line to join will become. The earliest of these orders included lnstructive Masonry which purportedly traced its oıigins to ancient Greece and Egypt. The libraries of these orders and their ıituals were daimed to have deıived from seeret Moroccan (in the case of the Rosicrucians), Persian {for the Grotto), andArabian or Egyptian (for the Shriners) mystic orders.

In the 19ıtı century we had the European discovery of Tıbet and the subsequent legends of Shambala with all its hidden esateric knowledge, the secrets of the tribes of the Caucasus Mountains, the Order of the Peacock, and science of Theosophy. Truth explorers were allegedly able to fınd concealed guides and guarded texts which purportedly reveal the realities of the universe. The famed Madame Blavatsky gave us the Stanzas of Dzyan, Richard Burton the Qasidas of Abu Yazid, as well as the ritual books of the Grotto and the Shriners seeret societies. Yet none of these texts have any ancient manuscript in existence leading one to assume their forgery.

My reasons for writing this short expose are several, the faremost being a wish to distance the noble Bektashi Order of Sufıs from individuals and groups who have indefensibly and fraudulently utilized the name Bektashi in their organizations without any solid rationalization, an occurrence that has caused a significant amount of confusion among inquisitive minds. Since the 19ıtı century a number of individuals who have sought out the genuine path of Haji Bektash and that of the Baktashis have been led to things that are unquestionably not Bektashism and, despite such claims, have no origin in Bektashism at all. Historically these fırst purported links to ls!amic mysticism (from which Bektashism arose) ca me from Freemasonry and its root order of the KnightTemp!ar.

Knight Templar: The Roots of Freemasonry The Knights Templar were a military order founded in Palestine in 1119 CE at the height

of the Crusades by a group of nine warıiors who had sought out glory and fortune in Holy Land. The King of Jerusalem- King Baldwin ll (reign 1118~31)- gave them quarters in his palace on the site of Solomon's Temple (thus their name).

They took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to no ne sa ve the Grand Master of the Order (the first was Hugh du Paynes) as well as the Pope. The knights were divided into tour classes: knights, chaplains, squires, and servants. The knights wore a white mantle with a red cross, white the lower grades wore a black or brown mantle. They grew rapidly (from 9 to 30,000) and wea!th.

University of Phoenix, /USA

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Other orders grew jealous of their weatth and prestige. Some such as the Hospftallers gained the ear of the French king and the Pope. When the city of Acre fell in 1291 CE and the vaıious orders retreated to Cyprus, the T emplars were charged wfth being assodates of the lsma'ilis (Assassins) and with the heresy of Unitarianism. In 1307 CE, Philip IV of France began to confıscate their properties with the approval of the Pope who issued a bu ll which dissolved the orderin 1312 CE.

The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was bumed to deathin 1314 CE with several of his closest followers in the courtyard of Notre Dame Cathedral. Contemporary scholars see the persecution of the Templars asa monstrous, fanatical and homophobic perversion of justice. Outside of France the Templars were generalty deared of the charges of heresy or were given time to go underground. Such is the case of the British !sles.

Sixty years after their suppression, The Knights Temptar rose in a so-called peasant revalt against the English Crown. The eight day revalt was lead by Walter the Tyler (a Masonic title) and the sources of teadership of that brief revalt were not traced to the T emplars at that time [Robinson, xiij. In Masonry, a "Tyler" guards the door of the lodge against intruders. Surely a suppresSed mimary order could be in need of such a person. In many Sufı and seeret orders there is a guard at the door to question anyone who comes to meetings. In the Bektashi Path this function is called the Rehber. More similarities between Bektashism and Freemasonry will come later in this pa per.

While there is no clear documentation that the Knight Templars framed their hierarchical structure upon the one developed by the Assassins, there is evidence that the Templars and Assassins at times joined in common ca use. The Templars wished to have the city of Tyre and

· would have traded Damascus for it. At one time the King of Jerusalem ca me under the intrigues of both the Templars and the Assassins. The Assassins had been paying tribute to the Templars and sent a message to the King of Jerusalem that they would convert en masseta Christianiiy if the tribute were lifted.

lt wasn't. lnstead the Ternplars ambushed the King of Jerusalem's envoy to the Assassins and brutally murdered him. The lsma'ili Rite wasn't the only Assassin at work in the Occident it would seem. The relationship between the Templars' Grand Master and the Assassins was close enough that he likety knew of the whole affair I_Waite, 50].

After their long assodation in the Middle East, the Templars had became tinted by its lore, theosophy, and hidden rituals. These were the charges brought against them when they were under directian of De Moley. Charges of heresy, urinating on crosses, homoeretic unions, and devil worship were all forthcoming [MacKinzie, 125-143]. Nevertheless, the main heresy the Templars were accused of was Unitarianism. Further charges of witchcraft and worship of an idol called Baphomat were added to make their persecution seem fair.

These so-called heretics escaped whenever the chance arose. They had an organization prepared to operate under these circumstances. Except in France, where they were victims of an all out inquisition, the Templars were able to go underground and become mercenaries, shopkeepers, clergymen, and members of trade guilds. They carried with them the ability to survive if given chance for escape the inquisitor's flame. The years of their assodation with the workings of Byzantine politics, the seeret rituals of the Assassins, and the intrigues of the Muslim courts which they observed on the baWefield and at conference tables prepared them for a life of duplicity and secretiveness. The church with it bloody rejection of protest and social change provided the Templars with many willing sympathizers to aid them or join their ranks.

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The secrecy much needed in those times is stili part of the Masonic ritual today. A candidate must be able to keep secrets, be with alllimbs, and not senlle or mentally deficient. A suppressed military order would have to keep such rules in order to survive underground and not suffer more persecution.

To enter the Masons the candidate must be interviewed, recomrnended, and go through a ritual that ansures he is searching for knowledge, self-improvement, and community service. The candidate stıips to the trousers and undershirt, removes all coins from his clothes, bares his left arm and breast, and rolls his pant legs to the knee. He then is cable-towedand hood-winked. After being lead past the "Tyler," the "Worshipful Master" reminds the candidate of the punishments in store for anyone revealing the secrets of the lodge. The punishments were the same handed out to the Knight T emplars during their persecution.

When the "Worshipful Master" has questioned the candidate and heard correct answers, the hood is removed due to the candidates answering the question 'What are you searching fot1" with the word, "Ught." U pan uttering this, the candidate is taught the passwords and signs of his degree and is invested with a white woolen apron - a connection, perhaps, to Sufa [wool] and Sufısm?

After being an "Entered Apprentice" for a short time, the candidate can rise in the Masonic ranks to be a "Fellowcraft" or" Joumeyman". Originally this was the highest rank and a Master was selected from them. (This is also true of the Bektashi Sufı Order.) Only later did the 3m degree of "Master M ason" develop [MacKinzie, 211 ].

The ritual is similar to that of the "Entered Apprentice," but the lecture differs. Candidates at this level are lead to a Middle Chamber and given a lecture on the heavenly and earthly geometry (knowledge attributed to Salomon, but likely through Arabic sources ). There he is told the three degrees are symbolic of life: youth (Entered Apprentice), maturation (Fellowcraft), and old age (Master Mason). The lecture then discusses nurnarology of which the number seven is stressed (7 liberal arts, 7 heavens, 7 years to build Solomon's Temple, 7 wonders of the world, ete.). This number is most important in the lsma'ili worldview and the Masons (forrnerly the Knight Templars) perhaps gained its air of importance from them [MacKinzie, 214].

The "Master Mason" homily deals with the murder of Solomon's architect Hiram Abiff by the three Juwes (Jubelo, Jubela, Jubelum). These names are only the masculine, teminine and neuter for of the noun Jubes- "He who is punished." H ira m' s body is discarded by the murdarers when the failed to get him to teli them the Master Password. This word is called the lost key to Masonry. A substitute word Mahabone is given instead. This word also shows were some Templars hid. In French "Bon Mahania" is the name of the port from which the Barbary pirates sailed when they attacked merchant ships in the Mediterranean.

In the ritual the candidate plays Hiram Abiff. Hiram Abiff is the Anglicized version of "Hiram a Biffe"- Hiram who was e/iminated The candidate is unwrapped and raised to the level of brotherhood (foot to foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to back, mouth to ear) by a Masonic grip called the lion's paw. This only occurs after he has heard that the three Juwes were being put to death in the manner that they deseribed in oaths were they admitted their wrongs. Again, these oaths are reminiscent of the punishments dealt to the Knight Templars during their persecution. The complete ritual is found in manyworks on Freemasonry.

About the lodge itself more should be said. The lodge reters not to a meeting place, but a safe house for a member of the order. The floor of the lodge, a black and mosaie, is the fina ı key. lt is a repetition of a black black above a white black below. The black symbolizes the black world left behind by the order, the white the world of knightly purity they entered. The gloves are

577

from the Templars also due to their wearing of gloves to keep their hands pure to receive communion. The travel to the East is but a remembrance of the path the Knights went to fıght in the Crusades. As the Templars prayed in raund churches so no one was able to be in a position of higher ran k, a compass was retained and became part of the Masonic legend of their being an ancient order of freethinkars and mathematicians. The "G" for Geometry comes from Masons being responsible for rebuilding London after the Great Fire of 1666 CE. Other communities and proofs that the Masons are the direct descendants ofthe Knight Templars could be given but the interest reader should go to Robinson's Bom in Bloodand other such as: Stephen Knight's The Brotherhoodand The Seeret Diary of Jack the Ripperfor more proofs.

"More than six h undred years have passed since the suppression of the Knight Templars, but their hemage lives on in the largest fraternal organization ever known [Freemasonsr [Robinson, xix] The direct descendants of the Knight Templars are: 1) the Pirates of Mahadiah; 2) lrish Freemasons; 3) Scottish Freemasons; and, 4) York Rite Masons.

In American the first Scottish Rite Lodge was founded in Charleston S.C. by Stephen Morinin 1801 CE. Scottish Rite Masonry was first publicly promulgated in 1758 CE. Stephen Morin Was granted patents to increase the number of degrees on August 27, 1761 CE. The Grand Lodge of Perfection was fırst operated under lsaac De Costa - the lnspector General of South Carolina in 1783 CE. This lodge did not survive. In 1801 CE the lodge was reestablished with a Grand Council under Fredrick Dalcho, John Mitchell, Stephen Morin and others. The Shriners evolved out of the 33rıı degree system of Scottish Rite Masonry.

Freemasamy The Masonry .we know taday is called "Speculative" Masonry. lt only replaced

"Constructive" (building or guild) Masonry very gradually. The year 1717 CE is usually marked as the start of Speculative Masonry. In 1723 CE the first book of rituals, catechisms and constitutions were issued by Anderson.

Masonry is of three degrees: Apprentice, Feliowcraft and Master Mason. All other degrees are added and spurious. They did not exist at the start. One must progress in Masonry by leaming the catechisms, listening to charges and study. At each degree one leams certain grips, passwords anda series of questions and answers. Masonry is all theory now. The Craft ıitual were destroyed in 1717 CE and replaced by new rituals such as Anderson's.

Negro Freemasonry was started by a West lndian named Prince Hall. His lodges are regular but racists put false claims of heresy and dandesüne activities on them. His rituals are nearly identical to White Freemasonry. His first lodge was Boston's Africa Lodge Number 459. (see Isiani Christianity and Free Masonrj).

The Shriners Many Muslims living in Ameıica are under the mistaken impression that members of the

Shriners are fellow members of the Faith. The Encyc/opedia of Freemasonryhas aten page article dealing with the Assassins that would lead one to believe in an lslamic-Shriner connection.

The best source for students of the Shriners is the popular history wrttten by Fred Van Deventer entitled Parade to Glory: The Story of the Shriners and the Hospitals for Gripp/ed Children. The history of this Masonic order as given by the Shriners is that it was,

" ... established in Mecca, Arabia and became an acknowledged power in the year 5459, equivalent to the year of our Lord 1698. The Ritual was compiled and arranged iri Aleppo, Arabia and issued by Louis Marracci, the great Latin translator of Mohammed's AI-Koran. The

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mysteıious Order continued to thrive in Arabia from that date to the present. lt was revised and institutedin Cairo, Egypt, in 5598, equivalentto June 14, 1837.

The Order was primarily instituted for the purpose of promoting the organization and perfection of Arabic and Egyptian inquisitions, to dispense justice and execute punishment of eriminals whom the tardy laws did not reach to measure their cıimes. Being designed to

embrace the entire pale of the law and composed of sterling and determined men who would upon a valid accusation feartessly try, judge and if convicted, execute the eliminal within the hour-leaving no trace oftheir acts behind .... " [Van Deventer, 35-36].

The text goes on to deseribe a mythical bond betv.teen their group and famous Sufıs of the past These connections with the great sages of Islam is purely farcical, and even their daim to be re!ated to the Bektashi Order of Dervishes has to be taken with a grain of salt.

The most prominent and powerful of those orders is the Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. !ts offshoots and satellites çıre the Darkawy, Khowan, AbDel Kader El Baghdadi, and the lssawiye, similar in obligation and purpose. These are not altogether politico-religious societies as generally supposed by the outside world. Although ostensibly appearing as such there is a deep and hidden maaning beneath the exposed superfıcial exterior, as promulgated to the profane. [Van Deventer, 36].

The Shriner's claim that they have a view of changing Islam to fit the American circumstances is also a Shriner view as we see in the fallawing passage,

The Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, as it is known in America, is of necessity divested of its inconsistent lslamic dogmas and its rltual adapted to the consistencies of Christian institutions and American laws, and is destined to become a powerful order here in America. [Van Deventer, 36]

The Shriners go on to say Haji Bektash was anArab (he was a Persian) and tells of the initiation of blessing the Janissary Corp. The Shriners alsa believe the order is called Janissaries because this means "they were freed captives who were adopted into the faith and the army." Unguistically this is not true even if this is where most of the members of the corps came from. In addition they believe that the Mosque at Mecca is the Temple of 'Ali and is under control of the chief officer of Alee Temple of Nobles. This was never true.

A member of the Mecca Temple of New York and the U.S. consul to Malta raised quite a furor by sending Jetters from 1882 to 1892 CE, giving the translations of ritual from Algiers, Tripoli, Cairo and other temples. The Arabic originals, of course, do not exist and his pass or passportto various shrines isa fraud. Forthis he received $500 a year.

The truth is the order was started by a British stage actor named William J. Florence and Dr. Fleming of New York in 1870 CE. They w ere thirty~second or thirty~third degree Scottish Rite Masons. As show above they concocted legends daiming initiation from persons as diverse as the Grand Sheikh of Mecca (like Noble Drew Ali?), Sultan Selim lll, the llluminati and the Bektashi Sufı Order. These claims are, of course, spurious. This did not prevent the Iate Mr. Duro Çini, an Albanian Shriner and Bektashi from Canada, from divulging to me the 'secref Bektashi-Shriner connection.

Although started in 1876 CE, this order was not an operating order for nearly a decade afterwards. Furthermore, Friedreich von Deventer pıints a letter in which Fleming's son said all the Shriner legend was only in his father's head. His son did not disclose the errors in the legend, but 1 will do so. The Bektashis were never in control of Mecca. There were never Shıines in the Middle East who traced their origin to Imam Ali. The Bektashis were primarily Turkish or Albanian, not Arab. The terminology of the Shriners shows more of a borrowing from Hebrew ratherthan Arabic.l could go on and on.

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Many who analyze the Shriner ritual fail to realize what they are looking at. The rituals are based more on the ritual of other Masonic orders and the cu!t of the number thirteen than any thing else. Whatever else may be said, the Shriners provided a new form of heresy as a conduit of cultural transfer.

AA Afro-American form of the Shıiners was started by a handful of 3200 Degree Prince Hall Masons at the Woı1d's Fair in 1893 CE. The organization of the order was an allegedly an Arab named Rofelt Pasha. His origins are unknown and even more shrouded in mystery than Black Muslim teaders Drew Ali and Fard Muhammad. But a name !ike "Rofelt" is hardly Arab and the man was probably one more charlatan in Oriental garb. (see Afn"can American Freemasons: Why they should accept Islam by Mustafa El-Amin for details.)

The Grotto: The Mystic üreler of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm

An order similar in nature to the Shriners is the Persian Order, started by seventeen members of the Harnilton Lodge No. 120 in Hamilton, New York, in the summer of 1889 CE under the direction of ex-Postmaster General, Thomas L. James. This is the Blue Lodge's playground (for Master Masons and higher ups), much like the Shrine is for the 3~ and 33rd degree Masons. The chief moving spirit in the founding of this organization was LeRoy Fairchild. At their meeting on September 10, 1889 CE, they decided to honor the founder by callingit Fairchüd DeviltJy Committee.

When· the new order grew too large for one locality, the Fairchild Deviltry Committee duly established the Supreme Coundi, Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm on July 13, 1890 CE. lt is mystic in its lessons and method of teaching. lt is veiled because all

. secrets are known but are hidden in the impure heart and are unveiled as the heart is deansed. The order is an enchanted realm as it is separate from the woı1d and is full of joy as "sorrow burdens any unenchanted realm."

One of the units within the Grotto is called the "Knights of Khorasan". Given the orders Persian nature, and Khorasan being the birthplace of Hajji Bektash Veli, this is a matter that could use SOffi? future research. The details of the ritual and the orders history are found in their ritual guide or handbook.

The handbook of the Grotto is named Grotto Creed and Prophets' Compacllt tells us the Grotto was made to encourage Masonic fratemity free of discrimination based on status in life. True fratemity should be based on lodge membership and such membership not be used for advancement of material interest. Like Shriners, they have a charitable side - study of cu res for cerebral palsy and dental work for the poor.

The Rosicrucians -- Mail üreler Masamy This mavement insists that it is not a religion at all. They insist that their thought is based

on the wıitings of the mysterious Christian Rosenthal and ultimately the wıitings of Amenhotep. The modem organization that spreads Rosicrucian thought is AMORC. The AMORC (Andent Mystical Order of Rosa Cruces) isa mason-likemail order organization started by H. Spencer Lewis in 1915 CE. He was an advertising executive from New York, belonged to the French Masonic LOdge and was an outstanding organizer. The headquarters of this mavement is in San Jose, California and it includes a university, a press an art gallery, a science museum, a planetarium, an "ori~ntal" Egyptian museum andaresearch library.

No langer is Rosicrucianism or the AMORC a seeret cult. The early incamations of the order was found in tomes calling for searcher for truth but giving no directions to find the writers were too closed minded and selective in membership for the modem age.

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This new order has alleged Atiantean literature, ancient Egyptian psalms and a book supposedly composed by the pharaoh Amenhotep that was secreted in ancient days to Tıbel The later is a revision of De Lawrence Pub. Company's lnfinite Wisdom and is called Unto Thee 1 Grant The fırst printing of this book was in 1925. This group is most likely the real source for the teachings of the notorious Thule Society. (see Seeret Sodeties ed. Narman Mac Kenzie, pp.130-151.)

The Thule Soclety

lmmediately after the end of Wortd War One, numerous seeret societies began to ıise in Germany. Same of these seeret societies started asa means to rebuild the German Empire, while others as a healing spring for the nation's ilis. One of the strongest and most closely tied to the Nazi party was the Thule Sodety. They held that secret, occult wisdom was heldata far northern land called Thule.

This order was founded by Baran Rudolf von Sebottendorff. He taught that his teachings held the wisdom perverted through Freemason teachings. Later the Nazi would close Freemason lodges and other similar groups. Sebottendorff was bom in Silesia in November, 1875. Early in life, he became a merchant seaman and traveled to the Middle East. This travel in search of knowledge put him in the same company as Parsival of the Grail Quest, Christian Rozenkratz, Rofelt Pasha Bey of the Shriners, and even founders of several Black Muslim and Holiness Churches in the United States such as Daddy Grace, Fard Muhammad, Professor Ezzaldeen Muhammad, and Noble Drew Ali. In Turkey he was exposed to a group that he called the Andent Turkish Freemasons.

In the advertisement of English translation of his work The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons: The K ey to U nderstanding of Alchemy-A presentation of the Ritua/, Doctrine and Signs of Recognition among the Oriental Freemasons, the publisher, Runa~Raven, presents the book as containing,

"The seeret spiritual practices of the Bektashi order as taught in the early part of the 20th centuıy. These practices make use of signs and vocal formulas, which, if performed exactly and to their condusion, transform the individual into the object of the magnum opus of the medieval alchemists."

A eleser reading of the text found less than a dozen brief quotes from Sufi saints, none of these were from any Bektashi writers, sheikhs, or poets. The rituals included use of mirrors and candles for meditation and vaıious rituals whose aims were elevation of leveıs of depths of mental concentration. All of these can be found in basic mail order Rosicrucian texts. Quotes from Latin Rosicrucian texts and from miscellaneous Hindu and Egyptian ritual texts with similar concepts show no connection with the Noble Bektashi Order.

Sebottendorff fought in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, became a director of the Red Grescent Society and became Grand Master of the Turkish branch of the Rosicrucian Society. Heleamed to speak Turkish well, so when he retumed to Germany he had the garb of a Grand Master. Few could cantest his claims and really had no reason to since they presented a path to the rebuilding of the German Empire. This tie to the Rosicrucian sodety is also seen in the title of his autobiographical novel DerTalsiman Rosenkreuze/5.

In 1913 CE Sebottendorff returned to Germany with two treasure chests- wealth from his adoptive father and a vast knowledge of eastem wisdom. He began to make contact with the leaders of various German occult and mystical groups. He came to the attention of Rudolph Hess and Herman Pohl of the Germanen Order and helped to found the journal "Runen" and

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"Munchener Beobachter." The later journal was eventually purchased by the Nazi Party and renamed "Volkisher Beobachter."

The Baron himself saw the founding of his Thule Society on August 17, 1918 CE as the cradie of the National Sodalist Movement. After the German defeat, the society began a focal point of anti-Bolshevik and Nationalisı struggle. Hitler never joined the Thule Society itself, but joined its political wing that became the Nationalist Sodalist Party. Sebottendorff even wrote about this in his work Bevor Hitler Kam

The society eventually devoted itself to study of German History and customs and began to search for the mystica! !and of Thule. The Thule Society eventually ruptured into two groups -one whose focus was totally mystical and the other that was a blend of the occult, mystical, and political. Sebottendorff retumed to turkey and published his The Practice of the Andent Turkish Freemasons.

In Turkey Sebottendorff joined the lmperial Constantine Order and fought against Bolshevik ideology. His works were la ter suppressed by the Nazis and he died und er mysteıious circumstances in 1945 CE. With his death, his work was relegated to the pens of historians of the N azi Mavement and bookshelves of White Supremist groups. Like the Thule, the next group 1 shall discuss, the Dawoodi-Bektashis, daim Turkish origins for its teachings as well.

Connections between Bektashi & Masonic Orders reviewed Above it was mentioned that the Bektashi lodge has the position of the door keeper

(rehbet) !ike a freemasonic lodge has a doorkeeper orTyler. In the Bektashi there is an initiation ceremony lead by a Babawhile in the lodge there is one lead by a grandmaster. In the Bektashi

· Orderthere is a pledge of secrecy given during the initiation like in the Masonic lodge.

The degree in the lodge Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master Mason can be seen as analogous to the terms Ashiq, Dervish, and Baba in the Bektashi hierarchy. Both have origins in the craft guilds (futuwaltj and squire system of European knighthood. There are catechisms in both orders written in a question and response manner to be studied and learned by heart by the aspirants of.the orders. In both there is the idea of man being an unfinished jewel that is polished and set in place through the work of the order.

Members of the Masonic lodge are called brothers. In the Bektashi Order, however, there are also women members called sisters. The ideology of both is toward changing the society to be more egalitarian. Of course, when Freemasonry arose in Turkey and the Middle East with the French Lodge of the Orient and the Free and Accepted Ancient Freemasons the similarities became more prevalent and the differences were lessened (at least there). Now ı shalllook at an "order" that, unlike the Freemasons, openly alleges origin in the esteemed Bektashi tradition, but which cannot even present rudimentary similarities such as those enumerated above.

The Dawoodi-Bektashi Order

The Grotto, Shriners, Thule Society, and the Rosicrucians all purport to be a repository of ancient mystical wisdom. His history is likewise shrouded in mystery and its founder brought seeret hidQen wisdom to the world stage. While these earlier groups never openly daimed to be Bektashi, a modem group calling itself the "Dawoodj..Bektashis" does. The head of this group is American-bom Professor Thomas McEiwain (known as Ali Haydar to his followers). His daims to the origin of his self-fabricated Sufi order are continually conflicting and contradictory, but his chief assertian is that his Dawoodi-Bektashi Order is the true embodiment of what was taught by the 13ı.tı century Anatolian saint Haji Bektashi and that it has existed in one form or anather for centuries around the wor1d and in, of all places, Appalachia.

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Professor McEiwain professes to have inherited the Dawoodi-Bektashi spiritual path from his forefathers and has hence gone public with it, to a limited extent. 1 wish to be clear that my intention here is to show that the continued assertions of Ali Haydar that this concocted tradition is somehow a representative form of Bektashism is completely counterfeit and ostensibly of his own construction.

Prof. McEiwain recently went into the realm of academia with some of his speculations and claims in his article, "Sufısm Bridging East & West: the case of the Bektashis" in Sutism in Europe and North America (edited by David Westerlund), a work that should have been of interest for any historian of American Muslim History. In this artide he told of a previously secreted and unknown Sufi order in Appalachia that had been preserved through family transmission dating from the 1500s CE.

Rumors of Muslim wayfarers from that era are found in various pieces of literature but as far it is known to date, none of these individuals were known to have been able to pass lslamic religious traditions beyond a few generations. Even where s!avery and assimilation had not hindered the transmission of Islamasa faith, most Muslims living in North America had difficult training their children in the faith for several reasons: lack of lslamic education on the part of parents, lack of curriculum materials, free time, inter-faith marriages, and interest on the part of children. This extraordinary transmission of Islam (and Sufism) related by McEiwain was so astounding and fantastic that a novel can be written about it!

Before prograssing further, 1 wish to mention one disconcerting mark of this article, especially when juxtaposed with the claims made in other posts and material. is so full of questionable theories and conjectures, with every other assertian being started with so many "maybes", "ifs", that it makes the entire piece seem amateurish at best and incompetent at worst and it gives rise to a very serious question: What is the ratianale for all of this hypothesizing? Could it be that claims to represent an Appalachian "Bektashi" tradition cannot stand even the slightest academic scrutiny? One obvious disappointment that wil! certainly alert careful researchers is Prof. McEiwain's abstention from mentioning whatsoever this much-touted Dawoodi-Bektashi "tradition" in the article at all! One would think given the purported antiquity of the "tradition" an entire study could be made solely on that.

As 1 read the article in question, 1 found many taetual blunders in McEiwain's depiction of both early American Islam and, more distressingly, of Bektashism. 1 will not go into these gaffes in detail here, but what ı will mention here is a passage where McEiwain purports a Bektashi presence in North America from the 16th century along with my comments. He writes, "In America there may be [emphasis mine, as is all further instances] an early Bektashi influence. Brent Kennedy postulates a survival of Turkish and Moorish prisoners set ashore in the early 1500s and having descendants among the Melungeons of the southem Appalachians." For those who may be unfamiliar with the name, the Melungeons were a mixed-race Appalachian group that was made-up of bits and pieces of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke lsland, runaway slaves, and several Native American tribal groups. There are over 200 similar groups such as the Ben lshmael Tribe, the Sumter Turks, the Seminoles, the Dismal Swamp Maroons, and the West Virginian Guineas. Scholaı1y works on the Melungeons and their folklore are fortunately starting to make a modest appearance, with such as Wayne Winkler's Walking towards the Sunset, and Elizabeth Hirschman's Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America. Certainly the whole question of Melungeon origins will certainly be revealed through modem DNA testing.

McEiwain had written eaı1ier about the Melungeons and their folklore, but he had not mentioned any lslamic connection until Brent Kennedy's The Melungeons: A Forgotten Fo/k came out in the early 1990s. In that work Kennedy offers the theory of a possible Turkish (hence

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Muslim) bloodline for certain Melungeon families. McEiwain makes much use of this theorized link to boister his own claims of the existence of a Dawoodi "tradition" although he continually fails to offer any evidence other than the most circumstantial sort. In actual fact he goes out of his way to place enough disdaimers into his assertions that it seriously undermines what little credibility can be given to a Dawoodi-Bektashi tradilion: ''There are Melungeons who retain some personal practices, but there is no organizational presence within living memory, nor any record of it. Melungeons have been covering their tracks for several centuries, so it is unlikely that real evidence will tum up," as well as, "An other problem lies in the fact that such a population, if it actually existed, was separated from the centre of Bektashi development before it crystallized into its more stable form in the sixteenth century." Are there traces of Bektashism among the Melungeons or not? McEiwain has clearly dalmed in other p!aces that Bektashism (and his .Oawoodi "branch") did indeed exist among this Appalachian group: "Melungeons and consequently Dawoodis have sprung. Documentation is generally lacking, and family traditions are plagued with falsifıcations." (Yahoo Group, Sufi-Dhikr, post #1797) as well as "Dawoodism has beeo a continual factor among certain Appalachian Melungeon families through whom the tradition has come down in an unbroken line to the present bearers." {Sufi-Dhikr, #1797).

lt is known that Sir Watter Raleigh seized nearly 500 people from the Mediterranean basin and from Brazil to replace the members of his first colony, but after leaving the new colonists, he failed to retum for over three years and when he did found a tree on which was carved the word "Croatan" as the only trace of the fate of his second "Lost Colony". In the over 500 members of the "Lost Colony" there induded smail numbers of slaves taken from Portuguese Brazil (who may have had Muslims among them), Croatians and Dalmatians, and

· posslbly a Turkor two. Now what a Turkor Moor was defined as in thosedaysis stili under debate, and it can be surmised that a handful of the 500 could have been Muslim. They might have even been Sufis, but certainly not Bektashi given that this particular order was not widespread in the Balkans at this time. In fact it was not untii the Iate 18th century that Bektashism gained a predominant presence in Albania, Greece and westem Macedonia. Even if there were Mus~ms with Raleigh, what is the possibility that any from the Balkans or even Anatolla would have been Bektashi? So slight that it wouldn't even be worth speculating.1

An additicnal feature of McEiwain's article (as well as his online posts) is that he tries to fınd Baktashis (and by extension his own Dawoodi-Bektashis) everywhere, even in places where they had never been. He states in one of his posts that, "Dawoodis have spread to many areas of the world almost invisibly, leaving traces that are hard to document [how convenient!]." (Sufi-Dhikr #1794) One of his notable errors in this regard (that can be verifıed by taking a trip to present-day Macedonia) is his attributing Bektashism to the Rifa'i-Karabashi shaykh of Skopje, lbrahim Erol, and daiming that his tekke is "rife with the fakir trickeıy." The difference between the Rifa'i's and Baktashis may not be noliceable to a novice student of Sufısm, but to a "shaykh" and an academic? The idea of use of "trickery" and of physical proofs of faith (such as handling "red-hot spikes") should have signaled to McEiwain that Shaykh lbrahim and his tekke were definitely not Bektashi, and that he should have further investigated what his "second-hand" source was teliing him. Bektashis have never been known to engage in such mortifıcation of the flesh, in fact many would see harming the body at all as being a sin!

Elsewhere P.rof. McEiwain surmises that Bektashi lodges continue to exist in Hungary and other parts of Westem Europe. As far as ı know only the türbe (mausoleum) of Gül Baba in Budapest stili exists in Hungary as Islam and Bektashism ceased to have a presence in that

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Mo re information on the Balkan element of the Lost Colony can be found in the work Croatia and the Croatians of the Lost Colonyby Adam S. Eterovich.

land when the Hapsburg armies conquered in 1686 CE. He is correct about Alevis being in modern Germany and France, but here is a simple failure to make a distinction between Alevi and Bektashi. While the two traditions share much in comman in origins, structure and spiritual outlook they are nonetheless separate religious traditions and very distinct

In anather part of the article Prof. McEiwain makes an exciting daim that in same way the Anabaptists of Silesia (perhaps he meant Transylvania and perhaps he meant Unitarians) were somehow related to the Bektashis. He actually opens his article with, ''The Silesian Anabaptists, who in the sixteenth century frantically appealed to the Sultan for help in the face of the Lutheran threat, never met their Bektashi brothers attached to the Ottoman army, for it never got past Vienna and came too Iate." Can he give us the reterence to this alleged connection to the Bektashis? What does he imply here by "Bektashi brothers~? Brothers in a human sense, brothers theologically or were the Anabaptists Bektashis themselves? Given his constant reterence to Protestantism in a number of his online posts perhaps McEiwain sees connections that 1 miss.

In the article and his online matarial Prof. McEiwain makes much of the peculiar fıgure of Edward Elwall (1676-1744 CE), an Englishman who was a memberofthe Presbyterian Church who was later prosecuted for blasphemy in 1726 for his outspoken criticism of the Trinity. McEiwain has graciously posted a number of Elwall's writings online for all to see (http://www.rosanna.com/mcelwain/elwaiVindex.htm). Elwall seems had done business in Turkey and had at some point become a Unitarian. There is no explicit evidence that he became a Muslim, even though his sympathies with Islam were quite apparent. He was even noted to have taken to the "Turkish Habit out of respect to the Unitarian faith of the Mahometans" [Champion, 1992, page 177] and to have donned turbans and robes. What is in question is McEiwain 's shifting assertions of Elwall be ing a Bektashi. In his A Path in Time (paragraph 7) McEiwain openly states that Elwall was a Bektashi: "There is no evidence that Edward Elwall, probably the most eminent and visible of English Bektashis, ever succeeded in establishing a partnership with a single one of his countrymen." This position is also maintained on the website that presents his writings: "This did not prevent his [McEiwain's] representing the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society innorthem Europe until the end of 1990, referring to the precedent of the faremost English writer of that tradition, Edward Elwall, who was also a member of the Bektashi order." Yet 1 am puzzled as to why he would write in one of hispostson the history of his tradition that, "Dawoodis have long been found in Europe as well. Edward Elwall's early 18th century writings reveal him to have had connection with some Sufi order, and his teachings are most cansonant with Dawoodi principles." Why didn't he openly say "Bektashi" instead of now "same Sufi order"? Further down in the same post he surprisingly states that, "neither the Eckerlins nor Edward Elwall can be noted with certainty to have been members of the order." One day Elwall is a Bektashi the next not? If the later is the case, why would ttıere even be need 'to constantly mention him in the cantext of Baktashis at all?

The Eckerlin brothers in question are anather connection Prof. McE!wain uses to make a case for an early Bektashi presence in Ameıica. The Ekerlins were involved with the Dunkard community of Ephrata, Pennsylvania and were said to have had an "lshmaelite" faith {perhaps Unitarian is meant, although the Dunkards certainly weren't Unitarians) and were exiled to what is now Preston County, West Virginia in the 1750's. McEiwain notesin his A Path in Time that, "Evidence of their [the Eckerlins] contact with Beldashis is not strong since most of the direct documentation was destroyed, but they certainly have a spiritual practice dosely resembling the musahiblik." In post #1797 of the Sufi-Dhikr discussion group Prof. McEiwain adds the following lengthy information about the Eckerlin brothers, "Dawoodis have had a presence on the

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American continent apparently for many centuries. Stories of transmission include referances to the Friday evening sema', of the decalogue and the Psalms among certain Melungeon families. There is a strong possibility of contact between the Eckerlin brothers and Dawoodis between 1752 and 1756 CE. The Eckerlins may have had correspondence, directly or indirectly, with Edward Elwall. However, neither the Eckeıiins nor Edward Elwall can be noted with certainty to have been members of the order." Again why mention any of these figures at aU given that their connection to Bektashism can in no way be verifıed? If one would note all the individuals throughout history who held beliefs and practices containing the slightest similarities with Bektashism you' d be able to fıll out volumesi

Lamentably it is only halfway through "Sufism Bridging East & West the case of the Bektashis" that Prof. McEiwain mentions the sole confırmable and verifiable presence of Bektashis in America, that of Baba Rexheb (1901-1995 CE) and the centre he established in 1954. Baba Rexheb nonetheless receives only a minisrule paragraph, despite his being a man who devoted his entire life to the way of Haji Bektash, a man who gave up a family life, a man who lived in exile from his hometand for 50 years and a man who was singJe..handedly responsible for safeguarding the Bektashi Way during the darkest hours of communist rule over Albania. Additional!y Baba Rexheb wrote a length study in Albanian on lslamic Mystidsm and Bektashism entitled Misticimza /s/ame dhe Bektashizme, which was later partially translated to English. lt is astonishing that Prof. McEiwain doesn't even discuss this work and only says that Bektashism failed to become more wldely spread in North America because of "Baba Rexheb's integrity in not compromising the spiritual tradition for other agendas." 1 can only ask, can

. anyone name a real spiritual guide who has done otherwise? Unfortunately he also fails to mention what these other agendas are.

One is puzzled as what to make of Prof. McEiwain's statements that the Dawoodi "branch" of the Bektashi Order represents "the order founded by Haji Bektash in its purity and simplicity"? To begin with, 1 have to ask has history ever witnessed a tariqat that posts a legal disclaimer about potential misuse of a novice's manual? For Dawoodi·Bektashis this manual is entitled How io Fonn a Su/i Lodge: The Dawoodf..Bektashi Order of Dervishes: Guide for Establishing and Maintaining a Su/i Lodge, and its presents the reader with a general view of the religious currents driving group as formulated by Prof. McEiwain and his khalifah, Mr. Kemal Argon (Noursu Nazruddin). Reading through it one is hard pressed to find anything remarkably Bektashi in it at all. The entire text appears to maintain an adherence to normative Islam and standard S~ practice, coupled with a heavy dose of referances to the Old Testament.

In reality the actual source of Prof. McEiwain's daims do not come from Bektashi tradition but can rather be found in his own writings and posts. We are told in one communication by that the Dawoodi-Bektashi Order was founded by none other than Haji Bektash himself (Sufı-Dhikr, #4409), and yet we read in a later post (#5383) that there was no order known as the "Dawoodi­Bektashi" until Prof. McEiwain affixed the designation himself. In the very same post he laudably divulges that, "because of the lack of histoncal documentation, ı have felt it best to suppress the chain of transmission altogether, and rely merely on the twelve imams.· But why would this need to be done? Are there currently teams of hojas running around the mountains West Virginia with the Sultan's troops in tow hounding out secreted Bektashis?

In the Dawoodi-Bektashi movement Prof. McEiwain presents a Sufi brotherhood contains commonplace Sufi ritual, and which recites botlı the Qur'an and Bible verses intheir sama: The deseliption of the dhikr ceremony as provided in How to Form a Sufı Lodge has nothing particularly Bektashi about except a listing the 121mams and Haji Bektash Veli. And it should be added that Baktashis do not make group dhikr with repetitive chanting as deseribed in the

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manuaı. lt should also be noted that Baktashis (or any other Sufi order to my knowledge) have never used the Bible as an authoritative religious scıipture. In his seetion on beliefs and practices, Prof. McEiwain repeatedly emphasizes an allaged Bektashi use of the Qur'an and the Bible. 1 personally have read many Sufi texts as well as Bektashi nefes and have not encountered any examples of Baktashis using the Bible to prop up religious doctrine. AA acquaintance of mine has informed me of Baktashis in the Balkans hanaring the four scıiptures but that they nevertheless do not teach from them. Teaching from the Zabur or Psalms is problematicai in any event since an authoritative lslamic translation from and rommentary on them has never existed.

Prof. McEiwain does constantly assert the very Bektashi concept of the Four Gates, except that his analysis of them can be seen as superficial at best. A good reading of J.K. Birge's noteworthy The Bektashi Order of Dervishes would present a much more focused view, as would a cursory reading of Bektashi nefes. But 1 must presume that Prof. McEiwain can not do this and a few !ines from his semi-autobiographic Hel/o 1 am God: A Bektashi Rosal}'should explain why:

Many of the villagers did me the honor of coming to pay their respects. There was a line of visitors almost every day it seemed. One gentleman listened carefully to everything 1 said. He eyed me curiously. Finally he said to the host in a loud whisper, 'ls your friend mentally deficient?' 'Why no,' said my friend. 'Then why does he speak Turkish so poorly?'

In his rolleetion of writings and numerous posts Prof. McEiwain neglects to show even the slightest knowledge of Haji Bektash's writings, be they in Turkish, Persian, Arabic or anything other than a very jumbled and ambiguous understanding of authentic Bektashi (or Alevi for that matter) beliefs, ıituals, customs and social attitudes. Although he continually makes reterence to the group's validation to claim Bektashism being their supposed use of Haji Bektash's Maqa/at, his disciples constantly post messages on the Sufi-Dhikr discussion group damaring for English translations, which, 1 might add, are never provided. How can you claim to follow a book you have no access to? Most of what is passed as "Bektashi» in How to Fonn a Sufi Lodge can easily be retrieved from Birge's book as well as the extremely problematic work Extremist Shi'ites by Matti Mousa. One begins to devetop a sense that Prof. McEiwain no interest (or ability) access to the dearth of material on Bektashism that is currently available in modern Turkish, through which a more concise representation of Bektashism could be given.

As mentioned above, Prof. McEiwain's inventory of Dawoodi-Bektashi traditions can be found in Birge's book although here they are listed as "village Alevi" practices that may or may not correspond to Bektashi customs. This inventory is not original and is not expanded upon. Rather it reads like a laundry list of already known fads rather than a systematic interpretation of faith and practice. One interesting point is Prof. McEiwain's daim of one Bektashi tmitfound in the Dawoodis: tolerance and goodwill to people of all faiths. Certainly Bektashis have long been known for tolerance and liberality, but the complex nature of Bektashi theology· did not necessarily make it easier for converts to be accepted easily into the fold. And given the amount of contempt and disdain related in many of the posts of the group' s official representatives in the Sufi-Dhikrdiscussion group makes one wonder if such principles are really stressed at all.2

To give the reader a taste of such attitudes ı will give here one ofthe postings given by khalifah Kemal Argon: "1 was going on the assumption that there are different l<inds of Bektashis. There are those who are good practicing Muslims and there are others who place themselves beyond the pale of God's laws and have no shortage of convenient little rationalizations for why they are indifferent to Right Guidance, misguided, and are spiritually retardeel ignoramuses. Those ignoramuses are such a waste of time to talk to. In fact, when ı have met one of those for certain, 1 felt a need to dissociate

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Ho w to Form a Suti Lodge bases itself araund an extended comrnentary on the Ten Commandments. These form the basis of the Dawoodi-Bektashi practices. Yet again why would an lslamic Sufı order use Christian or Jewish scared texts as a cıiterion to judge lslamic sources? 1 can comprehend studying Jewish or Christian works using the Qur'an asa cıiterion, but the inverse? Suchattıing is unheard of in lslamic history and certainly ttıere is nothing in Bektashism would lend itself to such a practice. The manual ends with a description of time keeping for the Dawoodi-Bektashi in the Appalachians. The notching of a wooden post each evening at sunset is interesting. An evening dhikr being held when each seventh notch was being made must have destroyed

1 many a porch post over the past five centuries.

In his A Path in Time Prof. McEiwain claims to have discovered that Baktashis "can be divided into three groups. One group follows a hereditary leader, anather non-hereditary, and the final one, hardly to be called a group at all, has no visible leadership." Let met state explicitly: There have never been "brnnches" of Bektashis. Prof. McEiwain is correct in noting the two similar currents of Babagan and Che/ebi Yet if he wou!d have had access to the works of Turkish sçholars of Bektashism he would have found that the Che/ebis, though daiming patemai decent from Haji Bektash, never daimed to be a Bektashi "Order". The Babagan or "Tarik-i­Nazenin" as it has been called is what even the most mediocre student of Sufism or Ottoman history knows to be Bektashi. There have never been any hyphenated Bektashi branches, ever!

Moreover Prof. McEiwain implicitly degrndes the Babagan through his daim that it does not represent Haji Bektash's teachings in their authenticity. He states that, "Especially in the 1500s retorms ca me into prominent branches of the order with changes and additions, but the Dawoodi-Bektashi branch was unaffected by that" (Sufi-Dhikr, #4409) Balim Sultan {d. 1520) ·systeinatized and organized the Bektashi Order and is even listed as its Pir-i-Thani (Second Patran Saint). However, he is incorrect to assume that Salim Sultan had somehow made "additions and changes." Hurufi attitudes, reverence for the 12 lmams and ideas of liberality were already present in the Qalandar roots starting with Haji Bektash Veli's grand-shaykh Ahmad Yesevi. Balim Sultan (whom McEiwain mistakenly reters in the article to as "Pir Sultan") may have standardized the order and formalized rules of initiation and degrees, but the doctrines and beliefs of the Baktashis after Balim Sultan were certainly not invented by him. In addition the image of a "Sunni" Shari'ah-stressing Haji Bektash (to which the Dawoodis appear to promote) is a 20ııı century rewriting of the history by certain individuals in Turkey holding seetarian agendas.

In addition to all of the above claims and counterclaims, on the 21st of October, 2004, Prof. McEiwain finally disclosed a picture of the "Bektashi" oıigins of the Dawoodi-Bektashis that may have been closer to the truth. In this post he states that his teacher was none other than his grandmother Evalyn Mullins McEiwain. She received the Dawoodi teaching, Prof. McEiwain maintains, from her father, John Mullins. What she purportedly taught was a silsilah containing

myself from him or her because 1 don't want to see and hear how they have taken a magnifıcent religious tradition that was entrusted to them and neg!ected it completely, allowing it to tum into some pseudo-re!igious cu!tural phenomenon which is a mockeıy of its fonner achievemenl 1 have met some of those and it was good to be able to say that 1 don't need them. Usua!ly it is enough to say that ı don't speak Turkish and my Dawoodi-Bektashism is not dependent on speaking Turkish or Albanian and 1 also don't care to spend too much time leaming those languages (and if 1 did 1 would not teli them.) Th1s convenientty ditches all that irrelevant Turkish and Albanian irre!igious cultural baggage. These people are such a waste of time for believing Muslims to talk to. lt is also not my job to waste time educating them for free when they are obviously not the best candidates for instruction in our path. If any of them come to me, ı am going to be locking for evidence of commitment to lslamic faith and practice. If that is not present, they wil! be dismissed before they waste any more of my time." (Sufi-Dhikr, post#6019)

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the names of the 12 lmams, the concept of the tour gates, the four books, veneration of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments), a recitation of Psalms on Friday night, and the prohibition of alcohol. Except for the acceptance of the 12 lmams and 4 gates and books there is nothing a rural Southem Baptist wouldn't accept. For that reason, if we are to believe that this tradition did exist before Prof. McEiwain's time, it certainly would not have stood out. More revealing he admits in the post that this spiıitual "tradition" cannot be traced before 1850 and mentions the possibility that John Mullins could have made the whole thing up. He shockingly states, "There is no documentation for the order beyand 1850 that we know of, and no documentation of a histerical Turkish connection. There is the possibility that John Mullins invented the whole thing." What are we to make of all the "potential" connections we have been given between Silasian Baptists, Bektashis, Donmehs, Elwaıı, and the Melungeons? What are we to do with the eariier assertions of a Dawoodi tradition originating with Haji Bektash and then surviving for 400 years in the Appalachians? Where exists then the connection between Thomas McEiwain and Haji Bektash Veli? Can any of this now be taken seriously?

In this revealing post Prof. McEiwain also states to have suppressed the stlsilah, shortened the introduction of the liturgy, and to have added both the names "Dawoodr' and "Bektashi" himself to what he was teaching. He called his order as Dawoodiyya in order not to confuse it with the lsma'ili Dawoodi-Bohras of lndia and out of reterence "to the prevalent practlce (not necessarily always followed) of reciting the Zabur or Psalms of David as a central part of dhikr" and further claims Anatolian and Kurdish origins when he writes, "The only extensive reterence in a scholariy work that ı know of is the one in the book Extremist Shi'ite: The Ghulat Sects, by Matti Moosa, Syracuse University Press, 1988. •

In the absence of an lslamic text of the Zabur one must wonder in what language these recitations are taking place. There are many messages posted on Sufi-Dhikr where Prof. McElwain accentuates a connection between his group and the Dawudis mentioned by Mousa {who are in fact an obscure branch of the Ahl-i-Haqq of westem Iran) leading one to believe that the two groups are one and the same. Yet all of cantention is completely wrecked with the revelation that the "tradition" was obtained from his forefather John Mullins by way of his son William Mullins and granddaughter Evalyn Mullins McEiwain.

McEiwain's story given at the end of "Sufism Bridging East & West the case of the Bektashis" narrating his Kmeeting" with a descendant of Yunus Emre while in Turkey seems like his meeting of his shaykh. This "Bektashi" was not a member of any lodge and said "Allah is my pir" as well as "Allah is my musahip." McEiwain says that the man's silsilah was just the twelve lmams. Wow, just Ilke Shaykh Ali Haydar's? From him he leamed repetition of some names of Allah as a form of "!one" dervish dhikr and was exposed to a Khidr-like teaching experience while visiting Konya. The drunken Bektashi version of the Mavlevi whirling was a way to teli about the idea of the Abdal, but Shaykh Ali Haydar didn't make the connection; a Bektashi would have. This leads to his fınal cantention that only a "Bektashi ofthe wandering dervish sort" could able to follow the path of Haqiqat. What about his Shari'ah-driven Hadith. 1 believe it was Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani who stated that, "The shaykh of a one without a shaykh is none other that Shaytan."

ı would very much like to ask Prof. McEiwain to show us anather Dawoodi-Bektashi from his particular lineage that is not an immediata family member and who is a Melungeon. Can any information be provided beyand speculation and highly improbable theories? Bektashi history is there for all to read. lt is a tradition that has been cleaıiy recorded and that has a base in histarical fact Can the same be said for this self-styled "branch" of Bektashism? l'llleave it to my honored llsteners to decide.

589

Sufısm and other instructive paths need not be made-up, !ike the rituals of purportedly seeret orders. There are real manuals of instruction and authentic spiritual traditions traceable through legitimate si/silas. They provide guidance that has stood the test of time. They have been able to remain reliable and consistent compasses through the turbulent seas and soaring mountains of both the physical and spiritual realms of existence.

The law of the "Golden Rule" flows through the teachings of all Sufı Orders-do not harm or do into others as you would have them do unto you. We see this in the dietum of Haji Bektashi Veli, "Respect all 73 sects.n This idea of universal appreciation and respect for the thoughts and opinions of others, if taken from this room, would certainly make the world a better place, and spread the goodwill to the world beyand this centerence hall.

May Allah bless this gathering! Ya Ali Madad

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New Mind Productions.

~-Al-ls/am, Christian/Iy and Freemasonry, (1990. Jersey City, New Mind Productions. __ Freemasonry, Ancient Egypt and the /s/amic Destiny, (1990). Jersey City, New Mind

Productions.

The Anelenf Arabic Order, Nobfes of the Mystic Shrine for North American Recognition Test. (n.d.). Chicago, Ezra A. Cook Pub. Ine.

Baba Rexhebi, (1970). The Mysticism of Islam and Bektashism, N.Y., Watdon Press. Barrett, M.J., (1968). Noble's Quiz Book. Ezra Cook Publications, Ine.

· Birge, J. K .• (1938). The Bektashi OrderofDervishes. London, Luzac.

Burr, Nelson, (1961 ). A Critica! Bibliogmphy of Religion in America, Princeton U .P. Champion, J.AI., (1992) The Pillars of Priestcraft shaken: The Church of England and it's Enemies.

Cambridge University Press. Chocrane, Harry Hayman, (1934). The Shriner's Book.· Following the Fez

Davis, Harry E:, (1946). A History of Freemasonry among Negroes in America. United Supreme Council Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northem Jurisdiction, Ine.

Duncan 's Masonic Ritual and Monitor, (1980, rev. ed.). Chicago, Ezra A. Cook Pub. Ine.

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Bildirinin Türkçe özeti

Bizi bu çalışmayı yapmaya iten en önemli etken herhangi somut bir dayanaklan olmaksızın Bektaşi ismini kendi grup ve akımlan için kullanan kişi ve gruplann asil Bektaşi silsilesinden ne kadar uzak olduklannı göstermektir. Zira onlann bu tür Bektaşilik iddialan zihinlerde önemli karışıkilkiara sebep olmaktadır. Tarihsel olarak incelendiğinde bunların Bektaşi hareketiyle bir ilgilerinin olmadığı, aksine bunların temellerinin Freemasonluğa ve onunda kökü olan Knight T emplar hareketine dayandığı göıiilecektir.

Sözkonusu Knight Templars hareketi ise Kudüs Kralı Baldwin'in desteğinde 1119 yılında Filistinde militan bir grup olarak kuruldu. Gizemli ve sırlı bir grup olarak yıllarca faaliyet gösterdi. 1291 yılında Acre kenti Memlüklüler tarafından alınınca Hıristiyan gruplar Kıbnsa çekildiler. Knight Templars hareketi bu dönemde ismaililerle bağlantılı olmakla suçlandı.

Knight T emplar'ın Alamut ismailileri tarafından geliştirilen bir yapı üzerinde şekiilendiğ ine dair açık bir delil olmamakla beraber her ikisinin de ortak nedenler1e bir araya geldiği

muhakkaktır.

Bunlar uzun süreli Ortadoğu bağlantılan sonunda, ciddi suçlamalar ile karşılaştılar. Haç üzerine işemek, erotik gruplar kurmak ve şeytana ibadet bunların başında gelmekteydi. Bu nedenle bu grubun mensuplan her zaman gizli bir hareket olmaya dönük çabalar içinde kaldılar.

Freemason hareketi ve Shrinerslar da aynı şekilde bu hareketin devamıdırlar ve gizlilik noktasında benzerlik göstermektedirler. Gizlilik pek tabii olarak baskıların olduğu o dönemde oldukça önemliydi ama bugün de devam ettirilmektedir. Gruba girmeye aday olan birinin sır saklayan, sağlam vücut ve zihne sahip olmasına dikkat edilir, bunak veya zihinsel özürlü olmaması önemsenir. Daha fazla baskı görmeden yeralbnda gizlilik içinde hayat sürebilmek için askeri sistem benzeri bir yapıda hareket edilmek zorundadır. Bu nedenle Masonlukta adayın öncelikle tavsiye üzerine alınıp mülakata tabi tutulması ve bu mülakat esnasında da bilgi verip

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gelişme ve toplum hizmeti için orada olduğunu ispatlayabileceği bir takım ritüellerden geçmesi gerekmektedir.

Shrinerlar konusunda pek çok Müslüman onların islam inanana yakın olan bir grup olduğu zehabındadırlar. Eldeki literatür de bu yanlış anlayışı destekler türden ifadelere sahiptir. Bu eserlerde Shriner hareketinin Mekke'de 1698 yılında kurulduğu ibadet tomılannın ise Halep'te Louis Marraci tarafından oluşturulduğu iddia edilmektedir.

Ancak aslına bakılırsa Shriner' lar 1870 yılında ingiliz aktör William J. Florence ve New Yorklu Dr. Fleming tarafından kurulmuştur. Bunlar 32 veya 33. dereceden iskoç masonlarındandır. Bektaşilikle bir ilgileri olmamıştır. Her şeyden önce Bektaşiler Mekke'yi kontrol etmemişlerdir. ikinci olarak Bektaşiler Arap değil genelde Türk ve Arnavutlardan oluşmaktadırlar. Öte yandan Shriner'lar temıinolojilerini Arapçadan değil ibranice den ödünç almışlarıdır. Dış makyaj ~ariç Shriner hareketinde islami yada Bektaşi olan hiç bir şey görülemez.

Shrinerlara yapısal benzerlik arzeden Grotto hareketi de 1889 da Thomas L. James tarafından New Y ark'ta kurulmuştur. Farisi karakter göstermektedir.

B.unlara ek olarak hemen ikinci Dünya savaşından sonra da Almanya' da muhtelif gizli topluluklar ortaya çıkmaya başlamıştır. Bunların en güçlüsü Nazi Partisiyle de bağlantılı olan Thule Grubudur. Kurucusu Baran Rudolf von Sebottendorff tır. {1875-1945). Sebottendorff Türkiye 'de kendi ifadesiyle 'eski Türk freemason'lanyla karşılaşmış ve bunun üzerine bunların ritüel pratiklerini kaleme aldığını belirttiği eserini yazmıştır: The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons (ingilizce versiyonu). Eserin yayıncısı Runa-Raven eserin takdiminde Bektaşilikten bahsetmekle beraber, metni yakından okuduğumuzda Bektaşi yazar, şair ve şeyhlere hiçbir atıf yapılmamaktadır. Hattş islam tarihine ve peygambere yapılan atıflar ve verilen bilgiler bile

· oldukça yüzeysel kalmakta ve sıradan Yahudi Hnstiyan kaynaklardan alındığı açıkça

görülmektedir.

Ancak Amerikan toplumunda kanştınldığı şekliyle Grotto ve Thule grublannın Bektaşi hareketiyle bir ilgisi bulunmamaktadır. Zaten bunlann hiçbiri de kendini açıkça Bektaşi olarak ilan etmemişlerdir.

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