Tekke of Peza –a hearth of patriotism

Abstract

The objects of the Islamic cult in Albania have always been hearths of preaching love for Allah, human being and fatherland. One if these hearths has been the Tekke and the Shrine of Sheik(h) Father Hasan in the village of Peza e Madhe.
In reality, Peza has never had any building on its own serving as a Tekke and where believers might be received and the religious rites might be performed; its role has been played by the house-tekke of Sheik(h) Hasan.
The tekke of Peza belongs to the Islamic mystic tariqah”Saadi” (Arabic: “Sa’diyya” and it has been built in the second middle of the 18th century. Its founder, Sheik(h) Father Hasan, entered as dervish in the Tekke of Saadi-s in the “Marash” quarter of Prizren, founded by the Greatest Teacher of this tariqah all over the Albanian territories, Sheik (h) Father Sylejman Axhize.
The tekke of Sheik(h) father Hasan of Peza is one of the oldest objects in Albania, dating from the 18th century. The shrine of Sheik(h) Father Hasan is built in 1786. After Sheik(h) Hasan passed away, in his house-tekke and shrine served four generations of sheik(h)s: in the first generation: Father Ahmet; in the 2nd generation: Father Abdyl and dervishes: Hasan II and Luftullah; the 3rd generation: Father Aziz and dervishes: Sulo, Ali and Abdurrahman; the 4th generation: Father Myrteza, who moved to the Tekke of Bektashis in Fushë-Kruja, and dervishes: Gani and Shyqyri Peza.
The successor of Father Hasan, his grand-grandson, Father Abdul participated in the set up of the branch of the Albanian League of Prizren in the region of Peza and supported the resistance of his fellow countrymen against the punishing expedition of the notorious Shefqet Turgut Pasha, in June 1881.
This tekke experienced the historical events of the Declaration of Independence of Albania and the establishment of the Interim Government of Vlora, headed by the patriot Ismail Qemali. The son of Father Aziz, Shyqyri Peza made the last services to the to the first martyr of Peza, Avdi Berhysa, who fell in the Battle of Peqini in 1913 in attempts to stop the march of the Kingdom of Serbia’s Army aiming at the occupation of Durrës.
In the house of dervish Gani, it was established the first Albanian school in Peza.
In the days of the preparation to held the Historical Congress of Lushnja in 1920, dervish Shyqyri Peza convened at the Tekke of Peza about 60-70 fellow fighters from Peza and went to the defense of the delegates and of the historical congress held for the freedom, independence and territorial integrity of Albania.
In the days of the Second World War, at the former-tekke-house of Father Hasan of Peza, on September 16, 1942, it was held the 1st Antifascist National Liberation Conference of Albania, known as the Conference of Peza.
Twelve days after the closing of this conference’s proceedings, the fascist bombing airplanes burned down the Shrine of Father Hasan.
Activists of the antireligious communist movement of 1967 flattened the shrine. After the transformation of the communist political system into the democratic one in 1990, the grand-grand-son of Father Hasan, Dashamiri, reconstructed the former-tekke-house as a dwelling for his family, by preserving the room of “Meydan” identically like the former one.
Also, the other grand-grand-son, Gani Peza rebuild the tomb and shrine of Father Hasani (1998), where he receives Islamic believers.