Today marks the 24th anniversary of the separation from the life of father Bajram Mahmutaj. Father Bajrami was born on May 18, 1906, in the village of Rabije in Tepelena to a simple family and passed away on April 30, 1997. His parents Sadik and Merushe Mahmutaj had faith and devotion to Bektashism. This is also related to the fact that the Bektashi tradition had spread early in the village of Rabije. There was a tekke, founded by father Ali in the century. XVI. This tekke became known in World War II as a symbol of patriotism. On July 24, 1943, Father Abazi and his five dervishes (dervish Fehimi, dervish Bajrami, dervish Lame and dervish Barjam Bardhaj) as well as twenty-seven Bektashi believers died in this tekke. His uncle, father Muharremi, an educated cleric, had previously been a father in the famous ‘Durballi Sultan’ tekke in Farsala, Greece. In 1890 he came to Albania, opened the tekke, in the village of Plashnik in Berat, where as engaged in the National Renaissance, he collaborated with prominent clerics of Berat, such as father Kamber Velabishti, father Medin Gllava, Father Dudë Karbunara, etc. They also had desire for freedom and independence in the area of Shpirag, Tërpan, Gllava and Vokopola of Berat and Skrapar. For this patriotic activity, in 1914, he was persecuted by Haxhi Qamili. In Rabije, the house of his brother, Sadiku, was burned down, and he was imprisoned in Durrës. Eid at the age of seven, was taken to the tekke of Plashnik by his uncle, Muharrem. Father Muharrem prepared over the years, the little Eid, with the love of God. In 1925 at the age of nineteen he was appointed to serve in the tekke, as a candidate for dervish. Two years later, in 1927, Bajrami became a dervish and worked near this tekke. Dervish Bajrami found in father Muharremi, the Albanian parent, educator, teacher, theologian, patriot. But it did not take long and in 1929 the father of the Plashnik tekke passed away. Although young, but with the experience gained in these years near father Muharrem, he undertook to have deuties, as a father, of the tekke. In an archival document dated December 8, 1939 signed by the World Grandfather Sali Nijazi Dede, in the list of Bektashi tekkes this cleric is registered as a father, in the tekke of Plashnik in Berat. During the war, the Velabisht tekke was a guest house for freedom fighters. With this dedication and will he worked until 1945. After this year, the ordeal of suffering, persecution, imprisonment, internment began for him. Arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Military Court of Berat, as a nationalist. When he finished his prison sentence of fifteen years, he was interned in Milot, near the Mat Bridge, where he stayed until 1975. After 1975, he stayed in the honorable family of Teki Toros, in Durrës. He reunited with family and relatives, from whom he had been separated since 1945. In 1991 he joined the initiators of the reopening of the Bektashi World Headquarters, working wholeheartedly for Bektashism. … Father Bajrami, with his intellect and depth of ideas, became the right hand of Haxhi Dede Reshat Bardhi until the last moments of his life. He participated in many reopening ceremonies of tekkes in Albania. Haxhi Bektash visited the former World Center in Turkey. For about a year (1992), he stayed at the Detroit tekke in the US. Father Rajab begged him to stay in America. But father Bajrami said: “I am old, I love Albania, to live these days in my country with the believers, with my loved ones!”. Father Bajrami is a “Torch of Democracy” with the motivation: “Unyielding and with faith in God, I endure the prisons and tortures of dictatorship for a free, religious and democratic Albania”. Father Bajrami passed away on April 30, 1997 at the age of 91. The World Leader of the Bektashis, Haxhi Dede Reshat Bardhi, in his farewell speech, said, among other things: With the warm word and simplicity you grabbed thousands of loves “.
Haxhi Dede Edmond Brahimaj for father Bajram Mahmutaj
“Father Bajram Mahmutaj, for almost 7 years, has been the Deputy World Leader of Bektashism. He has been and remains a rare cleric. I had the good fortune to know him closely in 1991-1997, in the Headquarter, in conversations and meetings, which left a special impression on me. I keep many memories from this acquaintance and collaboration, between them and a long interview with ‘him, which would be the last in this life for the clergyman. Meetings with him created to me the stature of a steadfast cleric on his voyage of revenge, a long journey with devoted work in boundless love for the Creator and complete obedience in unquenchable love for God. It was this journey he spent his entire life. But the portrait of father Barjam was special and at the age of 88 years. Wrinkles and grays made him as noble, wise, with a smile and full of charm, who only approached and gave the message and all that culture and knowledge gained in life and the hardships of his ordeal and family during the persecution 1945-1990. In every conversation and meeting he had a motto, to know Bektashism, its roots and history, synthesized in the golden words of the founder of Bektashism, Haxhi Bektash Veliu: “Do not share the prayer of God / Acquire knowledge as a weapon in hand, / Do not be ashamed to urge, / Do not look for the faults of another, look at your own faults, / Show justice in every work, / Do not be in a hurry when answering. Never talk about yourself… “.
Prepared by:
Nuri ÇUNI
Kujtim BORIÇI
