Bismillahi Rrahmani Rrahim!
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful!
Dear my brother Haxhi father Sadik Ibro!
Dear myhib, benefactors and intellectuals, friends and guests of the Bektashi tekke of Melçan!
May the Almighty God, Hajji Bektash Veliu and the Bektashi fathers grant you every wish, in these difficult times that the world in general and religious beliefs in particular are going through, to you who have raised our magnificent tekke from the ruins and decorated it day by day!
Melçani, that early village of Illyria, in the 70s of the century. XVII would receive with his traditional generosity the first Bektashi missionaries, those perfect dervishes who had in their bags books of knowledge more than bread to hold the soul, missionaries of Haxhi Bektash Veliu, as evidenced today by dozens of documents,which have come to the Balkans precisely to spread peace and brotherhood wonderfully intertwined with faith in God. These were respected and listened to by Balkans and Albanians in general, precisely because they forgave the brotherhood of any religious faith without excluding anyone and loving everyone.
From the century. XVII tekke of Melçan turned into a rare cult object in which not only Korça’s people, but also believers from Cologne, Ioannina and Bitola stayed there and found peace and hope. Meanwhile, according to the sources of our historiography, the lovers of the tekke that found mystical books, numerous texts of Islam from which they were enriched with national ideas.
But in a special way, the tekke of Melçan would contribute to the glorious years of the Albanian autonomous movement, when the national consciousness of the Balkan peoples demanded an hour earlier to wake up from the long 5 century Ottoman night, the first patriotic troops of Pogradec, Gora, Opar, Struga, Devoll, Kolonja and as far as Gjirokastra made their vows in this tekke, which never spared not only its inns and its bread, but also the Albanian books.
We Bektashis should be proud today, with the conclusion of the national historiography, which mentions the tekke of Melçan: “As the first center of the movement against the Ottomans in the Albanian territories at the beginning of the century. XX ”.
In the years that followed under the leadership of father Hysen Melçani, this tekke was the hearth of belief in God, but also of the national belief that if Albanians united with each other, freedom would not be delayed. This is the reason why the patriots of Korça in 1912, not only Bektashis, but also Sunni Muslims, Christians and evangelicals gathered in the houses of Haxhi Bektash Veliu, cried and found solutions to many problems that Albania was going through.
Petro Nini Luarasi and Naum Veqilharxhi, Mihal Grameno and Bajo Topulli, Sisters Qiriazi and Dhaskal Todri always had the moral and material support of the tekke and its fathers.
Certainly from the day of the founding of this tekke until today there are dozens and dozens of dervishes and fathers who with their sacrifices and spiritual humility contributed to the major movements of our nation, in the glorious pantheon of Albanian and world Bektashism, Melçan tekke through the work of father Hyseni, father Hajdari, father Qazimi, father Zylfos as well as dozens of other dervishes and fathers certainly occupies its deserved place in our Albanian historiography.
Sisters and brothers, burned by the Turks and Greeks, ruined by the monist regime we went through, Melçan tekke seemed to be extinguished in oblivion, but the idea and mind of our myrshid of all, Dede Reshat Bardhi as well as that group of fathers which were found near him in 1990, caused our tariqat to be revived again.
I would like to thank you sincerely for joining the initiative of father Sadik Ibro for the revival of this tekke and I would be very happy to be there today to enjoy together. But this pandemic that is not ending, as well as the position of the Holy See towards the instructions of the Albanian Government forces us today to be very close spiritually but physically far away.
Deep gratitude to all of you contributors to the Melçan tekke!
Thanks to my brother father Sadik Ibros!
God bless you all!
Amin!
THE WORLD GRANDFATHER OF THE BEKTASHINS
HIS GRACE
HAXHI DEDE EDMOND BRAHIMAJ