Demir Baba Teke

Demir Baba Teke (Bulgarian: Демир баба теке; Turkish: Demir Baba Tekkesi) is a 16th-century Alevi mausoleum (türbe) near the village of Sveshtari, Isperih municipality, Razgrad Province in northeastern Bulgaria. As part of the Sboryanovo historical and archaeological reserve, Demir Baba Teke is one of the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria.

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Leadership Dede Murshid Pir Rehber Babas Dergah Jem Cemevi
Crucial figures and influences Khadija bint Khuwaylid Fatimah Khidr Salman the Persian Uwais al-Qarani Jābir ibn Hayyān Dhul-Nun al-Misri Bayazid Bastami Ibn al-Rawandi Mansur Al-Hallaj Nasir Khusraw Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani Yusuf Hamdani Khoja Akhmet Yassawi Abdul-Qadir Gilani Ahmed ar-Rifa'i Ibn Arabi Qutb ad-Dīn Haydar Ahi Evren Haji Bektash Veli Rumi Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi Zahed Gilani Sari Saltik Yunus Emre Safi-ad-din Ardabili Nāimī Sadr al-Dīn Mūsā Imadaddin Nasimi Shah Nimatullah Wali Shaykh Junayd Shaykh Haydar Ali Mirza Safavi Ismail I Nur-Ali Khalifa Kaygusuz Abdal Otman Baba Balım Sultan Gül Baba Fuzûlî Alians Demir Baba Teke Arabati Baba Teḱe Pir Sultan Abdal Kul Nesîmî Sheikh Bedreddin Börklüce Mustafa Torlak Kemal
Alevi history Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam Shia in Persia before Safavids Shiism in Persia after Safavids Umayyad Caliphate Abu Muslim Sunpadh Al-Muqanna Ishaq al-Turk Abbasid Caliphate Babak Khorramdin Maziar Kaykhusraw II Babai revolt Baba Ishak Celali rebellions Bayezid II Persecution of Alevis Baba Zünnun Rebellion Kalender Çelebi rebellion Nur Ali Halife rebellion Şahkulu Rebellion Şahkulu Battle of Chaldiran Selim I Abaza rebellion Kuyucu Murad Pasha Auspicious Incident Mahmud II Koçgiri Rebellion Dersim Rebellion Seyid Riza Maraş Massacre Çorum Massacre Sivas Massacre Gazi Quarter riots
Related Muslim Ṭarīqah Malamatiyya Qalandariyya Qadiriyya Akbari Sufis Rifa'i Uwaisi Naqshbandi Mevlevi Order Zahediyeh Safaviyya Qizilbash Khalwati order Bayramiye Jelveti Babai Revolt Hurufism Nuqtavi Chepni people Bektashi Order Bektashism and folk religion Jelali revolts Ni'matullāhī Arabati Baba Teḱe Javad Nurbakhsh Galibi Order
Other influential groups Isma'ilism Nizari Alawites Druze Khurramites Bábism Baháʼí Faith Yazdanī Yarsanism Yazidi Yazidis in Armenia Sabians Ishikism Gnosticism Nabataeans Zoroaster Zoroastrianism Mazdak Zurvanism Mandaeism Manichaeism Shamanism Tengrism Panentheism
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Frontal view of Demir Baba Teke, known as the most sacred place for Alians.

The mausoleum is thought to be the resting place of Demir Baba, a 16th-century Alevi saint. The tomb itself is a heptagonal building constructed out of local sandstone. It has a lower rectangular antechamber and is covered by a hemispherical dome 11 metres (36 ft) in height. Demir Baba's grave lies in the middle of the heptagonal inner premises. Constructed out of bricks and wood, the sarcophagus is 3.74 metres (12.3 ft) in length and is positioned with the saint's head pointing southwest.[1] The sarcophagus is usually entirely covered by gifts and is only rarely displayed to Alevi pilgrims.

The mausoleum is thought to have been constructed in the 16th century on what was probably an ancient Thracian holy site from the 4th century BC. A cult complex (tekke) gradually emerged around the türbe. This included a holy spring, a mosque that was mentioned by travellers in the 18th and 19th centuries but was then destroyed, and a wooden public kitchen (imaret) which was pulled down in 1976 due to its deteriorating condition. The tekke features that have survived until today are the mausoleum, the holy spring, a residential building and a low stone fence surrounding the complex.[1] A small exhibition in the residential building explains the story of the Alevis and Demir Baba himself.[2]

Demir Baba Teke was proclaimed a monument of culture of local importance in 1970 by the government of the then-People's Republic of Bulgaria. The mausoleum was renovated in 1991–1994: the decaying wooden floor was replaced with a new one and the building's interior decorative elements (including the 19th-century murals) were reconstructed.[1]