Religion
Baba Rexheb
1901–1995 · Sufi dervish leader (Bektashi baba)
Albanian Bektashi Sufi master who founded the First Albanian Bektashi Tekke in America in Taylor, just outside Detroit, in 1954; his shrine there is visited by pilgrims.
- Born
Gjirokastër, Ottoman Empire (now Albania)- Died
Taylor, Michigan
aged 93- Birth name
- Rexheb Beqiri
- Also known as
- Rexheb Beqiri
- Detroit years
- 1954–1995
- Field
- Religion
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born Rexheb Beqiri in Gjirokastër in 1901 into a Bektashi family, he became a dervish and later a baba, a leader of the mystical Bektashi order of Islam. During World War II he was active in the anti-communist Balli Kombëtar movement, and after the communist takeover of Albania he spent four years in a displaced persons camp in Italy and four more at the Bektashi tekke in Cairo before emigrating to New York. In 1954 he founded the First Albanian Bektashi Tekke in America on a farm in Taylor, a Downriver suburb of Detroit, which became the spiritual center for Albanian Bektashis across North America. A scholar fluent in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman and modern Turkish, Greek and Italian, he published his major work on Islamic mysticism and Bektashism in 1970 and taught the anthropologist Frances Trix for more than twenty years, which led to her book The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb. He died in Taylor in 1995; his türbe on the tekke grounds is open to visitors.
Highlights
- Founded the First Albanian Bektashi Tekke in America in Taylor, 1954
- Veteran of the Balli Kombëtar resistance movement
- Author of Misticizma Islame dhe Bektashizma (1970)
- Subject of Frances Trix's The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb
- His türbe (shrine) stands on the tekke grounds
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1954–1995
First Albanian Bektashi Tekke in America
Bektashi Sufi monastery on a former farm in Taylor, Downriver from Detroit; Baba Rexheb's türbe on its grounds is open to pilgrims.