ZUKO DŽUMHUR’S LETTER FROM HAJJ, 1957.

From Zuko Džumhur’s Museum in Konjic.

Author: Ekrem Tucaković, PhD, Riyasat of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina • Photo: Mirza Hasanefendić

Zulfikar Zuko Džumhur (1920–1989), a painter, caricaturist and travel writer – besides his great passion for painting and caricature, as he published over 10,000 caricatures – left behind a dozen of prose works. He excelled in travelogues and travel reportages, which is confirmed by his works Nekrolog jednoj čaršiji (The obituary for a marketplace), Pisma iz Azije (Letters from Asia) and Pisma iz Afrike i Evrope (Letters from Africa and Europe). He became particularly popular for the travel program “Hodoljublja”, which he edited and hosted on Television Sarajevo.

Literary critique highlights his merits for powerful promotion of travelogue within literature by combining text, illustration and caricature with a significant dose of humor and sense for perceiving quaint details, mingling worlds and traditions of the East and the West. He would return from these journeys richer for many experiences and knowledge, as well as with interesting photographs, postcards and other valuable contents.