Bektashi

Bektashija, an order of dervishes and the members of this order; according to legend, they were formed in Asia Minor by the dervish Haji Bektash, who is assumed to have come from Middle Asia. The beliefs of the Bektashi are a mixture of various elements of Muslim (mainly Shiite) and Christian sectarianism. They lived in dervish settlements (takiyah or zawiyah). They owned considerable land. The role of the Bektashi became particularly large in the Ottoman Empire, where they became the protectors of the janissaries. In 1826, after the elimination of the janissary corps, the order of the Bektashi was officially closed, but in fact it existed in Turkey until the liquidation of the dervish orders in 1925, after which the center of the Bektashi moved to Albania.