Albania of the Thirties’. Along the routes of the Middle Ages it was
a common occurrence for pilgrims, roving religious preachers, hermits, and other kinds of clergy to cross paths, a phenomenon that not only belonged to the Christian West but also to the Islamic East. This entire category of individuals, sufferers, due to their faith in God, grew to become venerated figures whom the simple people regarded with respect and made their lives and deeds immortal by enshrining them in their legendary ballads and written volumes. This happened throughout Albanian territories too, but with the exception that this never grew to assume the proportions that it did elsewhere. The Albanians were far too ‘earthy’ to honor such difficult choices and far too arrogant to accept an existence of subjugation and beseeching. However, many cases of the existence of caves or churches exist which used to house lonely monks and hermits, or other sacred locations where these individuals spent a lifetime in solitary suffering and prayer. At the beginning of the XX Century this was a rare occurrence and by the middle of the Century it had completely disappeared.
In the first photograph there is a hermit at the entrance to the church belonging to a Monastery, somewhere in southern Albania. Obviously, the hermit it is in no state to be envied, there is even a look of insanity about him.
The second photo was taken in Berat, a roving Moslem priest serenely greets the photographer in the centre of the city’s bazaar. The only clues that the individual is a Moslem priest are his matted beard and the cap on his head. The shape of this cap indicates that he could be a priest of the Alevi Sect which had a large gathering of believers in that city and the surrounding districts.
The third photograph was taken beyond the state borders of Albania, but still within ethnic Albania, more precisely, in Prishtina. A young aged roving Dervishi poses before the camera, hand over heart. Behind him you can see a Fiat 1100, widely used in the thirties’ and forties’ probably the photographer’s car. The most modern vehicle of transport, beside which one of the world’s most ancient rovers, still in existence poses for his photograph, – the roving Dervish. In this case as well, the attire of the Dervish is very worn and ragged, but at least, perched on his head is a cap which is more within the standard shape. By the appearance of the cap, again I would think be belongs to the Bekteshi Sect.
