BEGZADA GAVRANKAPETANOVIĆ'S LETTER TO EMPAROR FRANZ JOSEPH

A letter by Begzada Gavrankapetanović, née Bašagić, the wife of the last Počitelj captain Ibrahim-bey Kapetanović, was written in Begovica script, a special variant of Bosančica on 13 June 1902 and addressed to Emperor and King Franz Joseph I in Vienna.

Begzada-hanuma Gavrankapetanović was a relative of Safvet-bey Bašagić and married into the Gavrankapetanović family in 1844. In the letter, she complained to Emperor and King that Austro-Hungarian authorities of the time had seized a large part of her property (Crmnica hill, across Počitelj, and about fifteen kilometers of land, all the way to Dretelj and Mogorjelo).

After her husband's death she remained alone with five children, who needed upbringing and education. During the second agrarian reform she lost the land and revenues from it, which she had planned to use for financing studies of law for two sons of hers – in Vienna and Budapest. All her children had completed Ruždija (high school) in Mostar.

This letter confirms literacy of the Bosnian Muslim woman, her self-awareness and fight for the protection of her rights and rights of her family.

The letter has been preserved in the original, since it could not be read in Vienna due to its particularity and was therefore returned for transliteration. The letter is kept in the archives of the Gavrankapetanović family.

Prof. Aida Abadžić Hodžić, PhD

From Počitelj, Begzada Gavrankapetanović (stamp: 13 June 1902)

1) The High Joint Imperial and Royal Ministry, Department for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vienna! Pushed to the utter limits of necessity, and then having to bear with it, me and my children, because of the others who inflict damage to me and my weaklings by depriving them of their legacy from the bare ground, with no reason at all, of their true inheritance, I, as their mother, could not bear with it. Moreover, while watching this piece of land with my own eyes every day, not to speak of my children, four of whom are now studying, without a scholarship or anything, and they suffer so much and every now and then ask me to send them some money. But how, when I don’t have any? Whenever I receive a letter asking me for money, and I don’t have any, I begin to cry and think in my heart: me, one of the first aristocrats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, what have I come to, not to be able to send my children some money that is necessary for them to live. What have I done wrong, to God and to the government, to deprive me of my and my children’s possessions? It is obvious that it is their inheritance, their property for several hundred years, which hundreds of people can prove, which I will clearly state below. Well then why, for God’s sake, am I deprived of my possessions, and why do the children have to suffer despite their inheritance which was deserved by hard work?

2) The saddest part is that an aristocrat family who was used to good suddenly, without any fault of their but the fault of others, began to deteriorate and be threatened by an apparent danger. And it happened to a family that used to be a jewel in a province and then, all of a sudden, by no fault of theirs, it began to deteriorate and is not able to educate their own children to be a model for their homeland and the most loyal members to His Majesty, our kindest emperor and king, same as their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers used to be to previous rulers and shed their blood for them. My children used to own the best part of land in their entire property, the so-called grass Crnica, which borders according to deeds and people and has existed for over two hundred years: in the east, from the railway, in the west, from the village of Međugorje, in the north, from Šabanović’s fence, and in the south, from the former Hunjić property. This very grass was taken away from my children while they were still weak, and was given over to the Ljubuški district. Since my children knew nothing at the time, since they were weak, they could not fight for it, although they did lodge an appeal for the return of their property. And the high government gave them a small corner of their entire Crnica, and took everything else away so that today it is owned by the village of Dretelj. Despite them being owners for so many years, despite the deed which accurately defines borders, despite witnesses that I can call from five villages who can testify that it is really my children’s property, it has still been taken away from me.

3) High ministry! This matter makes my soul ache, as I’m their mother and I am somehow not sure if there is justice in the world. It is a solid fact that it used to belong to my children, that it was bequeathed to them by their ancestors, that it was owned by their grandfather, their great-grandfather, their father, and then it was transferred to them. There are still people who remember and who held the same grass from the hands of the children’s grandfather, their father, then from my hands, and paid rent for it. They are the Veledars, the Đonkas, the Klepčilićes and the Vasiljs, as well as a dozen other families; the ministry can interrogate them through their district offices and they will testify of the full truth of my claims. I am surprised, and hurt at the same time, that their property was taken away from them, totally unjustly, and given to others to enjoy it and strut across it, while my innocent children suffer because of others. Is this justice, for goodness’ sake? All the other villages, such as Čapljina, Nova Sela, Međugorje, Tasovčići, Počitelj, Ševač njive, all these villages will testify anywhere that it has always been inheritance of my children, only the village of Dretelj does not testify, despite the evidence such as the deeds that accurately define borders, despite other people who do not benefit in any way from the grass being owned by my children, despite the still existing wall which defended the grass from attackers. Despite the ownership of hundred years, the village of Dretelj has not testified only because it itself enjoys the property nowadays. It is quite clear that they have the instinct of self-love.

4) Every sense of truth is dead, sense of justice and respect for someone else’s ownership. Our high regional government took into account their (Dretelj’s) untruthful words, and took bread from my children’s mouths and gave it to Dretelj inhabitants. Our government, otherwise just, has not studied the matter thoroughly, since I am more than convinced that if it had this would not have happened, that it would have assigned the property to its owners. For the above listed reasons I have no choice but to lodge my modest request to the high ministry, and I am convinced that the ministry will have mercy on me and my children and give them back their own inheritance. Otherwise, my children would be forced to sell everything they have in a couple of years and will be reduced to poverty, since the bit of the land that they own is not safe from the river Neretva, since it washes away the earth before their eyes, every year on their land. The river has already destroyed several dunams of land at Gabelica. As I have heard and understood, and as I am convinced in my heart, your ministry is not willing to let the first aristocrat families in Bosnia and Herzegovina be destroyed, but rather wants to help them. That is why I hope that my children will not be the unluckiest and have no mercy by high ministry. I hope that they can get back what is theirs, if in no other way at least through the mercy, which will be rewarded by the Almighty God, since they will thus comfort twelve poor people, my twelve children, and save them from disaster.

I most humbly salute you. Bey’s widow, the widow of Ibrahim-bey Gavrankapetanović, in Počitelj.

P.S.

A letter written in 1902 and addressed to the Joint Imperial and Royal Ministry of Finance in Vienna was written in Begovica script – a decadent form of Bosančica (Bosnian Cyrilllic) which developed in the 19th century and which contains only rudimentary remnants of former rich orthography of Bosančica. This kind of script was nourished in a closed family circle and it continued to be used by women, and therefore it is often called a 'female script'.

Transcription of the letter was made and prepared by Prof. Lejla Nakaš, PhD