TEKKÉ OF BLAGAJ

This 17th-century tekké (Tekija Blagaj) is one of the most famous monuments in the country along with the Old Bridge of Mostar. The visit is quick, but the site is beautiful: nestled at the foot of the cliff of the Orlovača hill (411 m above sea level), beautiful buildings with white walls and slate roofs are reflected in the waters of the Buna, right next to its source. It is a place of Sufi worship. Sufism is the mystical and esoteric branch of Islam. Renowned for the poetry, the erudition and the spirit of tolerance of their dervishes, the tariqas (Sufi brotherhoods) were an essential part of the Ottoman Empire. Founded by a dervish from Mostar around 1650, probably on the site of a Christian place of worship, the tekké of Blagaj belonged to the powerful tariqa of the halvetis. But it was another great brotherhood, more rigorous, that of the nakshibandis, which took possession of the place during the 19th century. Despite two destructions caused by falling rocks from the cliff, around 1820 and in 1851, the tekké remained active until 1925. It then fell into oblivion, before the Muslim community of Yugoslavia was allowed to organize ceremonies there from 1974. Restored in 2011, it welcomes again a community of Turkish and Bosnian nakshibandis dervishes.

Visit. The complex consists of several buildings in classical Ottoman style (housing, former hammam, prayer room, etc.), part of which has been transformed for visitors (restaurant, store, cafe) with the musafirhana ("house of travelers") serving as a museum. Partly embedded in the cliff, it was erected in the 17th century, then rebuilt in 1851. A veranda was added on the second floor overlooking the river and is still used today for prayer and religious chants. It is in this small room called the semahana that one can attend the zikr (ritual ceremony): rhythmic and repetitive chants sometimes accompanied by drums. They should lead the participants to an ecstatic state. The complex also shelters a tomb of 6 m height. It contains the sarcophagus of Sari Saltik and his disciple Achik Basha. Sari Saltik was a Turkmen missionary of the Bektashi brotherhood in the 13th century. Legend has it that he demanded that his mortal remains be placed in eight coffins and sent to eight different countries for the purpose of Islamizing the people. In the Balkans, there are two other tombs of Sari Saltik, in Kruja (Albania) and Kaliakra (Bulgaria).