Melami Tekke, Rahovec

The tekke of the Melami order is located in the western part of the old center of Rahovec.
This tekke was founded by Sheikh Abdyl Maliq Efendi Hilmiu in 1887, and his successors were Sheikh Emin Efendi Durguti and Sheikh Sulemjan Efendi Kollari.
Throughout its history, besides the function of preaching religion, the tekke has played a very important role in the schooling and education of young people in the Albanian language. Sheikh Maliqi, known among the people as Sheikh Mala, was one of the most prominent personalities in the history of culture and education in Rahovec. He left behind manuscripts of a divan – poems written in the Albanian language, in the Arabic alphabet, and some translations of old religious books from Arabic into Albanian.
The tekke complex consists of the courtyard, the tekke building and the tomb. The tekke has a rectangular floor plan, covered with a hipped roof with clay tiles. At the front is the hayat – the half-open portico, from which one gains access to the fireplace room and the semahane – the prayer room, on its southern side.
In the interior of the semahane, on the southeastern wall, is the mihrab, with a semicircular floor plan, which at the top ends in the form of a stepped pyramid. In the semahane are preserved old documents that present the genealogy of the development of the Melami order in Rahovec, some old tools, as well as the divans – the poems written by Sheikh Mala, in the Albanian language in the Arabic alphabet.
Next to the tekke, in the southern corner, is the tomb, also with a rectangular floor plan, where the founder of the tekke, Sheikh Mala, is buried.
The old tekke building, built in 1887, had a basement, a ground floor and an upper floor, and was built of earthen bricks – adobe (qerpiç), while the hipped roof was covered with stone slabs.
In 1974 the old tekke was demolished, and the new building was built on the foundations of the existing one.
The walls on the ground floor are built with full clay bricks, while the hipped roof is covered with clay tiles.
The current appearance of the tekke does not preserve the characteristics of the local architecture of Rahovec.
After the death of Sheikh Sylejman Efendi Kollari in the 1990s, the tekke was left without a spiritual leader and its activity is fading away.