1. Rexheb Beqiri, better known by the religious name Baba Rexheb, was an Albanian Islamic scholar and Sufi.
19 Facts About Baba Rexheb
1. 2.
Baba Rexheb was the founder and the head of the Bektashi Sufi lodge located in Taylor, Michigan, United States.
3.
Baba Rexheb was born as Rexheb Beqiri, on 18 August 1901, into a family with strong Bektashi ties in Gjirokaster, southern Albania, at a time when Albania was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
4.
Baba Rexheb's father, Refat Beqiri, was a local mullah in the old neighbourhood of Dunavat, Gjirokaster.
5.
Baba Rexheb's mother was from Elbasan in central Albania as was his murshid, his spiritual guide, Selim Baba Elbasani.
6.
Baba Rexheb entered the Bektashi Order at the age of sixteen and was promoted to the rank of dervish at the age of twenty.
7.
Baba Rexheb spent four years in a displaced persons camps in Italy.
8.
Baba Rexheb's dream was to serve Bektashis in America, but after World War II, it was very difficult to come to America.
9.
Baba Rexheb stayed there for four years until his number for the United States finally came up.
10.
Baba Rexheb traveled to New York City where one of his sisters, Zejnep Cuci, had preceded him.
11.
In 1954, Baba Rexheb established the First Albanian Bektashi Tekke in Taylor, Michigan, where there was a group of Albanian Bektashis who supported him.
12.
Baba Rexheb was joined by Baba Bajram, Dervish Arshi, and small number of other Bektashi clerics from Egypt and the Balkans.
13.
In 1967, Baba Rexheb began his master work in Albanian, Misticizma Islame dhe Bektashizma.
14.
Later, Baba Rexheb was asked by Baba Qamil of Gjakova in Kosova to translate into Albanian Fuzuli's "Hadikat-i Su'ada," a classic 16th century work in Ottoman Turkish, parts of which are read aloud at the holiday of Muharrem.
15.
Baba Rexheb was fluent in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, modern Turkish, Greek, and Italian.
16.
Baba Rexheb had passed the tests for the ulemma back in Albania, but more important, he had studied Arabic and Persian texts with Selim Baba Elbasani for twenty years.
17.
Baba Rexheb taught in Turkish an American student, Frances Trix, who learned Albanian, for over 20 years.
18.
Baba Rexheb's prayers were sought by people of all backgrounds.
19.
Baba Rexheb's turbe is located on the tekke grounds and is open for pilgrims and truth-seekers of all walks.