Blagaj is a village in Herzegovina, in the southern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 7 km south of Mostar.Tekija on Buna in Blagaj is an important monument of the early Ottoman period in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is the place where dervishes performed special rituals – and perform it today – zikir (praise God).
The Blagaj Tekke was created between 1446 and 1520 and has had a tumultuous history to its reconstruction and tourist attraction today.
It was first mentioned in a 1664 Travelogue by Evliya Çelebi on his travels. By the 1800’s, the Austrian-Hungary regime had all Tekke’s shutdown. The next record comes in 1851, when at the request of Achik-pasha, Omer-pasha Latas (Ottoman General) had the Tekke reconstructed including two musafirhanas (charity houses for guests) to be used for the accommodation of travelers.
In the 1900’s the Tekke was destroyed by both rock slides (1949 & 1951) restored and then in 1952, the dervishes were expelled from the Tekke under Communist rule.
Before the Bosnian wars in the 1990’s, the dervishes started to return to the Tekke as a gathering place. Finally in 2012, formal restoration was carried out by the Turkish travel agency Fidan Tours. The Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina ceded the Tekke to Fidan Tours for use for 33 years.
