HASAN KAIMIJA – A REBEL AND A POET

The second half of the 17th century was marked by the appearance of one of the most remarkable personalities in the culture and tasawwuf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose spiritual-intellectual horizons by far exceed geographic-historical framework where he lived and worked. It was a sheikh and a poet Hasan Kaimija, also known as Kaimi Baba. (M. Moker)

Despite many studies, from occasional essays, professional and academic papers to doctoral dissertations, Hasan Kaimija's life path has not been sufficiently clarified. His biographers agree that he was born in Sarajevo, between the half of the third and the middle of the fourth decade of the 17th century. He was educated in Sarajevo and Sofia, where he met Khalwati sheikh Muslihuddin Užičanin. According to some researchers, he spent some time in Istanbul and Konya. When he returned to Sarajevo, he first gathered dervishes in his own house, which he had turned into a tekke. Some stories say that, as a Sufi sheikh, he commissioned a wooden bridge over the Miljacka in Sarajevo, which was named “Šejhanija-ćuprija” (Šejhanija Bridge) after him. It is not known when he was appointed the sheikh of Sinan's tekke of Qadiri order.

There are diverse and interesting stories about Hasan Kaimija's arrival from Sarajevo to Zvornik. The prevailing opinion is that Bosnia was caught in unrests during wars between the Ottoman State and Austria on one side and the Venetian Republic on the other (1683–1689). One of such unrests happened in Sarajevo, when armed rural population together with poor Sarajevo craftsmen entered the city due to starvation of 1683. Kaimija placed himself at the head of the rebels requesting that people should be given food which rich merchants, with the support of authorities, hid for speculation and profit. Kaimija thus got into conflict with authorities of the time, who found a “Solomon” solution and, instead of executing him, banished him from Sarajevo to Zvornik. Many authors claim that then prominent Sufi sheikh and poet Hasan Kaimija stayed alive only because of the authority and reputation he enjoyed. However, others prefer the claim that Hasan Kaimija was banished from Sarajevo due to his “prophetic” poems, which authorities and official ulama in Sarajevo did not like.

Upon arriving in Zvornik, he allegedly first worked as a servant with the Đulbegović family at Kula Grad. However, it is known for certain that Hasan Kaimija settled at the Fethija neighborhood in Zvornik in 1682 (1093 Hijri year), as the imam of the Namazđah Mosque. Upon arriving in Zvornik he spread Sufi doctrine of the Qaderi order and wrote qasidas, typically of educational content. According to stories he often went to Kula Grad, where he was buried after his death and where a turbe (tomb) was later built for him. The legend goes that it was at this place that he often used to say: One can see far from here. Besides, the stories say that a day before he died he said that he would die the next day. The next morning people found his motionless body covered with a fine bedsheet. He died in Zvornik in 1691/92 (1103 Hijri year).

Besides being well-known as a Sufi sheikh, Hasan Kaimija is well-known as a divan poet who wrote under the pen name “Kaimi”, which means “Persistent”. He wrote poems in Ottoman (Turkish) and Bosnian. His poems were gladly recited and transcribed, together with poems by other dervishes, such as Ilhamija, Sirija and others. It makes him one of the most transcribed authors among Bosniak poets in Oriental languages. Manuscripts of Hasan Kaimija's poetry can be found in libraries in: Sarajevo, Zagreb, Belgrade, Istanbul, Paris, Cambridge, Vatican, Baku, Bratislava, Uppsala, Tashkent, Tubingen, Marburg and Cairo. Many manuscripts have been recorded and described in a large number of catalogues of Oriental manuscripts, such as with: E. Rossi, B. Fleming, E. G. Brown, Berenbaca, Semenov, K. Dobrača, S. Bašagić, J. Blašković, M. Gotz, Nicholson, E. Blochet, Zettersteen and others (J. Šamić).

His best-known collections of poems in Ottoman are Dīwān and Wāridāt. Dīwān consists of poems inspired by tasawwuf, while Wāridāt is composed of qasidas which describe the poet's predictions of events. These two collections of poems are kept in archives in Zagreb, Vienna and Sofia. J. V. Hammer says that Dīwān is very appreciated in Bosnia. Jasna Šamić defended her doctoral dissertation entitled: La Dîvân de Kâ’imî (1630-1691/92) at the University of Paris in 1984. Two best-known poems which are attributed to Hasan Kaimijia and which were written in Bosnian are O osvojenju Kandije and Ostante se tutuna. Qasida about harmfulness of tobacco is an outstanding example of his social engagement, and that is why he was so admired by other people. We will quote only one out of seventeen stanzas of the poem: Nemojte se po zlu vrijet, / Čujte, što ću vama rijet: / Kogod hoće čisto mrijet, / Nek s' uvede tutuna (Do not cling to evil, /Listen to my words: / Whoever wants to surely die, / Let him smoke).

Without any doubt, Kaimija's poems gave invaluable cultural-historical value, since they depict a multitude of historical, geographic and folklore details. In his poems we find names of many countries, cities and rivers, as well as many other concepts and interesting events.

There is also no doubt that Hasan Kaimija was extremely knowledgeable about the Qur'an, that he was familiar with Sufi literature, that people loved to listen to his poems which were recited at get-togethers and other folk gatherings. A rebel and a poet, both in life and in poetry, was deeply respected and admired. Many of his admirers across the Ottoman State, particularly dervishes, visited his tomb, performed zikr (prayer) in his tekke and sacrificed qurbans by his tomb. In Islamic culture, in the spiritual and intellectual terms, he has been the most remarkable personality of Zvornik and its surroundings, ever since the 17th century. Every year, in the month of June, Zvornik hosts a cultural-religious manifestation entitled “Days of Hasan Kaimija”.

References:

• Bašagić Safvet-beg (1912), „Kaimi-baba“, Bošnjaci i Hercegovci u islamskoj književnosti, Sarajevo, 98-100.

• Dizdar Hamid, „Pjesnik Hasan Kaimija, vođa pobunjenih seljaka i zanatlija u XVII vijeku“, Glasnik VIS, no. 4-7/ II, (Sarajevo) 1951, 138-141.

• Đorđević, Tihomir R., „Nekoliko turbeta i legendi o njima“, Naš narodni život, volume V, chapter II, Beograd, 1932.

• Hadžijahić Muhamed, Hasan Kaimija i njegovo turbe na Kuli u Zvorniku, Zvornik, 1966.

• Jasna Šamić, „Rukopisi poezije Hasana Kaimi Babe“, Anali GHB, volume XI-XII, Sarajevo, 1985, 201-210.

• Mehmedović, Ahmed (2018), Leksikon bošnjačke uleme, Sarajevo: Gazi Husrev-beg Library, 281-282.

• Moker, Mubina (2019), Šejh Hasan Kaimija – Sin vremena, Sarajevo.

• Mulahalilović, Ahmed, „Šejh Hasan Kaimi-baba: Povodom 250-godišnjice smrti“, El Hidaje, 8-10/V, Sarajevo, 1942, 224.

• Nametak, Fehim (1989), Pregled književnog stvaranja bosansko-hercegovačkih muslimana na turskom jeziku, Sarajevo, 119-124.