MUSLIM NIŠANS IN KRAJINA

The tradition of erecting stone grave-marks in Krajina is almost three millennia old, starting from Japodian urns, through Roman altars and medieval stećaks to different kinds of stone grave-marks related to the Ottoman period. Although nišans (Islamic tombstones) are the widest-spread among them, there are also stones which marked the beginning of former hajjis' journey to perform the fifth Islamic duty (hadžintashes), stones on which coffins with the deceased were placed during the janazah (mejtashes), as well as stones from which muezzins called believers to daily prayers (ezantashes). In line with tradition of naming stone grave-marks tashes (Tur. tash, stone), the term 'mezartash', one of the names for nišan has become established.

As a separate part of cultural-historical and architectural heritage, together with mosques and minarets, nišans of Krajina are the most significant symbols of life and death of local Muslims. Scattered in rural and urban area alike, they are still the testimony of stone-carving artistry of builders of Krajina. Besides by material they were built of, bašluks (tombstones) of Krajina differ from those in other parts of Bosnia by appearance and height, as well as by motifs they are decorated with. Besides the cultural-historical one, they also have a function of monuments, shaping landscape and the aesthetic function. Recently, however, old nišans have increasingly been exposed to destruction, while the practice of erecting new ones in line with our own tradition is increasingly rare.

Outdoor archives

Since, due to its turbulent past, the area of Krajina lacks tangible monuments of culture from the Ottoman and earlier periods, the value of nišans of Krajina is greater. Besides being a significant part of the culture and identity of local population, these tombstones of humanoid shape are a source of precious data and refined inscriptions, and are therefore often called stone libraries or outdoor archives. Besides data on the deceased person, they testify of centuries-old literacy and a rich stone-carving tradition, as well as of the psychology of the man from Krajina, which we can read from their motifs and decoration. Diversity of shapes and sizes of nišans is evidence of the continuity of respect of ordinary people for the bravest, wisest, the most renowned and the wealthiest people from Krajina, since the most representative pieces were erected by their graves. Most of these nišans are found in old jamaat cemeteries, and they can also be seen by urban and rural mosques, along main and side roads, next to villages, as well as only a few meters away from houses. The most beautiful and the best-preserved examples, which were designated as a national monument in 2006, are found at the private cemetery of the Kajtezović family near Cazin.

Nišans of Krajina were made of bihacit stone, which is found in large supplies in the surroundings of Bihać. Immediately upon mining, bihacit is soft and suitable for shaping, and becomes harder and more robust over time. In the course of several years, the nišan gets natural patina and plasticity of relief, which contribute to its longevity. It is only then that the whole story is completed, as its grey color unites with the surrounding landscape symbolizing a link between This World and the Hereafter.

Nišans of Krajina differ from others in Bosnia by the deep relief with richer decoration, as well as by the practice that they are erected only above the head of the deceased. On the front of the nišan there is an obligatory rosette and a chronogram which describes the history of the deceased. There are clear differences between men's, women's and children's nišans, with many variants. They are all decorated with numerous motifs, turbans or braids, traditional brims in the form of twisted ribbons, and with various symbols (swords and guns, apples, grapes, plants, crescent and star, six-pointed star, rosettes, vases, ewers, aigrettes and other floral, geometric and folk ornaments). For men, turbans were made, depending on the position or class which the person belonged to. The most numerous men's nišans of Krajina are those for agas, merchants, landowners and notables, then those for ulama and nišans with the fez, while there are only few nišans for dervishes. Nišans for deceased women have a braid on the back, which symbolizes a woman with the covered head. Each of these nišans is an unrepeatable monument which symbolizes folklore of the man of Krajina.

Inspiration for artists and stone-carvers

Production of nišans of Krajina made of bihacit is several centuries old. The uninterrupted tradition of their making and erecting is proven by numerous pieces from earlier centuries, as well as by the most recent ones, which are made in stone-carving workshops of families Zulić, Kuduzović and Toromanović from Bihać. Thanks to earlier stone-carving tradition, a special school has eventually developed and got established in Krajina. Each of the erected nišans is a story for itself. Their distinctiveness has always attracted attention of passers-by and has been inspiration for many artists, such as Dževad Hozo and Sead Emrić. These people from Krajina embedded in their creative oeuvre various motifs from the architectural heritage of Bosanska Krajina, thus wanting to preserve artistic ties with their homeland. Thus, Dževad Hozo, in his printmaking work Bosanska nekropola presents the style of about a hundred nišans. His collection, which is stored in the holdings of the Museum of the Una-Sana Canton has been entered in the register of world heritage as a movable national asset, which is the best confirmation of the value and significance on Muslim nišans of Krajina. Academic and nonfiction works about nišans of Krajina have been written by Mehmed Mujezinović, Meho Čaušević, Suad Mahmutović, Mirza Sadiković and many others; however, out of numerous stone-carvers, only few names have been recorded.

Today, nišans of Krajina are very rarely made in stone-carving workshops. They have also been suppressed by industry, which prefers nišans made of marble and granite. One of the few who have been involved in their making for years is Enes Toromanović from Bihać. His works are an attempt to save this form of stone-carving tradition from oblivion.

The nišan of Krajina, as a mark of a deceased tomb, should not reflect only an individua desire and an arbitrary act of a family member but should be a reflection of tombstone architecture which is rooted in Muslim tradition. Unlike the time when people cared about the appearance and appropriateness of nišans, as well as about the authentic building stone they were made of, the culture of erecting nišans has greatly changed today, and deviation from the tradition is increasingly prominent. The art of making nišans has changed due to commercialization. Many stone-carving workshops make nišans which have nothing in common with Bosnian and Krajina tradition. It is obvious that many Muslim cemeteries have become plots of “bad taste and kitsch” and of numerous non-Islamic marks.

One of the ways of caring for the appearance of cemeteries is institutional standardization of the form and appearance of nišans, which would reflect centuries-long religious tradition and stone-carving experience. As a sign of care for their preservation an activity has been launched to have the nišan of Krajina included in the list of world cultural heritage.