BOSNIAN LITERATURE IN PERSIAN

Upon the entry of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the Ottoman Empire, literary norms and standards which applied and prevailed in other parts of the Empire were transferred to these regions. It is well-known that Turkish literature developed under a strong influence of Persian literature, which is particularly true of the Ottoman divan literature. “Impetus for the development of this kind of literature was provided by rich and luxurious life at the court, where Persian poets of the time were invited and were gradually replaced by local poets, who in turn emulated Persian classics' way of writing”” (Nametak, Divanska književnost..., p. 9). Speaking of the Ottoman divan literature, Nametak also pointed out that Ottoman divan poets “took over ready-made cliches, expressions polished in Persian poetry over previous centuries; not only were they able to use them in Ottoman poetry in Turkish but many of these poets also occasionally created poems in Persian” (Nametak, Pojmovnik divanske i tesavvufske književnosti, p. 7).

Many Bosniaks wrote in Oriental languages, and a significnat number of them revealed impressive talent writing literary creations in Persian as one of the world (international) languages for literature of the time. Hasan Zijaji Mostarac, Sabit Užičanin, Zekerija Sukeri, Ahmed Hatem Bjelopoljak, Ahmed Rušdi Mostarac, Ahmed Talib Bošnjak, Nabi Tuzlak, Mehmed Rešid, Fevzi Mostarac, Husejn Lamekani, Muhamed Nargesi, Ahmed Sabuhi and Mustafa Ledunni are significant, though not the only, names of Bosniak literary tradition in Persian. It has been established that the time span of Bosniaks' literary writing in Persian ranges from the 16th to the second half of the 19th century. However, Mehmed Handžić claims that Safvet-beg Bašagić, after his father's death in 1902, wrote an elegy in Persian (Handžić, 33), which shifts this time span to the early 20th century. Mostar has been considered as a city where a significant number of writers in Persian originated or worked, which made it a distinctive center of the presence of Persian literature in these regions.

Available biographies and preserved works or fragments clearly reveal these poets' broad education and sound knowledge of Persian literature and its heritage. Smail Balić claims that Mustafa Ledunni became famous “when he, during a visit to Isfahan, quickly improvised a Persian poem before Persian shah of the timeˮ (Balić, 1994:122), while Handžić writes that Ledunni participated in a contest with court poets in spontaneous reciting Persian poetry, and that he amazed the shah (Handžić, 186). There are many examples which indicate that literary production of Bosniaks in Persian was, among other things, directly inspired, and in terms of forms and ideas determined and directed by their comprehensive insight in and studying of classical Persian literature. Hasan Zijaji Mostarac, a well-known lyrical poet of the 16th century, in whose Divan we can read a qasida of 27 bejts (distichs), 14 ghazals and a kit'a (epigram) in Persian, wrote a qasida devoted to Persian poets, where he alluded to or directly mentioned names of over 20 poets, among others Hafiz Shirazi, Abdurrahman Jami, Amir Hosrov Dehlavi, Nizami Ganjavi, Saadi Shirazi, Ferdosi and Attar. Hasan Zijaji praises his poetic talent and places himself at the same level where they are, and immodestly says about himself: “I am a mosque of my time ˮ (Gačanin, Iz Divana Hasana Zijaije Mostarca, p. 214).

Fevzi Mostarac in Bulbulistan pointed out that his poetic role models are Saadi Shirazi and Abdurrahman Jami, and he structured his work in their style. Bulbulistan is structured as a series of numerous, often mutually independent tales, hikayas. Fevzi's hikayas, their heroes and characters, names of sheikhs, rulers, geographic areas are often – with slight differences in interpretation – characters, names and contents that are also found in works by great Persian classics: Saadi, Attar, Rumi, Sanai and others. It should be noted that in Paris in 1935, Milivoje Malić defended the doctoral dissertation about Bulbulistan and Fevzi Mostarac, presenting him and his work to the Western public. Zekerija Sukeri left us Sakinama, a distinctive poetic form where the main topic is drink/wine, either in the actual or metaphoric sense, and thus included Bosniaks among Muslim peoples whose poets tried their hand at this semantically subtle and poetically complex literary form.

Use of a wide spectrum of topics and motifs, as well as of professional, primarily Sufi terms in Persian indicates that Bosniaks successfully wrote poems on various topics and that they expressed their talent in many poetic forms and kinds. Indeed, it proves that they competently mastered the entire literary tradition and that they could successfully implement it in their literary works, including the most complex and the most demanding literary trends in Persian. Actively purusing the rich and complex Persian and Ottoman literary heritage, Bosniak poets found in it ready-made literary patterns, adjusted language, already established metaphors, symbols and cliched motifs.

From the contemporary perspective, social context and environment, a particular importance should be attached to the fact that this literature developed in a European country where people who inherited such literature still inherit this tradition, use and develop it. Thus, this tradition is alive and it still emanates its messages. It enriches European culture and European spiritual history. Compared to other ethnic communities in our country, region and Europe, this literary trend was independent and original. Within Bosniak cultural history one can reasonably single out this tradition and claim that it is an original Bosniak cultural and literary achievement, regardless of the existence of different views on the valuation, value and reach of this literary tradition.  

In the history of human htought, great ideas and great cultural patterns and models have always provoked human mind and creations in various cultures and language areas, and have been a subject of emulation. Without any doubt, Bosniak poets mastered high and subtle ideas and cultural standards, they understood their intentions, terms and their intricate semantic fields, they were able to absorb the ideas and terms and use them in their own literary work adding their own creativity to them.

Besides, Bosniak poetry in Persian, at the level of form and ideas, clearly testifies of the continuity of the spillover of cultural and artistic contents and ideas from one geographic region to another, from one cultural context to another. This process is relentless and forever present.  

References:

• Balić, Smail (1994), Kultura Bošnjaka, second, updated edition, Tuzla PP “R&Rˮ.

• Bašagić, Safvet-beg (1986), Bosanci i Hercegovci u islamskoj književnosti, Sarajevo.

• Ćehajić, Džemal (1986), Derviški redovi u jugoslavenskim zemljama, Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut, Special publications XIV.

• Ćehajić, Džemal, “Vidovi stvaranja muslimanskih mistika porijeklom iz Bosne i Hercegovine i drugih krajeva Jugoslavije od XV do XIX vijekaˮ, Godišnjak Instituta za jezik i književnost u Sarajevu, III-IV, Sarajevo, 1975.

• Džaka, Bećir (1997), Historija perzijske književnosti, Sarajevo: Naučnoistraživački institut “Ibn Sinaˮ.

• Gačanin, Sabaheta, “Sakinama kao poetska forma divanske književnosti: Sakinama Zekerijjaa Sukerijeˮ, Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju, 52-53/2002/03, Sarajevo, 2004.

• Gačanin, Sabaheta, “Iz Divana Hasana Zijaije Mostarca: Stihovi na perzijskom”, Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju, no. 55/2005, Sarajevo, 2006.

• Handžić, Mehmed (1992), Al-Ğawhar al-asnā fī tarāğim ‘ulamā’ wa šu‘arā’ Būsna, Kairo: Hidžr.

• Karahalilovć, Namir, “Kruženje čaše – Od Walid Ibn Yazida do Zijaije Mostarcaˮ, Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju, vol. 57/2007, Sarajevo, 2008.

• Mostarac, Fevzi (2003), Bulbulistan, Sarajevo: Kulturni centar Islamske Republike Iran.

• Nametak, Fehim (1997), Divanska književnost Bošnjaka, Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut, Special publications XXI.  

• Nametak, Fehim (2007), Pojmovnik divanske i tesavufske književnosti, Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut, Special publications XXVII.

• Šabanović, Hazim (1973), Književnost Muslimana BiH na orijentalnim jezicima, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.