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The Janissaries ("new soldiers") were infantry units originally formed by Sultan Murad I around 1330 from renegade prisoners and the non-Islamic (almost-always Christian) children exacted as tribute by Turkish conquerors.
They corresponded to modern gendarmerie or carabinieri and wore special white felt headgear, mounted on a metal head-band and hanging down the back, which was supposed to represent Haji Bektash's sleeve.
. They were sometimes called 'Sons of Haji Bektash', Haci Bektas Ogullari - and Sultan Selim III, in appealing to the Janissaries to be loyal and brave in the second year of his reign (1789), addressed them as the Knights of Haji Bektash, Haci Bektas Köçekleri. One consequence of the intimate Bektashi association with the Janissaries and hence with Ottoman authority was that the Bektashis were rarely attacked on grounds of doctrine or innovations.
The Bektashis are a syncretic and eclectic (some would say heretical and egregious) sect, with Christian and oriental elements, rather as the Sikhs combine elements of Hinduism with Islam. The 'heretical' Shi’a doctrines and ritual of the Bektashis do not actually derive from Hajji Bektash, though there is no need to assume that he was any more orthodox than other babas. The order grew out of saint-veneration and a monastic, commensual tradition combining elements from many sources both esoteric (Eastern) and popular: the Turkish, pre-Turkish/Byzantine and pre-Christian traditions of Anatolia. Their belief in the brotherhood of man (and woman) is illustrated by the following verse by the Turk Yunus Emre (see below) who died before Haji Bektash:
Let us all be friends for ever
Let us take and make life easy Let us be lovers and beloved ones - Nobody owns the earth.
During the fifteenth century when Bektashism was developing into a comprehensive organization, it incorporated various ideas and beliefs - from 'Christianity', the qizilbash (redheads) of eastern Asia Minor and Kurdistan, and folk-ideas from nomadic and village groups - alevis, takhtajis, etc. Bektashis proper belong to a lodge or tekke (teqë in Albanian). Probably the first leader of organised Bektashism was Balim Sultan (died 922/1516), whose title is Pir Sani, the Second Patron Saint. Pir, a Persian word meaning 'lord', is a title applied to the heads of Sufi orders. 'Sufi' itself means 'wool' - after the rough woollen robe that the early Sufis wore.
Bektashi Babas (celibate spiritual advisers) accompanied the Janissaries as chaplains. In becoming enrolled as members of the Janissary Corps a vow of faithfulness to the Way of Haji Bektash was extracted from each soldier. The recognition, however, of Bektash as Patron Saint and the formal acceptance of various charitable and ascetic doctrines did not do much to 'spiritualise' the Janissary way of life. |
