Baba Shemin

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Baba Shemin (d.1831), known as Baba Shemin of Fushë-Krujë or Baba Shemin of Krujë was an Albanian Bektashi priest, poet, and martyr.

Baba Shemin (or Shemim^[1]), whose full name was Qemaledin Shemin Ibrahim,^[2] was initially a Sunni Muslim hodja and müderris (religious teacher). He got in touch with the Bektashi Sufi doctrine in the Köprülü tekke (today Veles, Macedonia), together with his friend Hatemi Hajdar Baba. He built the tekke of Fushë-Krujë on his return.
Baba Shemin was a close acquaintance of Ali Pasha Tepelena, Vizier of the Janina Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He was the one who initiated Ali Pasha as a Bektashi.^[3] With the support of Ali, he built additional tekkes in Melçan, Xhefaji Baba tekke in Elbasan (Xhefaji Ibraim Babai was a dervish under Baba Shemin), Sadik Baba Tekke in Koshtan (near Memaliaj), etc. He is mentioned as highly mystical. He was also a Sufi poet, and his poetry was very direct with high notes of criticism toward public figures and social injustices of the time.^[4]
During his era, Baba Shemin was the most famous Bektashi leader in Albania. The tekke of Krujë had 360 holy tombs and was known as "the small Khorasan".^[5]
Baba Shemin was assassinated in 1831, by the men of Kapllan Pasha Toptani from the most-powerful Ottoman Albanian family (Toptani) of the area. This is mentioned in the elegy that the bejte period poet Zenel Bastari wrote for him after his death.^[1] According to the Turkish scholar Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun, a letter sent from one of Shemin's followers, and found in the Basri Baba library in Istanbul, describes that Baba Shemin was killed with two bullets in his chest, which reading the holy books. He was buried in his tekke.^[4]

See also

• Nasibi Tahir Babai
• Haxhi Ymer Kashari
• Religion in Albania

References