Bektashi World Centre

The Bektashi World Headquarters or Bektashi World Center (Kryegjyshata Boterore Bektashiane) is the worldwide headquarters of the Sufi order Bektashi. It is situated on Dhimitr Kamarda Street in Tirana, Albania, on the outskirts of the city.

Additionally, the headquarters has a museum, a library, and an archive.

Prior to Turkey’s secularization in 1925, the Haji Bektash Veli Complex in Hacbektaş, Turkey, was home to Haji Bektash Veli’s pir evi (Turkish for “pir’s house”), which functioned as the Bektashi Order’s worldwide headquarters. After Atatürk’s 1925 ban on all dervish orders, the Bektashi Order fled to Albania, and the complex was closed for religious purposes. As a consequence, the Bektashi Order’s administrative headquarters were relocated to Tirana, Albania in 1930.

Sali Njazi, the Bektashi Order’s first Dedebaba, created the World Headquarters of the Bektashi movement (Albanian: Kryegjyshata) in Tirana in 1930. Sali Njazi had intended to establish the headquarters at Melçan, Korça (which had previously functioned as the de facto headquarters of the Albanian Bektashi community in the 1920s), but ultimately chose Tirana.  The headquarters was completed in 1941, during Italy’s annexation of Albania.

The headquarters were shuttered in 1967, when Albanian Communist ruler Enver Hoxha ordered the closure of all religious groups. A provisional group for the revival of the Bektashi Community was founded in Tirana on 27 January 1991. Since that year, the new group has been working diligently to reintroduce Bektashism to Albania. On 22 March 1991, Sultan Nevruz, the World Headquarters in Tirana was reopened formally.