The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED005_RAI 400.13131 Albania. Përmet. Dervishes at the Bektashi teqe (dervish lodge) of Përmet (Photo: Evan MacRury, 30 March 1904). “We proceeded to explore things Moslem. In a little garden, hedged round by towering cypresses, lay the tomb of a holy Bektashite Dervish; here the good man had lived and died, and the spot is holy and works miracles. He was beheaded and died a martyr, but he picked up his head and carried it back to his garden. Of the respect in which he was held there was no doubt, for the grave was strewn with small coins, and a little wooden money-box was hung on the wall, and the spot was quite unprotected, save by the good man’s spirit. Seeing that I was interested, the young officer, no doubt a Bektashite himself, at once offered, to my great surprise, to take me to a ‘tekieh’ (Bektashite monastery) that lay high on the hillside, above the town — a rich tekieh, so he said, owning wide lands and sunny vineyards. It was a small, solid, stone building with a courtyard in front. At the entrance we waited while the officer went in to interview the ‘Baba’ (Father). My Christian guide doubted that we should be let in. We were, however, requested to go round to the back-door, and soon told the Baba was ready. In we went, to a bright little room with a low divan round it, and texts in Arabic on the walls, and big glass windows that commanded a grand view of all the valley. The Baba entered almost at once, a very grave and reverend signor in a long white robe; under which he wore a shirt with narrow stripes of black, white, and yellow; on his head a high white felt cap, divided into segments like a melon, and bound round by a green turban; and round his waist a leathern thong fastened by a wondrous button of rock crystal, the size and shape of a large hen’s egg, segmented like the cap and set at the big end with turquoises and a red stone. He was very dark, with piercing eyes, shaggy brows, gray hair, and a long beard.” (Edith Durham, The Burden of the Balkans, 1905).