THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DERVISH ORDERS AND SUFI TRADITIONS IN BOSNIA

Islamic mysticism – Sufism encompasses a set of beliefs and practices followed by many Muslims as a way of drawing closer to God and gaining personal experience or direct knowledge of the Divine. Although historically there were many ‘wandering’ Sufis or dervishes, individuals devoted to a life of spiritual endeavour, travelling from city to city and country to country with no material, this-worldly ties to any of them, most Sufis embark upon this path by joining a Sufi tariqa – a dervish order, and carry out their spiritual exercises under the guidance of their master, the sheikh. While some exercises have to be carried out individually, and sometimes even in isolation, the focus of a tariqa membership is on communal life and joint prayers and other spiritual activities. Apart from their religious function, Sufi orders have traditionally been closely involved in many other spheres of life in a Muslim society, and Bosnia is no exception.

One of the essential virtues prised by Sufi tariqas is that of charity and one of the earliest social functions associated with Sufi lodges from their very beginnings was that of a charitable institution. The lodges (Bosnian, tekija) operated as both spiritual centres for Sufi activities and as hospices or inns for travellers and the poor alike. In order to serve in this capacity, dervish lodges were often built along chief roads, and often in areas with no major settlements, thus also playing a key role in the urban development of those areas. This role was particularly significant in the context of the Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, including Bosnia.

Soon after – and in some cases even slightly before – the formal conquest of the Bosnian kingdom by the Ottoman Empire in 1463, Bosnia witnessed the appearance of the first representatives of Sufism and the building of the first Sufi lodges there. In some cases, these were modest structures with no more than two or three rooms, as was the case with the first known Sufi lodge to have been built in Bosnia, in what is today the centre of its capital Sarajevo – the lodge known as Gaziler tekija, built sometime in the first half of the 15th century.

In other cases, Sufi lodges, which still continued their charitable functions, were built by high-ranking Ottoman officials who were themselves patrons of Sufism. An example of such a lodge is Isa-begova tekija built in 1462 by Isa-bey, the Ottoman governor (Sancak-bey) of Bosnia. This lodge and other buildings endowed by Isa-bey at the time are considered to have laid the foundations of Sarajevo, and Isa-bey is considered to be its founder.

In still other cases, the lodges were more elaborate and designed to accommodate not only Sufi gatherings and rituals such as dhikr – a common Sufi rite of remembrance of God – but also living quarters for young Sufi disciples. One such building was Gazi Husref-begov Hanikah (hanikah being the Persian term for a larger type of Sufi lodge) built in 1531. As in the case of Isa-begova tekija, this too was built by a high-profile Ottoman official, who likewise endowed many other properties for the maintenance of this building and the adjacent Gazi Husref-begova mosque.

We cannot be certain to which Sufi order the two dervishes who first built Gaziler tekija were affiliated but we know that the lodge later housed the Naqshbandi order, which proliferated in Bosnia in the 18-19th centuries. As for Isa-bey’s lodge, it was later greatly expanded and already by the 17th century became a large centre of the Mevlevi order, originating from Konya and famous for their ritual whirling dance, which earned them the nickname of ‘whirling dervishes’.

Gazi Husref-begov Hanikah was built for the Halveti order, which got its name after their dervishes’ practice of ritual seclusion for prayer and meditation (halvet). Another imposing example of a Halveti lodge is the 17th century Blagaj tekija, situated in an extremely remote spot by the source of the river Buna. The lodge was built against the rock face at the entrance of a cave, the location both rich in Islamic spiritual symbolism and perfectly suited for the solitude and isolation requirements of the Halveti dervishes’ spiritual training. 

Thanks to the Sufi lodges’ position in key areas of the newly expanded Ottoman territory, dervishes were in many cases the first representatives of Islam in those regions. Their social and charitable functions, combined with the successful proselytizing activities of the dervishes, enabled the tariqas to play another key role in Bosnian society and in the establishment of Islam in Bosnia, namely, the facilitation of conversions to Islam among the local Bosnian population. 

As was the case with the Central Asian Turkic tribes several centuries earlier, the Bosnian population was also attracted to the Islam of the Sufi orders and wandering dervishes and holy men: there (and in some other areas of the Balkans, such as Albania, for example), the conversions to Islam among the local Christian population occurred hand in hand with the appearance and establishment of different Sufi tariqas. Apart from the Naqshbandi, Mevlevi, and Halveti orders, Bosnia saw the development of the Qadiri tariqa, popular in and around Sarajevo, Kakanj and Travnik, and even a new, home-grown branch of the very popular Bayrami-Melami order, the Hamzevis, which developed near Tuzla in the middle of the 16th century.

Throughout their existence, Sufi orders made important contributions to many spheres of life in Bosnia. Sufi writers enriched the development of intellectual life of the Muslim community, and through their charitable activities and close links with crafts and trade-guilds, Sufi lodges were a vital part of urban life of all Bosnians, regardless of their religious affiliation. In some cases, like that of the Hamzevis, dervish orders assumed political roles and acted as ambassadors for social justice and change. Sufi orders in Bosnia survived different empires, regimes, centuries of turbulent political change and even an outright ban in the middle of the 20th century during the communist regime of the former Yugoslavia. Freshly invigorated by the recent revival of Islamic spirituality in Bosnia, they remain a vibrant and indispensable element of the rich mosaic that makes up Bosnian Islam.