TOWN MOSQUE IN JEZERSKI (1576-2023)

In the Narodna uzdanica journal, a great lover of the Pounje region, a writer and publicist from Krajina Murat Šuvalić (1897-1936) wrote the following: Every small town in Bosanska Krajina is full of history. All of them, totaling 22, are virginally beautiful. Almost all of them, like falcons, rise on barren rocks and bare white cliffs. And just beneath them are fertile fields, long indented valleys and, like a tear of pearl, clean rivers and brooks. A beautiful environment, full of romance which offers an artistic impression and leads to rapture. In these small towns or next to them there is typically a mosque, as if someone wanted magnification of God to be heard from the top of hills, to the heaven, above the furious gurgle of brooks and rivers.

The most representative example of such a town is the Old Town of Jezerski at Jezerski near Bosanska Krupa.

The Old Town of Jezerski has always captured attention of lovers of cultural-historical monuments. It has remained a true lure for historians, painters, architects, as well as for other lovers of architectural heritage. Interest of the public and tourists has recently increased since the gate of the old town has been renewed and the medieval tower and bulwarks of the Ottoman fort conserved. This unique monument is situated at the end of a slope above a settlement of the same name, which was actually named after it. Its bulwarks have an impressive view to all directions, particularly southward, where we can see the Cazin Gomila and the mountain of Plješevica near Bihać behind it.

The complex of the old town, which enjoys the status of a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, houses a small medieval court with multi-story defense tower, a mosque from 1576, and the house of the Crnkić family. Oral tradition of local population confirms that the arrival of Ottoman army, led by Ferhat-pasha Sokolović, was immediately followed by building an asker (military) mosque in Jezerski. According to legends, mosques were also built in Stijena, Cazin and Bužim in the same year. The mosque has a rectangular ground plan with exterior dimensions of some 7.80 x 9.50 m. The portico measures 2 x 7.80 m. It belongs to the category of fortress mosques with wooden minarets, which prevailed in Krajina in the Ottoman period. According to relevant historical sources, the old town, as a military Ottoman fort, was set to fire by Croatian inhabitants of Krajina in 1687, while years 1789 and 1834 were dramatic for Jezerski, since it was then that it was significantly damaged. It can be assumed that the mosque also suffered damage at the time, thus sharing the fate of the fortress itself. However, its authentic original appearance has been preserved to a great extent. Ottoman military crew left the fortress in 1838, and people have used the mosque ever since.

By the bottom of the alem of the wooden minaret we find the inscription of the name of builder, Muharem, and 1270 Hijri year, which corresponds to 1854 AD; it is therefore assumed that it was then that the building was thoroughly reconstructed. From Bošnjak journal we learn that in 1908 a huge piece of the wall fell from a nearby tower and damaged the entrance to the mosque. The latest reconstruction, which considerably impaired the original architectural authenticity, was done in the 1960s. The old closed minaret was replaced by a new one, with a protruding šerefe (balcony) and it was trimmed with galvanized sheet, while the previous small windows with arcs were broadened and acquired a new, square form. In the entrance part, the previous portico, which is characterized by the stone lower part and wooden upper part with decorative pillars, was completely trimmed with wooden boards. Due to the reconstruction of the time, in his book Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, Mehmed Mujezinović wrote that the mosque had lost its authenticity and that it seems new.

Although it is simple in terms of architecture and space, the interior of the town mosque is richly decorated. Besides the minber and the front part of the mahfil, where the place for muezzin stands out, the remaining interior of the mosque is adorned with many decorative elements.

Like most mosques in Krajina from the Ottoman period, this one is also plastered and painted white. In her work Arhitektura bijelih zidova i šarenih bašči i ćilima (Architecture of white walls and colorful gardens and kilims), Amra Hadžihasanović, MA, explains the phenomenon of white Bosnian mosques and writes that the interior of the traditional Bosnian house and mosque is a living image of the Islamic spiritual message and a tangible manifestation of the metaphysical ideas of Islam. It is a space of peace, harmony and balance, a a space of quiet joy and suppressed happiness, which are actually reflections and echoes of Jannah states in the ambience created by human hand. By whiteness of walls and the variety of colors in gardens and on kilims, Bosnian houses and mosques reflect the spiritual message which eloquently speaks of Bosnian man’s high awareness of his human essence and true poverty before the Wealth of Divine Being, and by evoking Jannah states this poor God’s slave sincerely hopes for His Endless Mercy.

Like a pattern on a Bosnian kilim, on the white façade of the town mosque in Jezerski one can observe an interesting decorative ornament, which is situated on the southeast corner of the building. It is not known who it was painted by and when.

The wooden minaret, trimmed with metal sheet, springs from the roof, and remains of paint on the balcony indicate that it used to be nicely decorated. The house of the Crnkić family, adjacent to the mosque itself, is also white, i.e. it has the identical white façade like the mosque. In the Ottoman period, the Crnkić House was the seat of the dizdar (commander of a fort or a fortified town), and during Austro-Hungarian administration until the Second World War it was the seat of the muhtar (local mayor). Like the mosque, the house was reconstructed in the 1970s, when it lost its authentic appearance. It was a comfortable Bosnian house with features of a gazebo and a steep shingle roof. The upper floor served as the space for family life and the workplace of the muhtar. The reconstruction dismantled the gizintija (covered walkway) on the eastern and southern side, which we see on archival photographs. The ground floor housed the guestroom, pantry and other utility rooms. Like the mosque, the house was damaged by shelling during the Serbian aggression in the 1990s.

In his book Bihać i bihaćka Krajina, Croatian historian Radoslav Lopašić discussed Jezerski and claimed that in the Middle Ages there used to be a village Catholic church in its area, which some people later carelessly and maliciously related to the mosque.

However, archeologist Branka Raunig, PhD, a former curator of the museum of the Pounje, in her book Arheološki leksikon za BiH claims that a modest late medieval church described by Lopašić was at the site of Francik, several kilometers northeast of the town of Jezerski. At this site, Branka Raunig, PhD, recorded remains of foundations measuring 11 x 9 m oriented in the direction east-west, and claimed that they belong to the church.

Another piece of evidence proving that relating of the mosque to the medieval church is historically ungrounded is the fact that the town mosque in Jezerski is correctly positioned toward the Qibla, i.e. Mecca, that its mihrab is in the middle part of the southeast wall and that believers are neatly lined up in safs (rows). No construction modifications can be observed on the walls, nor are there any indications in oral tradition that would lead to this conclusion.

In 1990, believers of the jamaat of the old town of Jezerski built a new and spacious domed mosque outside the old town walls. The old mosque thus fell into disuse and, unfortunately, has been exposed to decay. There are visible ugly scars on the mosque made by shells of chetnik tanks and howitzers, which were positioned on the Otoka hills during the aggression on our country. The mosque was directly hit by a shell in the upper zone of the southeast wall, which resulted in the destruction of both the roof and the ceiling of the mosque.

From archival writings of mufti Čišić from 1856, which are kept in the archives of the madrasa in Cazin, and which describe mosques and imams in Krajina, we learn that the first imam of the mosque in the old town of Jezerski was Mustafa Mevlan. In general records of the National Waqf Committee for BiH (1890-1895), when we read reports and decrees on appointments, we can see that in 1893 the imam in Jezerski was Ibrahim-ef. Mehić, and that somewhat later in the same year Mehmed-ef. Delalić was appointed imam.

Other sources reveal the following imams of the mosque: Arif-ef. Ćatić, Mehmed-ef. Alešević (until 1910), Husein-ef. Omerćehajić (from 1910), Ahmed-ef. Velić (1933), Selim-ef. Mahmutović (1936), Muhamed-ef. Velić (1941), Husein-ef. Alijagić (1943-1947.), Ešref-ef. Šehić, Muhamed-ef. Amidžić (1951), Husejn-ef. Subašić (1953), Fuad-ef. Subašić, Husejn-ef. Alijagić (1965-1968.), Ibrahim-ef. Nesimović (1968-1979.), and Sejfulah-ef. Nanić (1979-1999). After the death of imam Sejfo-ef. Nanić, the duties were performed by Hazim-ef. Muzaferović.

Bosniaks from Krajina have a nice practice of organizing the hatma-dova (prayer after full reading of the Qur'an) upon the completion of religious instruction. On this occasion, besides the festive program and dhikr, graduates of the religious instruction are awarded diplomas and convenient gifts. The jamaat of the town of Jezerski has always stood out by the number of students of religious instruction, and by organization and attendants of the hatma-dova. In the 1970s and 1980s hatma-dovas in this jamaat gathered several thousand audiences. Mumin Bajrić wrote a very nice story about such an event in Jezerski in 1975, in the Islamic newspaper Preporod: On the eve of Sunday, flags and lanterns on the minaret announced this festivity. Before the noon, the crowd of people filled the mosque and the surroundings. The day was sunny and beautiful and the nature itself, with its greenery, decorated the festivity. The interior of the mosque was adorned with flowers and rugs. Thick walls and narrow windows, as well as ornaments carved in the wooden objects revealed a true medieval style and a great difference from today's, modernly built mosques.

Majlis of the Islamic Community from Bosanska Krupa, in cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Una-Sana Canton, initiated certain activities aimed at reconstructing the mosque. The project task of the renewal has been defined, and it should be followed by activities of finding donors who would support its thorough and authentic reconstruction, so that it could be restored to its splendor. To renew and preserve this mosque does not imply only preservation of a religious and cultural-historical building; it is far more than that. As a person who grew up in the courtyard of this mosque and who gained the first knowledge of the religion, moral and behavior in it, I can testify that this mosque is the soul of Jezerski.