A CALLIGRAPHER OF TWO EMPIRES: ALI FAGINOVIĆ

A part of the man's beautiful Islam is to abandon everything that does not concern him. He said the truth.

Said the Leader of the faithful and the guide of the God-fearing Ali b. Ebi Talib, let Allah make his face noble and be happy with it:

Who teaches me how to write one letter, has made me his servant. He said the truth.

I allowed the use of calligraphic signature to the writer of this desirable and beautiful work Mustafa Hilmi, let Allah increase his knowledge and integrity, give him a long life and embellish his works, and I am humble Ali al-Šerif, a student of Abdullah Ajni Bosnevi. 28 Shawwal 1304 A.H./19 July 1887A.D.

ʽAlī al-Šarīf al-Fagīnevī al-Qādirī al-Bosnawī (died in 1921) was one of the most fruitful calligraphers of Bosnia and Herzegovina who worked in the late 19th and the early 20th century.

Although he lived in a relatively recent past, data on his life are scarce. He originates from the artistic family of the Faginović, from father hajji Salih, and members of the family also included painter Mustafa Faginović, a master of floral ornaments who is credited with famous drawings of Mecca and Medina in Mišća (Kebkebir hajji Ahmed) Mosque in Sarajevo.

As we learn from the lines he wrote himself, Ali learned calligraphy with Abdullah Ajni Bosnevi, probably Hasagnić, who died in Sarajevo in 1872. We can therefore assume that he received the calligraphy certificate (ijjazetnama) of the completion of education with his teacher in 1872 the latest. Calligraphic ijjazetnama is a document that a teacher issued to his student upon the successfully completed education and improvement in a given style of script, thus conferring on him the title of official calligrapher, who is allowed to sign his own works. The central part of the composition is composed of the text written by the calligrapher to whom the certificate is granted. It typically includes the Qur'an ayahs, hadiths and adages. In the bottom, there is a text whereby the teacher grants the permission, with the name of the student and the name of his own teacher, typically found in the central part. It is written in much smaller font compared to the basic text, which shows the student's skills.

As an independent teacher of calligraphy, Ali could work upon receiving the certificate, and Đoko Mazalić recorded that he also had his own school of calligraphy in a scriptorium in Sarajevo, though without providing any data or a timeframe. From the permit for using calligraphic signature which he issued to a Mustafa Hilmi on 28 Shawwal 1304 A.H./19 July 1887 A.D. we conclude that he was certainly active as a teacher of calligraphy from the 1880s at the latest. It is also the earliest date of Ali's signature. Judging by the date of another known ijjazetnama, which he issued to a Mehmed Rasim (?), the school was also active in 1314 A.H./1896–97 A.D. The translation goes as follows:

Noblemen of my community are bearers of the Qur'an  

Said God's Prophet, let him be blessed by God and have peace: Who wants to converse with Allah, let him read the Qur'an, and God's Prophet told the truth

I allowed the use of calligraphic signature to the writer of this desirable and beautiful work Mehmed Rasim(?), let Allah increase his knowledge and integrity, give him a long life and embellish his works, and I am humble Ali al-Šerif, a student of Abdullah Ajni Bosnevi, let God forgive him and all Muslims. Year of 1314

Based on their own testimonies, Mazalić records that the Žiga brothers: Salih and Mahmud, as well as Derviš M. Korkut also learned calligraphy with Faginović.

Besides calligraphy, as Mazalić goes on to record, Faginović also taught his students the art of illumination. In the Islamic tradition of the manuscript book and its decoration, the term illumination (tadhhīb) typically refers to any ornament made in gold or, less often, in silver, which does not include figurativeness and figuration. This term often includes all the other visual elements that make up decoration, done in different colors with or without the use of gold and silver.

Both presently known ijjazetnamas issued by Faginović were admirably illuminated and decorated, and reflect completely equal features of. They are set horizontally, in three equal fields divided by broad borders. They differ by the palette of the used colors and tones, while the texts of both ijjazetnamas was written in black ink.

Faginović's reputation is also proven by the data that he was engaged as a teacher “of writing Eastern scripts” in a Sarajevo rusdiye (middle school) which was opened on 1 September 1884 pursuant to the decision of the Provincial Government. As recorded by Hajrudin Ćurić, after the old “Istanbul sufara (spelling book for learning Arabic letters)” was replaced by a new one, by hajji Ahmed-ef. Ribić (died in 1907), it was Faginović who was entrusted with writing the book “in beautiful Arabic handwriting”. Templates based on his handwriting were made in Vienna, and were printed by the National Printing House in Sarajevo.

According to information presented by almost all the researchers of Faginović's life and work, he worked as the muwaqquit (officer in charge of regulating prayer times) of a muvakkithane (lodge of the muwaqquit) situated next to the Emperor Mosque since its building. The muvakkithane, part of a waqf (endowment), served as the office for calculating the accurate time of the beginning of a prayer (namaz) and producing the calendar (taqwim). In the chronogram (tarih) which was written by Fadil-pasha Šerifović on the occasion of constructing this building we read that the muvakkithane of the Emperor Mosque was built in 1270 A.H./1853–54 A.D. It is also the earliest date from which we can track Ali's public engagement. Researchers also record that he served on this position until he dies, which means that he spent there almost seventy years of his life.  

His commitment to Sufism is best reflected in the medžmua (notebook), which is kept in the manuscript collection of Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo under call-number R-3219. Ali himself added qualifier al-Qādirī to his signature, which means that he was a member of the Qadiri dervish order. The Qadiri – Hajji Sinan Tekke in Sarajevo, which is believed to have been built in 1640, is now the only preserved monument of the kind in Sarajevo from the period of Ottoman rule. For a long time, it was the spiritual, intellectual and cultural-artistic focal point. According to years which he recorded on different pages of his medžmua, it is believed that he wrote in it between 1291–92 and 1324 A.H., which corresponds to the period from 1874–75 to 1906 A.D. In a way, it is through this medžmua that we can track Ali's Sufi and poetic orientations over thirty-two years of his life. After several copied qasidas (poems of mourning or praise), the content of the medžmua continues under a sketch of a Qadiri taj (sheikh turban), and the invocation of the names of founders of the order: Yā ḥażreti es-sulṭān es-seyyid 'Abdu'l-ḳādir el-Geylānī, colored in the characteristic red color, while the text was written in green ink. The skill and accuracy of his hand are also demonstrated in the representations of twelve tajes for twelve dervish orders, which he sketched on two pages, six on each. Above each taj, he wrote the name of the founder (pir) of the respective order, while below it he recorded the year of his birth and death, and the name of spiritual leader to whom the given pir is associated, which he highlighted in red ink. The tajes are ordered in the following sequence, from right to left: Qadiri, Rifai, Badawi, Desouki, Shazili, Jibawi, Mevlevi, Bektashi, Naqshibandi, Khalwati, Sunbuli, and Gulshani. The year which is assumed to b ethe time when he stopped copying and writing in medžmua is found next to the signed calligraphic composition which, besides God's name, is composed of the names of the noble Prophet's family (Ehli-bejt). This year can also be read on the folio where Ali is signed as the transcriber of the medžmua: Ketebe el-faḳīr ‘Alī Šarīf Fagīnevī al-Qādirī al-Bosnewī.

Faginović ranks among the most productive calligraphers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was particularly active in the period of the administration of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He left behind an extensive oeuvre of lawhas (tablets) written in the periods 1898–99 and 1914–15, and calligraphic writings in Gazi Husrev-beg’s turbe (tomb) from 1893–94.

References:

• Ćurić, H. (1983), Muslimansko školstvo u Bosni i Hercegovini do 1918. godine, Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša.

• Halimić, E. (2010), Iz mape Faginovića, Sarajevo: Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića.

• Mazalić, Đ. (1967). Leksikon umjetnika BiH, Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša.

• Mujezinović, M. (1972), Diplome kaligrafa Islamovića u Gazi Husrev-begovoj biblioteci u Sarajevu, Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke, 1.

• Teparić, M. (2016), Analiza islamskih kaligrafskih panela (levhi) bošnjačkih kaligrafa (hattata) od 18. do sredine 20. stoljeća, Disertacija, Zagreb: Filozofski fakultet.