GIJROKASTER

In a Bektashi turbe

Albania became part of the Ottoman empire in 1417, and progressively took on its share of Islamic history. Bektashism, often defined as a liberal branch of Shia Islam, was born in Iran in the second half of the 13th century. It became popular in southern Albania much later, during the 18th and 19th centuries. Two main babas, or saints, whose remains are still revered in the citadell of Girocastra, are Baba Sulltan and Baba Kapllan; they lived here in the 16th and 17th centuries.