The Alians are a Shi`a

Shi'a Islam

Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatu ʻAlī , meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of Ali", or "party of Ali".Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is...

 order, similar to the Sufi Mevlevi, who live in several regions of Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

. Alians revere Ali ibn Abi Talib, son-in-law and first cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

, whom they consider an emanation of God

Allah

Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

. They follow the mystical rituals of the wandering dervish

Dervish

A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

es.

Historical facts

Their exact origin is not certain, since there are few historical records preserved from that time, but according to the prevailing theory they settled in Bulgaria after the 1512 victory by the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 sultan

Sultan

Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

 Selim I

Selim I

Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...

, a Sunni, over the first Safavid shah

Shah

Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...

 of the Persians, Ismail I

Ismail I

Ismail I , known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i militant religious order and unified all of Iran...

. It is believed that Alians are descendants of a Sufi-dervish group of priests, who came to the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 during the 15th century, in order to keep up the morale of Ottoman soldiers and to help integrate the newly-conquered peoples into the empire.

Other Muslims view Alians as ghulat

Ghulat

Ghulāt , is a term used in the theology of Shia Islam to describe some minority Muslim groups who either ascribe divine characteristics to a member of Muhammad's family , or hold beliefs deemed deviant by mainstream Shi'i theology...

, because of their views about imam

Imam

An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

 Ali. They are an extremely closed society and zealously hide their rituals. It is known that Alians are mysticists and believe in personal communication with God through a near-trance

Trance

Trance denotes a variety of processes, ecstasy, techniques, modalities and states of mind, awareness and consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.The term trance may be associated with meditation, magic, flow, and prayer...

 state. They do not use the traditional Islamic rituals, but use candles and wine.

In Bulgaria, Alians inhabit predominantly the villages of Yablanovo and Malko Selo in Sliven Province

Sliven Province

Sliven Province is a province in southeastern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre - the city of Sliven. It embraces a territory of 3,544.1 km² that is divided into 4 municipalities, with a total population, as of December 2009, of 204,887...

; Sevar, Ostrovo, Madrevo, Sveshtari, Bisertsi, and Lavino in Razgrad Province

Razgrad Province

Razgrad Province , former name Razgrad okrug) is a province in Northeastern Bulgaria, geographically part of the Ludogorie region. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre - the town of Razgrad...

; Preslavci, Chernik, and Bradvari in Silistra Province

Silistra Province

Silistra Province is a province of Bulgaria, named after its main city - Silistra. It is divided into 7 municipalities with a total population, as of December 2009, of 127,659 inhabitants....

; and Mogilets and Bayachevo in Targovishte Province

Targovishte Province

Targovishte Province is a province in northeastern Bulgaria, named after its main city - Targovishte. As of December 2009, it has a population of 129,675 inhabitants.-Municipalities:...

.

Demir Baba teke

Demir Baba Teke

Demir Baba Teke is a 16th-century Alevi mausoleum 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.The mausoleum is thought...

is a sacred place to Alians and other Islamic sects because Demir Baba, a famous dervish who lived during the 16th century, is buried there in the lands of northeastern Bulgaria. The tekke of Otman Baba

Otman Baba

Otman Baba was a 15th-century dervish who traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire, acquiring a following among heterodox Muslims in Bulgaria after 1445 that has developed into his veneration as a saint. After Otman Baba's death, a pilgrimage complex grew around his grave in the present-day...

, located in the Haskovo

Haskovo

Haskovo , is a city, an administrative centre of the homonymous Haskovo Province in southern Bulgaria, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. As of February 2011, it has a population of 74,843 inhabitants....

-region village of Teketo, is another Alian holy site.

Alians refused to visit madrassahs in the Ottoman Empire, because orthodox Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....

was taught there. As a consequence, they educated their children only within the bounds of their society, and that led them to a decline. The latter, along with the reticence of their esoteric culture, and the urbanization, doomed them to gradual assimilation.