In January 2022 I visited the village of Duiss in Georgia’s northeast Pankisi Gorge. I was lucky to find myself with extraordinary hosts, the Baghakashvili family, who have been preserving a tradition of Sufi prayer for many years, and which we were fortunate enough to witness.
Our hostess, Eter Tsikhelashvili, told us that at the beginning of the twentieth century, sheikh Isa Efendi moved from Dagestan to the Pankisi Gorge and began preaching Islam. Prior to that the area was predominantly Christian. He gathered people, created followers, and gave himself out as a clairvoyant. He became famous and respected throughout the villages of the gorge.
Once the Baghakashvili family also invited the Sheikh. He replied that his visit would be quite expensive, because if he came he would settle there and stay. And so it happened. The Sheikh settled in a small room of Baghakashvili’s house and lived there for the rest of his life. His followers used to walk with him and perform prayer rituals, and this tradition continues in the small room.
Since then the family has continued the tradition; its followers gather every week for a prayer ritual - sufi zikr - held in the Sheikh's room. Men meet on Thursday nights and women on Friday afternoons. There are two brotherhoods among the Sufis of the Pankisi Gorge: one the followers of Isa Effendi, and the other of Kunt Haji, but there is no ideological difference between them. The only practical difference is in the performance of zikr. Kunt Haji's followers are in the Kist villages of Pankisi, while Isa Efendi's followers are in Duisi, but the Sheikh's own zikr is held only in the Baghakashvili family in his former room.Eteri worries that this tradition is slowly being forgotten because the number of followers is decreasing. She hopes that her descendants will continue the tradition, and she herself practices the rituals with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
I was lucky to take part in the ceremony and was able to capture it in a series of photos. I was impressed by the unity of these women and the mutual support that exists between generations in the family. The hosts themselves are happy that these photos will go down in history as proof of their unique local heritage.