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A Bektashi baba regarded as the second founder of the Harabati Baba Tekke in Kalkandelen (Tetovo) — one of the most important centres of Bektashism in Rumelia — and the man who gave the tekke its name.
The source states plainly that there is not enough information about the tekke's first founder, Sersem Ali Baba, or its second founder, Harabati Baba; it says nothing of his birth, education or initiation.
According to tradition he went to Rumelia with four companions to spread Bektashism. While in Kalkandelen he saw a burning lamp and, saying that it was the spirit of Sersem Ali Baba, had a tomb built for him there. Sersem Ali Baba is the man who first founded the tekke; he was probably trained at the Bektashi Asitane of Didymoteicho and came to Kalkandelen in 958 (1551).
According to Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi, the tekke, built towards the end of the 16th century, was enlarged by Receb Pasha in Harabati Baba's time. The lines of the Bektashi poet Turabi (d. 1285/1868-69), "Receb Pasha asks help from the heart / from Sersem Ali Baba in his lodge", show that Receb Pasha visited the tekke and gave it help; various legends about this help are told among the people.
He died in 1194 (1780). Eleven shaykhs served in the tekke after him; the tekke's endowment deed dated 1230 (1815) is in the Tetovo Archive.
His Tomb and Complex — Harabati Baba's open tomb lies within a hall resting on wooden posts, east of the graveyard in the tekke courtyard. The wall surfaces of the hall beside the tomb, like the inner walls of the masjid and the harem building, are decorated with landscape paintings, geometric shapes and plant motifs. In the north-west of the courtyard, together with the masjid and the semahane, stands the tomb of Sersem Ali Baba, with a twelve-sided body covered by a twelve-segmented dome; in the graveyard before it are eleven graves belonging to Receb Pasha and to the shaykhs and dervishes of the tekke. The tekke functioned until the Balkan War (1912), then fell into ruin, and in 1967 it was restored and opened for tourism.
Differing Scholarly Views
The founding of the tekke and Harabati Baba's role — The source records that there are other views on the founding of the tekke. According to Hasluck, the grave of Sersem Ali Baba was discovered by Muharrib (Muharrem) Baba and, on his advice, built by Rıza Pasha in 1248 (1832); this account gives no place to Harabati Baba. Krum Tomovski and Galaba Palikruševa hold that the tekke was built in 1799. Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi says that it was built towards the end of the 16th century and enlarged by Receb Pasha in Harabati Baba's time. The atlas does not choose between these views.
Location of the grave — The source records that Harabati Baba's open tomb is within the tekke complex, in the hall east of the graveyard; the atlas marker points to the tekke and agrees with this record. For Sersem Ali Baba's tomb in the same complex, the source notes that if the report of his death in Najaf is true, the building must be a memorial shrine.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 16, pp. 69-71, entry “Harâbâtî Baba Tekkesi”
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