Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the multisensorial activities of pilgrims at the cave sanctuaries of Sari Saltuk, one of the most fascinating Muslim saints in the Balkans, where intense religious experiences are engendered by the saint's physical traces and material objects.

Paper long abstract:

In the Western Balkans two sacred cave sanctuaries on mountaintops are believed to be the resting places of the 13th-century Muslim saint Sari Saltuk, one of the most fascinating figures in Balkan religious history. Traditionally associated with two different Sufi communities, these are major pilgrimage sites noted for their blessing and curative properties. One site is associated with the Bektashi Sufi community and overlooks the small mountain town of Kruja in northern Albania; the other, cared for by the Saʿdi Sufi community, is located on Mount Pashtrik at the border between northern Albania and Kosovo. Reflecting the intrinsic association between matter and place, both sites are dynamic spaces where a multitude of sensorial activities are continually being generated and shaped by action, movement, and use. These are mediated by the pilgrims interactions with the saint's materiality, his physical traces and objects (sanctified by contact with the saint), whence they light candles, offer prayers, inscribe graffiti, leave gifts and monetary offerings as well as personal items and photographs; animal sacrifices play a major role with the meat being consumed during the ritual and -- like the sacred water collected in bottles and the stone fragments removed from the sacred rock -- being taken away. Against this background, I will focus on the intense multisensorial experiences these religious materialities engender. Following a multidisciplinary, synthetic approach, my argument is based upon a series of sensory ethnographic observations at the two sacred sites in 2012 and 2019, complemented by annotated photographs.