TEHRAN -- Iran and Turkey will be holding a conference on Hajji Bektash Wali in spring 2008.

Iran’s cultural attaché in Turkey Farhad Palizdar whilst visiting Prof. Filiz Kilic, head of the Hajji Bektash Wali Department of Ankara’s Cazi University, announced that the conference will probably be held in Mashhad, Neyshabur or Tehran.
Palizdar noted that the event will help pave the way for the holding of a larger conference in the future similar to the one held in Ankara on the subject of Hajj Bektash in autumn 2007.
“The congress will provide researchers from both countries with an opportunity to meet and exchange views,” he added.
Hajji Bektash Wali was a Persian mystic, humanist and philosopher from the Khorasan region who lived in Anatolia (circa 1209-1271).
He is the eponym of the Bektashi Sufi order and is considered to be one of the principal teachers of Alevism. He is also a renowned figure in the history and culture of both Turkey and the Ottoman Empire.