Albanian Literature in Translation
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Sari Salltëk
Bektashi holy man and legendary
figure, Sari Salltëk, known in Turkish as Sari Saltuk, is
said to have been either a dervish at the court of Sultan Orhan
(1326-1360) or a direct disciple of Haji Bektash Veli, founder
of the Bektashi order. It is more likely, however, that he was
a In Kruja, there was once a Christian
prince with a fair daughter. He would have been happy, had it
not been for a terrible Kulshedra which housed in a cave on the
top of the mountain. Every day the dragon would bask in the sun
in the ruins of a church, having demanded of the inhabitants
of the town that they cast lots to be sacrificed and devoured,
one man or woman every day. Many heroes had endeavoured to slay
the beast, but to no avail. One day, an aged dervish with a white
beard came to town, girded with a wooden sword and bearing the
branch of a cypress tree in his hand. Having been informed of
the terrible monster, he resolved to climb up to the cave. On
his way up the mountainside the next day, he met the tearful
daughter of the prince, who was on her way to the Kulshedra to
be sacrificed. He said to her, "Do not cry. We will go together
and I will not abandon you for a moment." On their way,
the old man asked the maiden to scratch his head because his
hair was full of lice. She agreed and the scratching brought
the old man such relief that he fell asleep with his head in
her lap, but was soon awakened by the maiden's tears. At sunset
they reached the summit of the mountain, arid and parched as
it was from the Kulshedra's fiery breath. There was such heat
there that the maiden began complaining of thirst. Thereupon,
the old man plunged his staff into the cliff and out gushed a
spring of water. After they had quenched their thirst, they were
attacked three times by the fiery Kulshedra, but the dragon could
do them no harm. The dervish then pursued the monster into its
cave and slew it with his wooden sword, cutting off its seven
heads and sticking its seven tongues into his pocket. He then
told the maiden to return home to her father.
[excerpt from Jules Alexandre Degrand: Souvenirs de la Haute-Albanie, Paris 1901, p. 236-243. Translated from the French by Robert Elsie.]
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Oral
Literature | Mündlich überlieferte Literatur |
Littérature orale | Letërsia gojore
figure
of early Balkan and not originally of Bektashi or Muslim legendry.
The Bektashi simply took advantage of his popularity as a symbol
of Islamic-Christian syncretism and religious tolerance in order
to promote their own doctrines. The first legends associated
with Sari Salltëk were recorded by the Moroccan voyager
and geographer Ibn Battuta (1304-1377). From documents dating
from 1538, we know that such legends were very popular in the
Balkans. In Albania, Sari Salltëk is particularly associated
with the town of Kruja, where he was, and to an extent, still
is an object of veneration. He is said to have died on the Greek
island of Corfu and is identified in the Orthodox tradition with
Saint Spyridon. In the nineteenth century, many Albanian Bektashi
went on pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Spyridon on Corfu to
worship the patron saint of the island under his Islamic name.
All in all, Sari Salltëk is said to have seven graves, the
number seven often occurring in his legends, and each grave contains
a part of his body. The core of the Albanian version of the legend
of Sari Salltëk, recorded by Jules Alexandre Degrand in
1901, is as follows: